I’m not sure how I first learned about The Week. I think I received a trial issue in the mail. But after just one or two issues we were hooked. The Week is a comprehensive newsweekly, although it offers virtually no original reporting. It collates news stories and offers opinions from a variety of sources: newspapers, online magazines, political journals etc. And it provides opinions from across the political spectrum.
Each issue has the same set up (although they recently had an image makeover: a new cover design and some unexpected font changes in a few sections, which I suppose does lend to an easier read).
Each issue starts with The main stories… …and how they were covered. The first article is a look at whatever major story captivated the editorials that week. (The growing gloom in Afghanistan). And in a general sense of what you get for long articles (the long articles are about 3/4 of a page) You get WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT THE EDITORIALS SAID, and WHAT THE COLUMNISTS SAID. The What Happened section is a paragraph or two summary of the story. The editorials offer a one or two sentence summary from sources like USA Today, L.A. Times and The Financial Times, while The Columnists are from The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Time.com, for example.
Across the bottom of these pages are a letter from the editor (which is usually right on target) and our personal favorite: It wasn’t all bad, where you get three stories of strange, good news to lighten a week’s worth of bloodshed. (A bus driver returned a suitcase full of money, etc.)
These are followed by the Controversy of the week (investigating torture) which looks at different sides of the issue with summarizes of articles from The New York Times, The National Review Online, Salon.com etc. The bottom of the page has a three column section that is also delightful fun:
Only in America which gives 2 absurd stories (a Missouri High School banned their marching band The Brass Evolutions from displaying their logo because it promoted evolution). Good week for and bad week for give three stories each of amusing anecdotes: (Good week for one stop shopping after a Hummer dealership in St. Louis started selling firearms to boost sales). And then Boring but important which, in 2 paragraphs summarizes a pretty important happening in the U.S.
The world at a glance covers three pages and looks at 5 or 6 stories from the US, and then 10-12 internationally; it gives a one to two paragraph summary of something important or shocking across the world.
Next comes People & Gossip, which is usually three stories culled from the likes of People or Esquire, even the New Yorker, and provides a brief look at a celebrity interview. And the Gossip is a few paragraphs about other, usually more C-list, celebs and the scandals that they’re involved in.
The next section is interesting in that it is called simply Briefing. It tackles a completely varied subject matter, from oil drilling to vampires. And it looks at the causes and outcomes for the phenomenon.
From there we get The Best Columns US & International. They summarize several columnists’ pieces of random topics that are important/interesting. And so internationally you get stories from Turkey, Ireland, Britain etc. And these stories are usually not internationally important so you’d normally miss them. The section also has the It Must Be True I Read It In The Tabloids column which, if you listen to Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me on NPR, this seems to be their source for their more absurd stories. Read the week and you’ll pass the radio show! (Although I think technically the radio show comes out before the magazine does).
Finally you get Talking Points. These are where you get a couple more issues that have people talking (Ted Kennedy’ legacy & Political Protests). The sources once again span the political spectrum. Although, as is always the case, I feel The Week relies a little too much on The National Review Online. They seem to always use an opinion from that source. And yet the rarely have anything comparable from the left. The do quote TheNation.com from time to time, but the frothing level of zealotry from the NRO is shocking in comparison to the reasoned calm from the Nation. In fact, I would almost thing that The National Review itself would be embarrassed by their online content. I think of the National Review as a staid professional journal, but their online counterpoint seems to be so aggressively unreasonable that they come off sounding batshit crazy most of the time. The were adamantly for anything Bush did and are adamantly opposed to anything Obama does, regardless of how it impacts anyone. It’s rather unprofessional, honestly, and if their excerpts didn’t make them sound so loony, I’d be even more annoyed that they get so much press here.
This section also contains Wit & Wisdom which provides old quotes that were used in newspapers this week (Mark Twain is a perennial favorite here) as well as a Poll Watch and the Noted section which covers several little stories that are always fun to look at (Florida is losing population for the first time in a century; Americans swallow an average of 22 teaspoons of sugar every day).
