The Week - UK Edition

Once you get your subscription to The Week, you can throw out Newsweek, Time, and People, along with heavy magazines that focus on the arts, food, and decorating. The Week comes in a deceptively small package, on thin paper, but it beats the competition in the breadth of subjects it covers. No longer will you be opening your news magazine and reading the same lead intro story about the Bush presidency and the Middle East over and over again. No longer will you be getting a narrow US-centric view on national and world events. No longer will you be flipping through pages of glossy ads to actually get to some text. And no longer will there be subscription cards falling out and littering your reading area!

I was a bit apprehensive about receiving a gift subscription to "yet another news weekly," but The Week won me over with the first issue. The Week opens with the main news stories and _how_ they were covered--you get what happened, what the major editorials said, what the columnists said, and what we can expect next. The editors draw on coverage in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post, and hundreds of other print sources, so that the best of the best can be reprinted in The Week to provide diverse viewpoints. Dozens of sidebars provide human interest and shorter local happenings. One of my favorite sections is "The World At a Glance..." which is three pages chock full of news items from every continent, complete with a world map indicating the location of each story. Reading this weekly has really helped me bone up on my middle East and European geography. These news items are the important ones that somehow don't make it to our weekly national news broadcasts or print media.

The Week has a full spread on the best columns, from not US news media, but from European and international sources as well. You get the benefit of having read nine different major columnists from a diverse selection of sources, without actually having to go out and find these columns individually. In the "Talking Points" feature, major news issues are covered with input from three to six different sources.

Want fun? The Week also delivers coverage on People (celebrities) as well as the best of the Gossip for the week. It's balanced and just enough to keep one informed about celebrity happenings. Really, how many times can one read about Britney and Brangelina in a regular gossip rag? There are also not-to-be-missed reviews on Art exhibitions, Theater, Stage, Film, Music, Books, Restaurants, Television, and Travel. One of my favorite features in Books is the weekly guest who makes up a list of their favorite books. It's a great way to find both new books and old classics that people treasure. My other guilty pleasure from The Week is the real-estate section, which features gorgeous historic, opulent, and unusual real-estate that is currently on the market, as well as a "steal of the week."

Do you have enough yet? Don't worry, The Week also delivers Business news, Consumer news and product reports, detailed Obituaries, and recipes. With all I've described here, it sounds like this would be a tome, but as I said, this is the magazine that gets MORE information into LESS space and with less filler or extraneous information. Once you start reading The Week, your outlook will be changed, and it'll be hard to go back to the old media. Enjoy!

This review is for the U.S. edition. I couldn't find that edition on amazon but "The Week" deserves a review. I subscribed to this magazine in order to fulfill a new years resolution of becoming more informed and engaged with the world around me. Mainstream media is obsessed with Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, and other irrelevant things concerning my life. "The week" is exactly what I was looking for. It's actual NEWS. I can read top new stories from around the world. For those who can't even think about getting their Paris Hilton or Lohan fix, the week has a page dedicated to celebrities. Updates on celebrities can be done in one page not several 15 minute segments/articles as in mainstream media. The magazine also sections on art, music, and books. There are "best of the best" financial articles from different sources. If you are looking for information without clutter and confusion, subscribe to "The Week". You won't regret it.

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I really like the global format of The Week; it covers news from all over the world on a wide spectrum of topics, from serious to gossipy. But most of it is in the form of opinions from editorialists and columnists, all of whom have their biases. You can always count on getting two or more contrary opinions on every issue, but you can't count on getting any neutral in-depth analysis. This sometimes leaves me feeling more confused than enlightened trying to understand the world through opinions can be challenging. Having said that, reading The Week is fun and it will keep you current on domestic and international headline news, and it doesn't hurt to read what people in foreign countries are saying and thinking.

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With copious magazine selections out there, this one lets you have access to news, finance, health, science, art, music, you name it. It's great especially for me since I'm a SAHM and with little time investment, I can still be informed on various subjects going on in the world.

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I enjoyed this magazine immensely for a year but for the past month, rather than receiving the issue on Saturday or Monday, it arrives on Tuesday or Wednesday. Customer service does not consider this a problem (somehow erroneously believing the week starts on Tuesday?), and swear they have done nothing differently, although they say they drop off the magazines at the post office "Friday OR Saturday" for delivery "Monday OR Tuesday". I understand the need for a tight schedule, but the OR is unforgivable for a weekly. Friday delivery to the post office would ensure I would get the magazine by Monday, latest, and the news would not be stale as 3 day old fish not to mention that many of the featured, like TV picks, start on Monday.

AVOID THIS MAGAZINE SERVICE IS GOING DOWNHILL FAST.