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My media secrets
I'm not going to cite "the usual sources," most (all?) of which I read, so please don't be offended if you write for them or edit them. When it comes to media, I also love the following:
1. Entertainment Weekly; I devour it immediately upon arrival, there is no periodical I look forward to more. I often disagree with their reviews, but I can always interpret the bottom line. The coverage of good TV is without peer.
2. Fanfare, reviews of classical music, the reviewers maintain an impossibly high standard. I read it the night it arrives, and I click on Amazon to get what I want, end of story.
3. New York magazine; it has proved itself consistently interesting, and I don't even live in New York.
4. The modern love column for The Sunday New York Times; here is one example. I read it closely every week. I just ordered the book.
5. The marriage announcements in The Sunday New York Times. I only read a few each week, but they keep my perspective real, albeit totally skewed toward the upper classes; the combination with the photo is essential. To the extent that this is the real news in a given day, our world is a healthy place.
6. Variety magazine by far the best movie reviews. Unlike newspapers, they don't confuse how good the movie is with how popular it will be. Expensive but worth it, plus the foreign coverage is first-rate.
7. The Art Newspaper, all the news in the world of museums, auctions, antiquities law, art fairs, and exhibits. It is written at a very high intellectual level.
What am I missing? I don't find Spin that useful any more, World Beat has stopped arriving, then there are the science magazines, Discover and SA are favorites.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 14, 2007 at 06:38 AM in Education | Permalink
Comments
amen on ew! i read it cover-to-cover, although i sometimes go straight to
what to watch. nearly every piece of writing, no matter how small,
is witty and astute, and i think they have the tightest overall writing staff of any
magazine i've ever read.
Posted by: lj at Feb 14, 2007 8:15:24 AM
I find the Atlantic to be my must read.
Posted by: goodnessoffit at Feb 14, 2007 8:33:09 AM
Have you ever read Fader or No Depression? I haven't, but I hear they're both really good music magazines. Has anybody else read either of those?
Posted by: Ted Craig at Feb 14, 2007 9:00:35 AM
The Atlantic, Harpers, and Mother Jones.
Posted by: David Culbertson at Feb 14, 2007 9:53:11 AM
You would enjoy Seed - a type of science/culture magazine. If you're really interested in the art world, the Weekend FT always puts out some good information.
Posted by: cure at Feb 14, 2007 9:58:35 AM
I have totally given up on all media except a blog called "Marginal Revolution." I sit by my computer and wait for new posts. It fills my intellectual needs completely and is sometimes very funny.
Posted by: David Sucher at Feb 14, 2007 10:02:19 AM
I will second Seed. It's fantastic.
Posted by: B at Feb 14, 2007 10:30:48 AM
I will second Seed. It's fantastic.
Posted by: B at Feb 14, 2007 10:30:55 AM
Tyler -
I'd recommend Mojo and Signal vs. Noise as 2 magazines with great music coverage. Mojo is a bit more mainstream (albeit from a European angle) Signal vs. Noise is quarterly, so it shouldn't be much of a burden and it's coverage of experimental music is fantastic.
Kyle
Posted by: Kyle at Feb 14, 2007 11:18:14 AM
We love EW too, especially the Lost coverage. We have a free subscription to Rolling Stone right now. But it's so full of socialist drivel that it's in the trash before it even gets in the house.
Posted by: Speedmaster at Feb 14, 2007 11:39:09 AM
I'll second David Sucher on Marginal Revolution... almost
New Scientist and American Scientist are better than SA and Discover. American Scientist is basically real science.
Posted by: michael vassar at Feb 14, 2007 11:49:28 AM
Second the New Scientist. Scientific American has become too political. I am on the verge of stopping my subscription.
Sports Illustrated (a gift) has been a very enjoyable read, and I plan on continuing with it.
Marginal Revolution is always excellent as well. Thank you for the effort.
