Complaint About the Times

As a retired journalist, I’ve worked for some pretty cheesy publications in my time. Like Precis, which offered free articles to magazine and newspaper editors—all the articles containing plugs for our sponsors.

   But I was appalled by the free publicity the Times gave to The Week magazine the other day. The PR person who placed the story deserves a huge raise. And the Times deserves an enormous raspberry.

  The Week is an ever-so-shallow substitute for a solid news source. And yet the Times article was fulsome in its praise of this second-rate publication. Not one word of criticism.

  Read it—and be appalled at the crap that the Times will publish these days…

The Week Magazine’s Subscriber Base Grows

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEYDEC. 14, 2014

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While many people treat the holidays as the perfect time to give the latest iPhone or video game, some gift givers are opting for a more traditional present this year: a subscription to the print magazine The Week.

The magazine, which includes a roundup of news, has been so successful at persuading its subscribers to give the magazine to friends and relatives that gift subscriptions have become a major driver of its total circulation.

In fact, 110,000 subscribers bought 165,000 subscriptions in 2014, said the magazine’s spokeswoman, Renee Rossi. That is more than a quarter of the magazine’s total circulation of 579,291, according to data tracked by the Alliance for Audited Media.

Ms. Rossi said the magazine has increased its number of gift subscriptions 35 percent during the last five years while it raised its subscription price 30 percent. And gift subscriptions, which cost from $40 to $60, have helped the magazine’s overall circulation growth, which has increased 12 percent, to 579,291 this year from 515,066 in 2010.

Sara O’Connor, executive vice president for The Week’s consumer marketing, said the magazine had aggressively tried to “make our subscribers our advocates” through gift subscriptions. She says The Week tries to get subscribers to give the magazine for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduation as well as the holidays.

Enthusiasts include Tina Brown, the journalist and magazine editor, whose husband Harry Evans was involved with the early introduction of the United States edition of The Week. She was preparing on Friday to order six gift subscriptions for friends in Delhi, where she is preparing for her Women in the World conference.

“I often give The Week at Christmas because it’s sort of brain sex,” Ms. Brown said. “It’s sort of snack-size cerebral entertainment. I’ve given it to media friends. I’ve given it to overseas friends. I’ve given it to expatriate friends. I’ve given it to family.”

It is not just the media elite who are keeping subscription numbers strong. Ed Hartman, a retired financial planner from Moraga, Calif., said he and his wife give their daughters and their families a subscription every year for the holidays. They have also given trial subscriptions to three neighbors, who have since become subscribers. Mr. Hartman does not subscribe to any other magazines or newspapers.

“It at least lets us know what is going on in the world,” he said.

It is also the kind of gift that seems to fit the political views of a range of relatives. Julie Marsili, an advertising executive from Troy, Mich., plans this holiday to give the subscription to her sister, parents and in-laws despite their varied political views.

“It’s a requested gift now,” Ms. Marsili said. “They show so many different perspectives and points