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To my readers, I have to apologize for a delay in this weekend’s posting. I spent yesterday evening and this afternoon fixing a blog that was hacked, for a friend. It was unfortunate, it does happen, and it isn’t the end of the world. Really.

Has anyone noticed…? Magazines are getting smaller and MORE expensive at the same time! I was in the local bookstore and they don’t stock many English language magazines. I happened to see a copy of Fortune which I used to enjoy many years ago. I picked it up. It was well over $7 a copy and had less than 80 pages. Yikes! I could buy a book for that price!

It seems to affect only US magazines, and yet I still enjoy the websites of Fortune, Forbes and other magazines. However, TIME is one magazine I will RARELY (if ever) buy. Newsweek is not much better. They’re both hideously expensive here, quite dull a lot of the time (as their focus is primarily the US) and are about as thin as toilet paper.

While I agree that magazine quality isn’t dependent on the AMOUNT of pages, I do have to question the direction these magazines are going in. Has anyone read the Economist lately? That’s hardly a doorstop, but at least it tops out at a reasonable size and makes you want to open it a second or third time!

Perhaps it’s being a Brit, but one of the things that I hate about many modern (and US-based) magazines (including PC magazines, news and biz magazines) is the prevalent use of titles that put me to sleep or shout “hyperbole”! You know the titles – “Ten Top PCs”, “Seven ways to Make More Money”… Most of these types of articles are brain-candy, to attract readers only.

My Reading List

So in this edition, I’ll list my favorite magazines and newspapers.

#1 The Financial Times – I always try to buy the local edition on Saturday to get the weekend news, including Arts, Property, etc. It’s always a good read. At NT$110 it is certainly BETTER value than the other magazines.

#2 The Economist – A great magazine with lots of varied news. While a lot of articles aren’t in depth, they’re usually pretty good summaries. It is certainly a decent read and can keep me busy for several subway journeys.

#3 BusinessWeek – Despite suffering Anorexia in recent months, this journal is still pretty good, if you skip the numerous “Best of…”, “Top ***”, and such like editions. I don’t need puerile Top of the Poop Charts, really. I’m a big boy.

#4 BBC News – I usually visit the BBC News website, primarily for info about Europe, the UK and Asia. Typically stories are well-researched but often lack a specificity for Asian stories.

#5 New York Times – While not offline, I do spend time looking for stories on this resource. The articles are well-written, well-informed and interesting. The tech articles are sometimes wanting, and some of the columnists seem to be writing a personal blog, rather than newspaper reporting, but otherwise a good

Sites  I seldom or never visit anymore: CNN dot com (too parochial, gossip-focused), NewsWeek (never bothered), Time Magazine (over-rated by everyone), … and quite a few others…

What are you reading these days? Do you prefer online or offline news reading?