I have been a subscriber to TIME for over 15 years and before that a reader of my parents' subscription. It pains me to say that this magazine has forgotten what it is about. Frankly, the only issues worth their salt are those resulting from a major world event such as a natural disaster or a terror attack; such events seem to energize an otherwise listless staff of seemingly bored editors and newswriters.
A newsweekly has the obligation to go beyond the newspapers--to use the extra couple days to provide a more balanced and analytical view. Unfortunately TIME fixes its editorial position at the beginning of a story--any future coverage is designed to prove TIME's initial position correct. The immediate taking of an editorial position is then carried into all future coverage of the event; stifling analysis and preventing any analytical development beyond the first few stories--"we told you so, we told you so." Even worse, the coverage of a lengthy story peters out until something sensational happens at which point the sensational event becomes the ultimate interpretation of the entire story. Can't the magazine occasionally admit it was wrong rather than turning its eye away from the story that continues to burn? Out of sight, out of mind is the mantra...
In fact, I sometimes debate whether the decline of this magazine mirrors or outpaces the general decline in our media; newspapers are failing, television news can't seem to get away from the gory or sensationalistic, even academic journals have specialized themselves into irrelevance. We seem to have a greater appreciation for comedy than analysis.
Neutrality is dead. Frankly, I don't care so much about any perceived editorial slant as I do about the fact that the magazine is increasingly boring and irrelevant. TIME used to have excellent coverage of trends and events outside of the United States--no more. Iran is building nuclear weapons but merits the occasional blurb on a world summary page. African states are making vast strides towards democracy, we get an article about Nigerian computer fraud. Russia is emerging from the turmoil of perestroika and its painful transition has much to teach about the costs and value of democracy, but we seem to focus only on the latest roadbomb in Iraq. Japan, one of the world's most influential cultures, this week merited only a snippet regarding a royal marriage and an analysis of foreign intrusion into sumo wrestling. Somewhere in the wide world is a fascinating place or culture to which TIME could send a correspondent and bring the place and people alive to its readership, instead we get tabloid excrement in the nature of Joel Stein's puerile take on pornography and social deviants. But most damning is the fact that after reading TIME one asks: How in the hell did our world become boring?
Can TIME try emulating The Economist rather than The Enquirer? Someone needs to step in and restore the proud tradition of complete and in-depth coverage--educate the reader about the world in which we live; don't wait until either natural disasters or internal politics shine the spotlight on any of the various cultures and countries in which real and interesting events take place every single week. TIME has the history and potential of being a five-star magazine, if only it would just focus on finding and reporting the news.
I was unsure about renewing my subscription to TIME, a solid-if-unspectacular magazine that delivers in-depth coverage of major domestic stories while spending most of its foreign reporting on Iraq. I have high regard for the new regular sections on History and Law. I will reserve judgement on another new section titled "The Power of One," but Caroline Kennedy's recent work on a New York City principal left something to be desired.
If you're looking for deep coverage of world news, this is not the magazine for you--look into The Economist or Foreign Affairs. But as a weekly summary of U.S. news with sharp analysis of the '08 Presidential contenders TIME does just fine.
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I picked up a recent, random issue of Time from a pile. And counted:
96 pages.
67 full pages worth of advertisements. (61 full pages, plus 12 half-page ads).
-------------------------
= 29 pages of "content"
And many articles are like advertisements, covering celebrity,entertainment product, diets, gadgets, and vitamins. Plus 4 pages in the sampled issue cover the "social trend" of having your closets customized. So you're left with very little lost in the clutter: Letters to the Editor (that pale next to internet blog posts/responses), short-attention span current event snippets; and Time's news stories with lots of big pictures! Whoopdideedoo!
In short, Time seems aimed at intellectually lazy uber-consumers (who are also apparently too lazy to organize they're own closets!) who like Catalogs, and who have very limited interest in what's going on.
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I remember my history teacher dragging in 25 copies of TIME magazine back in the 80's. The magazine was chock full of cutting edge journalism (truth with actual facts to support the story's) and edgy human interest stories. Now, it's a sell out to junk and punk blogging, where everyone thinks they're a serious writer.
The magazine has dumbed itself down, to the point I'd rather pick up The National Inquirer, as I might find more truthful writing in that rag these days. Like NEWSWEEK, TIME is circling the drain. As they move completely away from ethical journalism to total fluff and stuff, hyped up, made up entertainment, as well as a statist mentality following like mindless lemmings, romancing the current administration in the White House; it's a thrill up their leg a minute, and no one seems to remember they need a degree in Journalism, not Blogging for Dummies.
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I will be cancelling my subscription to Time Magazine. In an effort to increase their appeal, they have done the opposite. The magazine has gotten as silly and irrelevant as TV news. It is simply too dumb to merit reading.
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