<p>I’m a high school junior who’s really out of touch with current world affairs.</p>
<p>I heard the Economist and the Times are good magazines to subscribe to, plus it would help me prepare for the Critical Reading section in SAT and give me a good account of the outside world. </p>
<p>But I only want to subscribe to one just to try it out. Can anyone recommend me other great informative news magazines? And which one is better; Times or The Economist?</p>
<p>Do you mean the NY Times? You can read the Times online for free (for now), so I’d say don’t spend money on that.</p>
<p>Foreign Affairs–I think it’s published about 6 times/yr</p>
<p>Read the NYTimes newspaper</p>
<p>Read a newspaper everyday (Read a variety of newspapers in order to get different perspectives on similar topics)</p>
<p>The Economist is excellent, as is Foreign Affairs.</p>
<p>Policy Review is a very good conservative publication that you can read for free online.</p>
<p>Read a wide variety of news and to get a different point of view from CNN & Fox, go to Al Jazeera on-line. It is interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks is important and how they view us.</p>
<p>I don’t think its the NY Times. I mean this [Breaking</a> News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/]Breaking”>TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates)
Also, I moved from Hong Kong to US just this summer so I’m more interested in international news.</p>
<p>I want to limit my time on the computer and ruining my eyes so I’d rather take out a subscription. Is The Economist better than Times? How about Newsweek?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>TIME and Newsweek are nowhere near the caliber of the Economist. They are cheap and correspondingly shallow.</p>
<p>^ Agree. I’d also recommend Christian Science Monitor</p>
<p>You’ll find out a lot more about what’s going on in the US (and the rest of the world) by reading the British press (esp The Guardian and the Independent) and the European press. There have been some very good articles about the current state of the US economy and politics (violent rhetoric, etc) in Der Spiegel recently. Europe seems to be getting pretty worried about what’s going on over here…</p>
<p>Reading news is a great idea! </p>
<p>To get used to SAT question format, subscribe to College Board “question of the day”. They will email you one question a day.</p>
<p>Don’t bother subscribing to dead-tree publications. Read the wide variety of viewpoints available on mainstream and alternative Web sites. Salon.com, Huffington Post, The Guardian (online), The American Scene, etc.</p>
<p>Second the comment that Time and Newsweek are shallow. VERY shallow. </p>
<p>Not much real “news” in the US anymore - mostly all “infotainment”. The title of Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” becomes a more and more and more apt description.</p>
<p>Get a subscription to NY Times. Read BBC News online once in a while.</p>
<p>I think reading somethign on line first, to see if it jives with your interests, makes the most sense. So many good suggestions here. Then if you get into it, get a subscription. Not sure about the eye part-- I’m 47, have spent wayyyy too much time on line in the past two decades, and still have no glasses, for reading or otherwise ;)</p>
<p>Haha, thanks everyone. My eyes are really bad, but I hate wearing glasses and can’t get contacts untill I’m 20 (mom says ><) I probably shouldn’t have watched so many tv shows and youtube videos…:)</p>
<p>I asked a teacher what he recommends and he suggested The Economist. So I’m planning on taking out a short subscription to try it out.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your suggestions and happy reading :)</p>
<p>OP, inevitably you will still read things online. Check out this free browser add-on; it’ll make it much easier to read articles online: [Readability</a> - An Arc90 Lab Experiment](<a href=“http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/]Readability”>http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/)</p>
<p>I’d read the New Yorker - a mix of news, stories and reviews.</p>
<p>wow, that’s a really useful app. Do you know if it’s possible to invert the colours (black background)? Its much more easier on the eyes.</p>
<p>“I asked a teacher what he recommends and he suggested The Economist. So I’m planning on taking out a short subscription to try it out.” - </p>
<p>Let us know where you find the best deal. My D would like to try it too. She has just switched from Engineering to Economics major. (I took a stab at doing a “Wanted” on Freecycle, hoping for a January declutterer with back issues. But alas no luck).</p>
<p>^^ To my knowledge, you can’t invert the colors when using “Readability”. Perhaps, you could suggest this to the company that developed it.</p>
<p>Back in the day, the rule of thumb recommended to me was to read a daily newspaper, a weekly news magazine, e.g., Time, and a “cultural” magazine. Well, Time and similar magazines are hardly worth reading anymore. For years now, they’ve been shortened and dumbed-down compared to what they were when I was a kid. I agree with the several other posters recommended The Economist. It’s fairly pricey, though. A year’s subscription at the student rate is $77; it’s a similar rate from magazine discounters. Perhaps you can read it at your local public or university library. </p>
<p>As for newspapers, I read them online.</p>
<p>For “cultural” magazines, there is Atlantic Monthly; Harper’s; and the New Yorker. Online you might check out Arts & Letters Daily, which is a compendium of links to articles from around the web. [Arts</a> & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate](<a href=“http://www.aldaily.com/]Arts”>http://www.aldaily.com/)</p>