Yesterday's News (The Week)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	The Week
Date:	31/10/08 (286 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A quick and convenient read of the weeks news events

Disadvantages: Diluted and heavily edited news content

~Introduction~
About a year or so ago I subscribed to a special offer of 6 free issues of this magazine. It was through one of those cash back sites; Greasypalm or Rpoints I'm not sure which. I cancelled my subscription after about 4 issues to make sure that I didn't end up paying for a magazine that I didn't really want. I'd heard stories of others being ripped off when trying to cancel their subscription after the sixth issue. If you go to their website you can still take advantage of the free issue offer (I think it's only 4 free issues now), but be weary and make sure you cancel early if you want to avoid paying the subscription fee. In the shops a single copy of The Week will cost you £2.35 the last time I looked. If you subscribe to the magazine you are promised a 34% saving on the cover price. A subscription for 13 magazines by direct debit will set you back £19.99 whilst a 26 week subscription rate will cost you £38.97. It will cost you slightly more if you pay buy credit/debit card. These prices include delivery.

~Content and Structure~
On first impression The Week is a well designed publication. It comes in the common A4 format and although its pages lack an up-market glossy feel, the content is neatly laid out and well displayed. I would guess that 70% of the magazine consists of written articles with 30% made up of photographs and illustrations. There are very few adverts.The subject matter is well organized into different sections with each topic taking up one or two pages. The magazine starts with the 'Main Stories' where some analysis is given of some major news stories and how these were covered by the Worlds media. There are usually only two or three stories here and you get a rounded summary of the story alongside collected editorial commentaries from other publications. In the Politics section the magazine claims to give impartial and balanced views of various news stories extracted from a range of national and foreign publications. This section is somewhat tabloid in style and even has a rather light-hearted 'Good Week for... - Bad Week for...' section. Further reproduced articles can be found in Current Affairs, UK News and Europe at a Glance. One of my favourite sections is the 'World at a Glance' pages where there is an illustration of a world map spread across two pages and surrounded by boxed off summarised news stories. Each news story is linked to the map by an arrow pointing to the location where the news event took place.

Further on in the magazine you will find other sections entitled People, Briefing, Best Articles, Best Foreign Articles, Best of the American Columnists and Talking Points. I found the 'Briefing' section to be one of the more informative parts of the magazine. Here you will find one page devoted to the dissection and explanation of an ongoing single news event. For example, a 'Briefing' topic might fill you in on the background of the recent collapse of the Icelandic banking system. Such an approach enables you to gain some basic knowledge of a major news event without trawling through countless broadsheet pages. However, there are few examples like this in the magazine. I found most of the articles and news items too short and lacking in depth.

There are usually two pages devoted to Sport and a Health & Science section. There is quite an extensive arts section covering everything from theatre, movie reviews, book reviews and exhibitions. Oddly in my opinion there is a 'Best Properties on the Market' section - not really a news item as far as I'm concerned. Near the back of the magazine there are collected articles on Business, Stocks and Share movements, Travel and even the best of the obituary columns. To finish off there is usually a light-hearted topic under the heading The Last Word. The back cover has the expected crossword and Sudoku puzzle.

Despite claims to the contrary, there is little wit in the magazine. There is certainly nothing in it that you might compare to Private Eye. On the 'Talking Points' page you will find a column entitled 'Wit and Wisdom' under which you will find a listed collection of quotes and proverbs reproduced from the various newspapers. Probably the most fun part of the magazine is the front cover which nearly always comes with a quirky cartoon - usually a caricature of a newsworthy public figure. Alongside is a column listing the main contents. I would say that the front cover is probably the most original aspect of the whole magazine.

~Purpose~
The Week magazine claims to provide you with the best of the British and foreign news stories that have been published over the previous week or so. According to the publishers "The Week is a unique digest which distils the best of the British and foreign press into just 35 succinct pages (there are actually 44 pages in total)." The publication is promoted as being "ideal for today's busy lifestyle" and is said to be a "joy to read, keeping you entertained as well as informed." The reason, according to the publishers, for the magazines launch in 1995 was in order to provide a single publication that could act as "an antidote to media clutter and information overload." However, one might reasonably argue that the magazine simply adds to the all the media clutter and information that bombards us everyday without actually providing anything new - as the bulk of the content of The Week has already been published somewhere else.

~Opinion and Critical Analysis~
One gripe I have with the magazine is that you are never sure where all the articles come from. Sometimes you will get quotation marks and the name of the editor, writer or the name of the newspaper mentioned after a certain commentary but at other times there will be no reference whatsoever. I can only assume that the bulk of the UK content is derived from the non-tabloid sources such as The Guardian, Times, Telegraph and Independent. You might also find the odd editorial quotation from the Mail or Express.

The major problem with the magazine for me is that, apart from the news summaries copied from elsewhere, there is little extra on offer in this magazine. It's completely devoid of cutting edge information. Even the "Letters" page consists of reproduced letters taken from the other major newspapers. With this magazine what you're actually paying for is yesterdays news. Surely the whole point of the news is that it should be 'new'? Personally I don't want my news items digested any more than they already are. The world is awash with too much diluted, summarised, rounded off versions of news stories that lean towards sensationalism rather than being informative. In an ideal world the summarised content that you find in The Week is the sort of content that should be provided by tabloid newspapers such as The Sun and The Mirror. Instead these sad toilet rags act as mere portals for celebrity gossip, sport, soft porn and sensationalist often highly distorted news items that are often irrelevant.

Nor do I go along with the claim that The Week magazine offers completely unbiased content. Regarding the foreign news content there is definitely a bias towards North American newspapers and in the magazine as a whole there is an insipid 'middle of the road' feeling about everything you find inside. One gets the impression that the stories are all carefully chosen and exquisitely dissected in order to present the 'safest' option. It's not exactly Orwellian 'Newspeak', but it's certainly a step in that direction. Anything a little controversial is excluded. Even the book reviews are on the dull side. The aim is to provide a comfortable anodyne reading experience. You're not going to get the 'bigger picture' of news events. What you'll get instead is some nicely framed information devoid of soul and lacking in bite, something that you won't have to think about too much.

~Recommendation~
No doubt The Week magazine will appeal to some people who simply can't get round to reading a broadsheet newspaper everyday. This is after all a publication designed for those with 'busy lifestyles'. It may also appeal to those who maybe feel they are not getting enough useful news out of their tabloid newspaper. I suppose in a way it does allow you to keep up-to-date with the latest UK and International news, current affairs and politics. To this extent I can see the magazine having some useful purpose. Personally however, I find most of the news items in this publication to be too concise and I have no wish to read "the weeks news in an hour" - maybe my lifestyle just isn't 'busy' enough to warrant such action. A much better option in my opinion would be to buy a weekly publication that covers all the news stories that are neglected or completely ignored by the news media in general (I'm not certain if one already exists). I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets tired of hearing the same narrow selection of news stories regurgitated hour after hour, day after day on every channel and radio station.

When it comes to printed news, I would much prefer to purchase a single copy of a quality newspaper such as The Guardian, in order to obtain up to date news articles with some in depth analysis, some quality insight and perhaps some historical background. I think more can be gained by reading a couple of quality articles in the Guardian or Independent twice a week rather than reading a whole magazine full of brief highly edited summaries - it would also cost you less money. Furthermore, you don't have to buy a magazine in order to obtain a watered down version of news events, for this all you need to do is switch on ITV News at Ten every night.

Summary: A quick summary of the week's news in the form of a magazine