Then comes the Best Political Cartoons of the week. It’s like the midway point of information.
Next comes Health & Science. Here we get half a dozen stories that cover all manner of health & science related issues. (Did Mozart die of strep throat? The truth about multitasking). And the always interesting Health Scare of the Week. The fact that they can include this section says just how wonderfully crazy news scares can be. So this week it’s that infants should sleep in car seats. Last time it was that you could get sick from being buried in the sand at the shore. Good fun for the hypochondriac!
Finally we move to the Arts.
The Week offers excellent summary reviews of books (including the novel of the week). It includes the best books as chosen by a random author. There’s also an enjoyable Also in interest…which covers a topic and shows some recently released books about that topic (hidden talents and heightened senses).
The Arts also cover Art, Theater, Film and Music (they almost nixed the Music section in the makeover, but thankfully, kept it in). I don’t really read the Art or Theater, but the Film reviews cover three new films and new DVD releases. And the CDs cover three of the week’s releases, usually with a surprising amount of diversity in artists. The Television section shows a week’s worth of good movies to watch as well as a half dozen or so interesting shows (they don’t really review any continuing shows, just specials).
The Leisure section covers Food & Drink (a recipe, a wine and a restaurant) and the Travel section chooses a destination to look at. It also mentions last minute travels deals and a fascinating Hotel of the Week. One of Sarah’s favorites is the Best Properties Section, where they show amazingly overpriced houses that are for sale. Each issue focuses on some similar aspect of the houses (location or style or price range) and shows them off in all their beauty. A house around the corner from us was featured there once which was quote exciting.)
The Consumer section offers a review of a new car (I have yet to ever see a reasonably priced car here, this week is an $84,000 BMW, sometimes it’s a $300,000 car! And then the best… whatever item they highlight that week: sunglasses, toasters, whatever. And then three columns of use to consumers: How to relieve athletic pain. And excellent internet resources: (sites to find green jobs, or to keep you organized) Finally, And for those who have everything… a totally random, usually expensive, gadget. Always fun to see what (and where) they find these things.
This segues nicely into Business. Five main business stories including a spotlight on a business figure in the news. There’s also several small one paragraph pieces of information from the week’s business (Nevada casinos have installed 7,000 penny slots–people are more likely to play them in a recession–and they make more money on them anyhow!).
The Business section also contains an investment and workplace area, as well as editorial columns about big issues.
Almost finally, there’s an Obituary or two of significant people who died.
And then The Last Word, a two page column that is a fascinating story excerpted from another source: a book, a New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly article or some such thing. Most of the time I’ll read these, but not always.
The best addition to the magazine is now on the lat page (where the TV used to be). They’ve added puzzles! It’s a fairly easy crossword; however, it is dependent on you knowing the names of people in the news, which certainly increases the difficulty (as if I care what John Edwards’ mistress’ name is). And, for good fun, they have the Week’s contest. They pick a silly topic, and ask you to come up with an even sillier headline or some such thing about it. If you win, you get a year’s subscription. Like with the New Yorker Cartoon Contest I have all but given up on this since my brilliant ideas never made it to even the runner up.
So that’s The Week. It is really a great magazine. Perfect for anyone who wants to keep up with what’s going on but doesn’t have time to read in depth articles or, more to the point, wants to get the information from various political sides. In an age of increasingly bipartisan information outlets, this is a breath of fresh air, allowing you to actually get different opinions before letting you decide what you think.
And the brief articles are perfect for when you’ve only got a few minutes to read about something.
I can’t say enough good things about this magazine (I just wish they’d lighten up on the National Review Online dependency).
Original mention in Periodicals Page:
The Week. I read this magazine cover to cover, pretty much. I do skip some sections, like Stage and some of the Business stuff, but for the most part, this is just the greatest magazine ever. It condenses all of the week’s news into summaries from the different publications. So, you get a lot of different opinions on the issues. You get most of the major dailies, and you even get some of the loony opinions from National Review Online. Great stuff!
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