I recently had the chance to browse through a copy of a newish magazine -- the rather unflashily titled "The Week." It is a slightly new take on the weekly newsmagazine, with shorter articles but (it seemed to me) a broader reach.
Though I didn't find much I probably couldn't have read in an exhaustive perusal of the Washington Post, I enjoyed seeing more blurbs about developments outside the U.S., the publication of opinion pieces from around the world, and some of the coverage of "less serious" yet still interesting news (e.g., why parents are lining up Twitter accounts for their newborns).
On the other hand, I also felt that in an age where we want all our news focused with razor precision on our own interests, beliefs, and prejudices, a magazine that seeks to cover all bases is really bucking a trend. The trouble with trying to be all things to all people is that not all people want all things. "The Week," for example, has book reviews, food news, selected political cartoons, and even a real estate section.
The publication, like many these days, offers both online and mail/hardcopy subscriptions. The latter might seem to be in particular danger of having its life cut short; some will see its old-school, print journalism component as a hopeless throwback. Certainly that will limit its appeal, but it may turn out to be, for a while, a perfect "niche" publication, just as there are still people who seek out their music on LPs, and others who eschew digital music players, and even the older transistorized ones, in favor of those vacuum tubes dating from Edison's day.
A better example, perhaps: Just about three years ago, as Borders Bookstores died their rather drawn-out death, a new small bookstore - One More Page - opened not far from me. We all thought it was a foolish venture... How could they hope to survive? Wasn't everybody turning to e-books? It turns out, "not necessarily." Recent reports suggest that the surge in e-book sales is slowing, and that a huge proportion of those that are sold are popular fiction titles, while many people still seem to prefer print books in other categories, like history, biography, self-help, cookbooks, children's books, and the like. Further, readers like the personal attention that a knowlegeable bookstore savant can offer. So far, One More Page is doing just fine, thank you.
It will be interesting to see if "The Week" can survive, possibly even prosper, in either of its formats -- a digital version designed for tablets, and/or a traditional print publication if it doesn't decide to specialize its content.