Customer Reviews

TIME (1-year)

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

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 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!

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.

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.

For awhile, I was a young avid reader of Time. I subscribed for a number of years, and the quality seemed to decline a bit over that period. The features in the magazine seem increasingly insipid and useless. While editorials still offer thought-provoking presentations and the hard news coverage is relatively good, the amount of serious stories covered is declining, as well. I can't even recall how many covers I got over those years of my subscription that featured "The New Yoga" or some other nonissue. Bottomline: Time is a good news magazine with nice graphics that present stories in a full-featured manner, but the level of journalism is shrinking.

Some people will take issue with be rating this magazine only one star. They will assume it is due to my political leanings. They are only half right.

There are Magazines that are much further to the left then Time such as Mother Jones and the Nation and there are magazines on the right like National Review and the Weekly Standard, I would rank all of them higher than Time.

The reason is simple, none of those mags pretend to be unbiased. Time does and insults my intelligence by doing so. They not only do it but they do it poorly with poor writing and a layout which is just not easy on the eyes. It is a magazine that is full of itself and boy does it show.

Time has a partnership with CNN and you see a lot of cross promotion, it is good business but doesn't add anything to the mag. Time does have one weaknes that isn't its fault. The news cycle makes weekly news magazines irrelevent to a large degree. Of the three major mags Time does the worst job dealing with it. The photography is pretty good and is the brightest side of the experience. The built in features are just a waste.

Time is living off its reputation as an American icon. Unless they improve their quality and admit (or modify) their slant they will be irrelevent.

I used to read Time, used to enjoy its dissection of political, social, and ethical issues. The writing was always top-notch and it never seemed frivolous.

Then they started choosing completely inane cover stories (Newsweek has been plagued by the same problem). I don't think its the stories themselves I mind (after all, they stuck Molly Ringwald on the cover in '86), I think its the way the magazine's outlook has changed: they're no longer intellectually stimulating (if ever a magazine was politically correct and completely non-threatening, this is it) and they seem to be content with peddling scientific tabloid fodder ("The science of catching a KILLER"). I cancelled my subscription last year, and nothing has convinced me to renew it. Hopefully, one day something will.

I've read the other reviews and frankly while I tend to agree that Time is no longer what it once was, I don't think it is so much a failing of Time itself, but rather its response to a pretty significant technological and societal shift.

News Magazines are a misnomer. What role Time once served is gone because information is available on TV, internet and radio at a volume far beyond what was the case in Time's glory days.

A news magazine just can't be published quickly enough. By the time it is out it is already old news. What analysis they can offer is old and possibly outdated as well.

Time has responded to this challenge by going the route of the National Enquirer. They choose what they think will attract impulse buys in the grocery line. It's only a matter of "Time" until we see Bigfoot and alien abductions, if they continue in this mode.

Sure there's a bias here too. Subscribers are looking for a liberal view and they get what they pay for, but the demographic that subscribes is older and thinning out. Moderate opinions are not spectacular. If you want to sell at the stand you have to come from the far left or the far right to trigger a response. It's not hard to figure out which side Time comes from. I see it as a marketing ploy, more than any purely held bias.

Time is a dinosaur, They occassionally get something worth reading, but it is not consistent.

Not worth subscribing to, in my opinion. Buy the occassional winner edition, or better yet, read it in the Dentist's Office while waiting for your 6-month cleaning.

Time Magazine has a long history of providing America and the world with in depth, balanced, and thought provoking journalism. Though its news focus has broadened in recent years, the reporting itself is still solid. Time's writing is generally more balanced than Newsweek(more liberal) or US News and World Report(more conservative). Articles are generally well written, convey a large amount of detail in a short space, and provide a worldwide perspective to your mailbox. Some complain about the contents, but Time writes about the topics that are making the headlines that week, and does so in an informative, enlightening manner. It is neither liberal nor conservative, but the weekly news in a solid, digestible format.

Time is a legacy magazine that is as informative today as it was years ago. Though I disagree often with its choices for Person of the Year, at least I am always intrigued by their choice. For a dollar an issue, you can't really go wrong, and when compared to the competition, Time is by far the superior product.

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.