The Week - everything that is current, cut into appetising chunks (The Week)

Member Name: msbreviews

Product:	The Week
Date:	16/10/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intelligent and engaging articles, vast range of subjects, and brief enough to be useful

Disadvantages: The print is fairly small, and the price - without a subscription - is fairly hefty.

There is something remarkably bold about a magazine whose tagline promises to give you "All you need to know about everything that matters". As a man who likes to feel informed and updated about a vast spectrum of subjects this claim provoked a surge of scepticism in me when the first 55 page issue arrived in my post box.

The Week have a perpetual offer of free magazines for new customers to sample, and out of nothing more than a healthy curiousity I decided to succumb to their promotion. Before any magazines had been deliver I was sent a complimentary book entitled "Short and to the point" which contained a pick of The Week's editorial over the past ten or so years. Conforming with the general brevity of the publication, these editorial were all shorter than 250 words, but contrary to the vacuous and unconsidered "tweets" and "texts" that 21st Century life seems to be saturated by, these articles had an appetising depth and intelligent wit to them. They have strong themes and even a considerable plot of idea, discussion, conclusion that is remarkably satifying to read.

The magazines themselves follow a similar pattern, summerising the best and worst of the news media, directly quoting and deftly analysing. Within a few hundred words of each article readers feel informed by the facts of the story, more certain of the background, and equiped with a variety of views to consider and repeat in conversation.

For a small magazine the range of articles and areas of the world that they manage to cover is quite staggering. It is not limited to the dryer news stories, but also ventures into People, Columnists, Briefings, Health and Science, Talking Points, Sport, Arts, Property, Leisure, The City and, my personal favourite, The Last Word - a two page article on some of the most fascinating and remote topics.

It's style is intelligent without being overly technical, informative without being patronising and brief without ever being shallow.

Althought this magazine might not cover every single thing that matters, and tell me all that I need to know about it, it still lives up to its ambitous tagline. I can read this magazine and gain a large amount of current and relavent knowledge, and if there is anything I may wish to know more about I have been given the best kind of starting place with these articles. And also, reading The Week rather than spending the vast majority of the week pouring over all the different newspapers leaves me time for all my other interests.

Summary: Whilst compared to Digg this may seem out of date,The Week still provides the best, briefest content