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The economist is great for this. Views aside, getting a single bolus of well-considered, well-written news once a week is wonderful. You “miss out” on the “di

The economist is great for this. Views aside, getting a single bolus of well-considered, well-written news once a week is wonderful. You “miss out” on the “did you hear what X said” water cooler talk, but the gains in understanding and attention are significant

baron816 6y ago
I think more should adopt The Economist model. Yes, they definitely have an opinion, and they push it, but they're open about it and are fair to other sides. It's much better than feigning impartiality, or doing a half-hearted "both sides"ing.
- fma 6y ago
  I love the Economist. I used to pay for it but then ended up having a stack of unread magazines because I tried to read every page. I really should renew my subscription as their articles are in depth and I'm often amazed how can they crank out so many great articles within a week. Having said that - I see many tech people complain about pay walls even though many of us make $100k+. Pay walls on websites aren't that expensive. Wait till people find out how much the Economists costs.
  - baron816 6y ago
    I just get the digital versions. Their app includes high quality audio recordings of all their articles, which makes it much easier for me to listen to all I’m interested in. I also got my subscription through discountmags and locked in the price, so it’s only $50/yr in perpetuity for me.
  - loughnane 6y ago
    Honestly the biggest bummer about the cost is that it makes the content less accessible to many, and I’m unaware of any cheaper options of the same quality.
robk 6y ago
In the past five or size years the Economist has sadly become quite partisan and unreadable..in their trump derangement they've lost a lot of the even keel view they'd previously had over the prior decades I'd been a reader. Sadly I still read but effectively skip all politics as the new Eric Schmidt led board have certainly co-opted the formerly drier view the editors formerly would have taken in exchange for a more activist view which is far out of character for them. Sad because it was once a must read end to end to years for me. Now it's a skim for 35-45% unique content type of publication.. No one else covers the breadth of intriguing topics like African politics but the anti Brexit UK and anti Trump US political angle ruins most of the other content for the major western economies.
- pjriot 6y ago
  The Economist does a good job of judging each case on its merits. A socially liberal, pro free-trade publication taking issue with Brexit or the actions of Donald Trump seems perfectly consistent. Fully in keeping with its heavily “partisan” coverage of the USSR in the 80s & 90s, the regime of Robert Mugabe later on or the current perspective on the CCP.
- sixstringtheory 6y ago
  I enjoy reading The Economist and I’m glad that I’m able to filter out their editorialism from the facts. I think it’s easy to do due to their combination of forthrightness and writing style, plus my own ability to cut through the BS that I’ve worked hard to sharpen over many years. The one thing I dislike about The Economist is their cover art. I grew to strongly dislike having some caricature of Trump or nuclear blasts staring me in the face all the time. Something something “living rent free in my head.” Except I was paying rent by paying the subscription. I just want the information, and I’m happy to pay for it! But I reached a point where I couldn’t justify handing over that much money to them any more because it was unsettling having these images barge in at me every delivery or every time I took it out of my bag to crack it open. And they use the same lines other rags do: “if you read the economist, you’ll be informed, and to be informed is to be safe... now look at how the world is going to hell!” I felt like I was being negged as a subscriber. There is a place for these works of art, I just wish it could be in the letter from the editor or one of their columns, all of which I appreciate.

baron816 6y ago

I think more should adopt The Economist model. Yes, they definitely have an opinion, and they push it, but they're open about it and are fair to other sides. It's much better than feigning impartiality, or doing a half-hearted "both sides"ing.

fma 6y ago
I love the Economist. I used to pay for it but then ended up having a stack of unread magazines because I tried to read every page. I really should renew my subscription as their articles are in depth and I'm often amazed how can they crank out so many great articles within a week. Having said that - I see many tech people complain about pay walls even though many of us make $100k+. Pay walls on websites aren't that expensive. Wait till people find out how much the Economists costs.
- baron816 6y ago
  I just get the digital versions. Their app includes high quality audio recordings of all their articles, which makes it much easier for me to listen to all I’m interested in. I also got my subscription through discountmags and locked in the price, so it’s only $50/yr in perpetuity for me.
- loughnane 6y ago
  Honestly the biggest bummer about the cost is that it makes the content less accessible to many, and I’m unaware of any cheaper options of the same quality.

robk 6y ago

In the past five or size years the Economist has sadly become quite partisan and unreadable..in their trump derangement they've lost a lot of the even keel view they'd previously had over the prior decades I'd been a reader. Sadly I still read but effectively skip all politics as the new Eric Schmidt led board have certainly co-opted the formerly drier view the editors formerly would have taken in exchange for a more activist view which is far out of character for them. Sad because it was once a must read end to end to years for me. Now it's a skim for 35-45% unique content type of publication.. No one else covers the breadth of intriguing topics like African politics but the anti Brexit UK and anti Trump US political angle ruins most of the other content for the major western economies.

pjriot 6y ago
The Economist does a good job of judging each case on its merits. A socially liberal, pro free-trade publication taking issue with Brexit or the actions of Donald Trump seems perfectly consistent. Fully in keeping with its heavily “partisan” coverage of the USSR in the 80s & 90s, the regime of Robert Mugabe later on or the current perspective on the CCP.
sixstringtheory 6y ago
I enjoy reading The Economist and I’m glad that I’m able to filter out their editorialism from the facts. I think it’s easy to do due to their combination of forthrightness and writing style, plus my own ability to cut through the BS that I’ve worked hard to sharpen over many years. The one thing I dislike about The Economist is their cover art. I grew to strongly dislike having some caricature of Trump or nuclear blasts staring me in the face all the time. Something something “living rent free in my head.” Except I was paying rent by paying the subscription. I just want the information, and I’m happy to pay for it! But I reached a point where I couldn’t justify handing over that much money to them any more because it was unsettling having these images barge in at me every delivery or every time I took it out of my bag to crack it open. And they use the same lines other rags do: “if you read the economist, you’ll be informed, and to be informed is to be safe... now look at how the world is going to hell!” I felt like I was being negged as a subscriber. There is a place for these works of art, I just wish it could be in the letter from the editor or one of their columns, all of which I appreciate.