The Week - catch up and impress everyone with your knowledge of current affairs! (The Week)

Member Name: edindave

Product:	The Week
Date:	10/06/09 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything is in one place. It's like reading several newspapers all at once!

Disadvantages: The articles can be focussed on a very specific demographic and can alienate people.

What is it?

The Week is a magazine that purports to condense the big news stories of the previous week into one place. It is almost a one-stop-shop for catching up on what has been going on. It takes articles from all of the major UK newspapers (and some of the major international ones) and combines commentary around the same thing from different journalists.

Why?

The reason I find The Week useful is that I often find that I just do not have time to sit down and read a newspaper every day. It means that I am able to keep up with what is going on without having to make an effort to cram in a newspaper or two on a daily basis. I also like the fact that you get the views from across the whole of the political spectrum. I would not buy a newspaper like the Daily Mail or the Telegraph but sometimes it is nice to read how those newspapers view certain events - even if it serves only to enforce my own views to the contrary!

I would make you aware that The Week is aimed very much at a middle class, middle-aged audience. Some of the content is stereotypical in its nature - for example, the previous week's choices on Desert Island Disks is always included and the classified adverts at the back are almost definitely aimed at houses with a LOT of spare income. This is not a magazine for those who like celebrity gossip or those who want to know the latest goings on in the Big Brother house. The stories are almost invariably politically motivated and there is a lot of foreign affairs commentary as well as the more traditional theatre reviews.

While I grant you that The Week is not everyone's cup of tea, I am old before my time in many ways and I find that the articles cover a lot of the subjects that I am interested in. If you are not sure, pop into your local newsagent and just buy a copy of the most recent version and see what you think of the content. If it is something that you think you might be interested in, there are frequent deals for those who subscribe. The deals make the magazine cheaper per issue and you don't need to go to the newsagent every week - it comes straight to the door - bonus!

It is most definitely a magazine for a target audience but if you, like me, are a geek at heart, you will love it as much as I do - stereotypes and all!

Summary: The Week is ideal if you are politically minded and you don't have enough time to read a paper daily