Posted by: bastiat at Feb 14, 2007 12:10:14 PM
If you like movie magazines, you should really give Empire a try. American magazines don't hold a candle to it. I've had a subscription for almost 10 years, though a weak dollar has made it painful.
Posted by: Terri W. at Feb 14, 2007 12:56:00 PM
My favorite is the obituaries in the Economist.
Posted by: Yan Li at Feb 14, 2007 1:39:16 PM
The only science magazines worth reading are Science and Nature.
Posted by: bhauth at Feb 14, 2007 1:57:22 PM
American Scientist. It has the conceptual bent of The Sciences & Science 80 - and the demanding articles that SA dropped 20 years ago. And Brian Hayes (http://bit-player.org/>) has been the most satisfying successor to Martin Gardner I've found.
Posted by: Matt Fulvio at Feb 14, 2007 3:03:32 PM
Damn, Tyler, I can't believe we read all the same magazines. EW is so underrated as a source for first-rate reviews from the perspective of what'll play in Peoria.
And I thought that Jack Valenti had to be the only other person (or whoever replaced him) in DC who read Variety. No, I'm not in showbiz.
I also like the Art business journals although I read them less carefully and less regularly.
You should consider Left Business Observer. I don't necessarily agree with it but everyone needs an antidote to Wall Street-think. If it gives Wall Streeters a well-deserved kick in the ass, it does likewise with dopey leftwing thinking about the economy. Very refreshing.
Posted by: Auto at Feb 14, 2007 5:35:06 PM
If you're at all into intelligent "popular" music, Paste is great. Covers solid songwriting in many genres and rarely lets me down. Their reviews tend to be slightly less picky than I am, which is about the level to prefer in an arts critic.
Posted by: J. Goard at Feb 14, 2007 6:16:13 PM
I hope you are merely linking to an example of EW’s commentary rather than actually calling Lost “good TV". Lost is about as pulp as it gets.
Posted by: Jonathan Wilde at Feb 14, 2007 8:18:07 PM
I'm young and still discovering publications, so your list is useful. I consume a lot of media, maybe my early findings will be helpful to others:
The Atlantic is boring.
The Economist is predictable.
Financial Times is the best newspaper on the planet.
Details is the more metro GQ---I just look at the pictures.
NYT and WSJ are way too long.
The Onion is a phenomenon.
Nature cuts out the crap, tells me what matters. (news section only).
The New Yorker rarely excites me, but I can't give it up.
New York Review makes me feel liberal and like I read a lot of books.
London Review is similar.
I am most excited when I get The Onion, Nature, and NYRB. The sex advice in The Onion is superb.
I don't read much arts, movies, music stuff other than the New Yorker. Variety and EW are good for music and movies? I'll sample some before subscribing. Thanks.
Posted by: Lee at Feb 14, 2007 8:21:16 PM
I like The Week because I don't have time to read or listen to the news anymore.
Posted by: Paul N at Feb 14, 2007 9:13:00 PM
Cook's Illustrated. my favorite nerd-cooking magazine (good cookbooks too), and some of the goofy touches in the magazine are very entertaining.
Posted by: Mike at Feb 15, 2007 12:31:45 AM
The Fader is a good music mag that, if you were ever interested in Spin, does the same job rather well (sadly, with the same number of flashy ads and puff pieces).
If experimental music is at all of interest, The Wire from the UK is spectacular.
Esquire often surprises me with the serious, issue-based journalism that they provide.
Premiere is a movie mag that has gotten much smarter the last few years and is my go-to for Hollywood film.
But Film Comment is KEY for all cinemas artistic rather than popular, as is CinemaScope (from Canada).
Posted by: Dave McDougall at Feb 15, 2007 4:04:34 PM
Science News: short versions of the latest research in all fields, comes to you once a week in 16 8 1/2x11 pages. Can't recommend it highly enough.
Posted by: Tim at Feb 16, 2007 4:45:54 PM
cabinet magazine is an excellent art (in that all topics can relate to art) quarterly.
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/
Posted by: alex at Jul 25, 2007 3:07:32 PM
