L'Économiste

One of my journalism professors once told us that the only news magazine he ever got was The Economist because it was the best.

I'd never really read The Economist; before that class it wasn't even really on my radar. His pronouncement always stayed with me, though.

A few weeks ago I got an offer in the mail for 12 weeks of the Economist for $12. Considering that a full year of TE is something like $100, I figured now was as good a time as any to see for myself how good it really is.

I've also been feeling guilty recently for not keeping up with what's going on in the world. I'm one of those people who routinely turns up their nose at TV news because it's not *real* news (especially local TV news; it's truly god awful). I actually enjoy hunkering down with the newspaper.

Motherhood and stay-at-home-ness has pretty much robbed me of the time I used to have to hunker. Not to mention the fact that both states sort of encourage turning inward. I've always been introverted and inner directed, but now my attention rarely wanders outside these four walls.

Anyway, I've been getting the Economist for about a month so far. I have to say that, up until now, I thought the mag was pretty boring. Dense, hard to grasp and way more focused on business than I could ever want (I know, I know, it's called 'The Economist' for a reason).

With this week's issue, though, I think I've started to see the light. It's far reaching, a truly global news magazine. It goes in depth into a wide variety of subjects and it also offers an international view of American politics. So I guess I'm sold.*

I probably still won't shell out the cash, but at least I can now turn my nose up in the air at all the *other* news mags out there. Because, after all, The Economist is the *only* news magazine worth reading. Ha!


*This is not to say it doesn't have it's faults, the biggest of which is the fact that it has a "free-market is god" philosophy which kind of grates.