 | Time (1-year auto-renewal)
Availability: Your first issue should arrive in 4-6 weeks. Average customer review: (208 customer reviews) |
Product Description
Time reveals what today's headlines mean to you and your family -- from politics, to science, to human achievement, arts, business, and society.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #78 in Magazine Subscriptions
- Formats: Magazine Subscription, Print
Most helpful customer reviews
357 of 385 people found the following review helpful.
The Slow Death of a Once Proud Magazine
By J. Brian Watkins
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.
67 of 79 people found the following review helpful.
General Subject Magazine with a News Focus
By Lonnie E. Holder
I began subscribing to Time Magazine as a way of getting more depth on world and national events, as well as sound bites related to a variety of events. While I have found that Time Magazine leans a bit toward the left, in general I have been able to read through the slant of the language. Additionally, it is always good to have a balanced viewpoint of the world, and given my traditional lean to the right, Time provides some balance to my personal opinions.
The magazine presents a broad array of articles that cover key events such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and indictments, in "Milestones," sort of a mini-People Magazine. The entertainment portion covers books, television, movies, recordings, and even occasionally live performances. The "Numbers" portion is short, but provides comparisons of numbers to help put numbers into perspective, like the amount spent on school children per year versus the amount spent per soldier per year (I am unable to remember if Time reported that exact statistic, but that is the sort of thing they compare - it is fascinating). Time even includes letters to the editor, which are always interesting to read.
In keeping with the times, Time also has articles about computers and technology, and internet sites and scams are often reported. Time also does a good job of analyzing styles and trends in society, and how those styles and trends can affect us. Commentaries by writers such as Joel Stein often put these articles into interesting and humorous perspective.
At the heart of Time are the analytical articles. Typically there will be at least two and sometimes more articles that are in-depth. In some circumstances the magazine will explore a subject with several articles on the same issue, which is when the magazine also provides its most balanced reporting because the articles when then attempt to see the issue from all sides. The joy of the magazine is that with the quality of the print and the organization of the articles it is generally easy to skim and pick out key facts.
I've subscribed to a variety of magazines that are general news magazines over the years. I had previously tried Newsweek, which I also liked but thought was a little too focused, as well as U.S. News and World Report, which was great for straight on news, but again was more news versus an array of articles. It is Time Magazine's breadth that makes it the "Reader's Digest" of news magazines. It has a bit of this and a bit of that, and it may lead you to seek out more information on a subject. Ultimately, it is the exposure to the large variety of subjects that makes Time Magazine one of my favorite magazines, and now my only news magazine. Definitely subscribe because it is more cost effective, and the longest subscriptions are the cheapest. My son and I usually fight to see who will get the new issue of Time first. It usually doesn't take long to skip through it, but we each want to be the first to know!
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful.New sections an improvement
By L. Bravim
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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