<p>Does anyone else subscribe to Newsweek? I first subscribed in 1976, so I have seen them through countless format changes. But the most recent one is the last straw…they really don’t report the news anymore…it’s just countless pages of op ed.</p>
<p>I take my copy to the gym and it really can’t even occupy an entire 30 minute treadmill workout. It used to take me hours to read. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>Absolutely! I just let my subscription lapse after having it for ten years. I HATE the new format.</p>
<p>I understand that they needed to go from news to essays to save money, but combining that with a change to a format that made it much less visually interesting drove me away. It’s a shame, since I originally choose Newsweek over Time because I thought Newsweek was less “sensational” and I miss having that alternative.</p>
<p>OMG, I thought I was the only one who hates the new format. And, like you I have been a subscriber for a LONG LONG time. I have been meaning to cancel but haven’t gotten around to it. It is a big book of opinion pieces. I don’t even think I opened the past 3 issues. I just want to know the news and be able to form my own opinion, thank you very much. Is Time any better?</p>
<p>I’m going to have to look at Time to see. </p>
<p>My subscription is paid until this December, so I guess I’ll continue to receive Newsweek until then. But then at that point they will have lost a 34 year subscriber.</p>
<p>I don’t hate the new format, but it is a completely different magazine now. There is more op ed, but also more kind of obscure, but informative info from around the world (I like that page where they have the info with the flag pictures). I did notice that this week’s magazine (the one with the antidepressant article on the cover) was very thin… just not many pages. I don’t know if that is because they are losing advertisers, or if they cut down the content. I find that I actually get about the same amount of “reading time” out of it, it is just a different kind of reading. I like it… and will continue to subscribe.</p>
<p>I guess that is what promted me to post - the incredibly thin issue this week. I am not interested in the opinions of most of the people writing. And if I’m not interested in the big feature article, there is very little to read.</p>
<p>Maybe one of the things I like about it is that it is not as “gotta read it right now or it is stale” as it used to be. I get multiple newspapers, several other magazines, and am usually reading 3-4 books at a time. With a full time job running a small business, single parenting, and being an estate executor (AND it is cross country ski season, and there is snow this year!), I just don’t always get to the magazine right away.</p>
<p>We subscribe to a number of magazines, since we can use H’s faculty discount. We also get the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>I’m not sure which I am more disappointed with, Newsweek or the LA Times. I spend less and less time with them as the weeks go by. I think we’re only holding on to the LA Times for state and local coverage, as we much prefer reading the NY Times online (thus we might be ripe for the people who pay a nominal fee to subscribe for total access on line, where they’ve suggested they may go.)</p>
<p>As for a weekly news magazine, Newsweek and Time are a disappointment. If I want more Op Ed, I’ll go look for it … again, perhaps on line with Slate and others.</p>
<p>Here I thought at age 52 I was just being an old fuddey duddey and unwilling to change, and then decided that wasn’t the case since I’m reading heavily on line. Newsweek just isn’t a news magazine anymore.</p>
<p>Newsweek has turned into a pamphlet-a booklet that doesn’t hold my interest. The stable of contributors aren’t writing about topics that spark my curiosity. It has become unreadable to an old time fan.</p>
<p>I’m with you. we get the subscription free with our NPR membership. I sure wouldn’t pay for it.</p>
<p>I think there was a thread on Newsweek magazine back in November on the political forum. Apparently they have been losing subscribers for a long time and the newer format and change to opinion pieces is an attempt to save the sinking ship.</p>
<p>We have subscribed for 25 years. Cancelled our subscription in November. Disappointing because I used to really like Newsweek.</p>
<p>I have been sooo frustrated with Newsweek. I started subscribing sometime in the 70s and would read it cover-to-cover most weeks. Now I barely glance at it.</p>
<p>I should unsubscribe . . . do they refund the remaining amount? (I think I’m paid up until 2012!)</p>
<p>Here is another person who won’t renew Newsweek–and I pay for THREE subscriptions (me, my D, and my mom and her H). I just hate the new format and so does my D. She doesn’t even look at hers anymore. We both emailed Newsweek to protest the new format.</p>
<p>I also subscribe to Time and it’s much better, more the traditional review of current news plus longer informational pieces. I think there is room for one magazine with this format, but not two any longer, similar to towns that can no longer support two newspapers.</p>
<p>I have many of the same issues with our city newspaper (Seattle Times). It gets increasingly thinner and less relevant to my life, unless there is a major local news story going on. I much prefer the NY Times and buy it 3-4 times a week and also read online.</p>
<p>I doubt if Newsweek will make it past 2010.</p>
<p>Proud Mary, they do refund the amount you have paid in advance. I had even purchased my through a school magazine drive and they refunded the total amount I had paid ahead (about a year).</p>
<p>There is an option on-line to cancel your subscription, however, I didn’t have good luck with that. I found a phone number and called and spoke to a customer service representative, and easily cancelled my subscription. I remember having a little trouble finding the phone number but I did find it on-line eventually.</p>
<p>It seems all print news sources feel like pamphlets these days. The daily Hartford Courant (which bills itself as the “Nation’s Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper”) gets smaller by the day.</p>
<p>It saddens me, as I do not like to get my news online. If I am looking for something specific, sure - but when I just “flip” through the paper, or, in the old days, Newsweek, I come across articles that just “catch my attention”. I’d never have read them online. Do I just not know how to “read the news” online? Maybe I’m missing something.</p>
<p>You’ve inspired me, though. I will call to cancel the subscription over the weekend.</p>
<p>Newsweek’s new layout seems to have ruined it. Nothing to read. We switched to Time and it isn’t noticeably better, however. </p>
<p>We are lucky that we still have the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal, whose weekend section I really like.</p>
<p>The thing about their “new layout” is that it’s WAY more than just a layout change. It’s a totally different magazine. Not even close to what I originally subscribed to.</p>
<p>I guess I need to read mine :o</p>
<p>I hate the new Newsweek. For decades I always liked Newsweek the best of the three weekly news mags. But they totally lost me with the new format. I don’t even pick it up and look at it any more much less read it.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what has happened to Newsweek’s circulation numbers since they switched? I can’t imagine they went anywhere except way down.</p>
<p>I agree that the magazine is no longer appropriately named… it isn’t the news of the week any more. And last week there were 8 opinion pieces… which is about 5 too many. But this week I learned about the African Union, inflation in Iran, and read an interesting piece about how rogue states are building alliances with our rival countries. And I didn’t know that many popular antidepressants don’t work any better than placebos… This magazine is sort of “Atlantic Monthly lite” now. However, it does discuss topics that I am not seeing in other news coverage (other news magazines, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, etc.), and with more analysis than many of those other sources provide.</p>
<p>I do with they would stop having opinion pieces with a religious perspective, that is definitely not “news” in my book. They have had several lately.</p>
<p>So for those who really are looking for a news summary, this is definitely not the magazine for you. But I find that there are many items worth reading in it. Just wish they’d tone down the opinion pieces and add more of the pithy little international items that I like.</p>