When did magazines get so crappy?

[rudeguy]

Now its about 80% junk and 20% readable. Are there any good ones left?

 

[destrekor]

Now its about 80% junk and 20% readable. Are there any good ones left?

My subscriptions on my nook Color:

The Atlantic
Reason
Car and Driver

 

[Perknose]

Are there any good ones left?

Despite intense economic pressures due to the internet, which has caused the severe decline of many, there are still a lot of good ones out there.

It all depends on your interests. What subjects are you interested in?

 

[zinfamous]

The New Yorker
The Atlantic
The Economist
National Geographic

some of the best that I can think of off the top of my head.

Oh, Harpers.

 

[tcsenter]

Big'uns!

 

[nanette1985]

I have a bunch of subscriptions that were all free. I wouldn't pay for any of them.

New Yorker - the cartoons are still good, a decent article now and again
Nintendo Magazine - my kid got a lifetime subscription for submitting reviews. I still read it when it comes (guilty)
Esquire - not as good as it once was
Town & Country - hilarious. Who takes this stuff seriously?
Family Fun - I confess, it comes with lots of coupons.
SPIE Opto or something like that. Why in 2011 would a scientific organization send a paper periodical to people?? Mystifies me. I don't even save them since I can find this stuff on the web.

 

[Zebo]

Anything commercialized is garbage, which is 99%. Trade mags are good, Oil and Gas Investor. Journals are good, like Lancet. Higher brow mags like sci american are good. But really, today, with web you save tons of time not flipping and going for exactly what you need.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I still get Entertainment Weekly (at $18/year) so that I have some vague idea of what's happening with all of the pop culture that I neglect to consume directly.

It has a smidgeon of celebrity gossip, a bit of the business side of media creation, reviews of books I probably won't read and TV shows I'll never watch, and so on.

 

[davmat787]

NatGeo FTW. All of the car rags I have skimmed through recently seem to have a very high content to advertising ratio.

 

[Zebo]

I still get Entertainment Weekly (at $18/year) so that I have some vague idea of what's happening with all of the pop culture that I neglect to consume directly.

It has a smidgeon of celebrity gossip, a bit of the business side of media creation, reviews of books I probably won't read and TV shows I'll never watch, and so on.

I need that. I always lose trivial pursuit cause I can't get the pink pie.

 

[shortylickens]

PC Gamer: The day they gave Doom 3 a 98%.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

The internet happened. Made magazines cut costs and rush their magazine out just to compete, which is a losing game.

 

[rudeguy]

Despite intense economic pressures due to the internet, which has caused the severe decline of many, there are still a lot of good ones out there.

It all depends on your interests. What subjects are you interested in?

History, philosophy and spirituality mainly.

 

[Perknose]

History? Hmmmm, off the top of my head, American Heritage magazine comes to mind, though I haven't picked up a copy in years.

Spirituality? I guess that depends. If you don't find the whole topic offensive, you might like Unity magazine. They're fairly low key, as far as these things go, and very warm and upbeat.

Philosophy? I dunno. My best response for that would be to get a magazine that features serious, meaty, well researched articles like Atlantic Monthly or Harpers or Vanity Fair, and absorb your "philosophy" from them as a side benefit.

Best I can do without pondering further. I admit, the categories in our answer surprised me.

 

[Demo24]

Newsweek - better than I thought it was
Discover - science
Automobile

Only ones I bother with these days. Newsweek we just started to get somehow, I think it must have been a promotion but it surprised me in that I like reading it far more than I had anticipated.

 

[busydude]

PC Gamer: The day they gave Doom 3 a 98%.

Haha.. I agree. Never thought about a simple duct tape so intensly. Duct tape FTW.

 

[Brainonska511]

I've been enjoying my copies of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).

 

[mmntech]

I used to get a lot of RC mags. Then I realized they had become 90% ads and never posted a single negative review. Used to occasionally get FlyPast, which is a cool retro aviation mag from the UK. Foreign magazines are very expensive here though.

I've been known to read Macleans (Canadian news magazine) and CPU on occasion.

 

[Albatross]

http://www.aldaily.com/
Forget about paper,just go here or read books.

 

[yllus]

I think GQ still has some of the highest quality interviews and reporting I've ever read.

 

[zinfamous]

History, philosophy and spirituality mainly.

This is why I like The New Yorker. the articles are so wildly diverse that you'll get a wide range of subjects from week to week. I find that I'm fascinated by just about any subject they right about, never thinking that such would have happened before.

A lot of good history, and philosophy/spirituality from time to time.

It does have a mostly left-leaning editorial bent, but they have some really good conservative-minded contributors, if such a thing concerns you.

 

[zinfamous]

I think GQ still has some of the highest quality interviews and reporting I've ever read.

GQ is good. and God Damn it! --Playboy DOES have awesome articles/interviews.

it's been several years since I looked at one, though.

 

[rudeguy]

I admit, the categories in our answer surprised me.

I like to learn new things or challenge what I think I know. I wish there was a Wikipedia magazine

 

[CRXican]

a few years ago

 

[lxskllr]

I like the internet. I'm philosophically opposed to shipping paper around the country, when it can be done with 1s and 0s.