The Last Newsweek

I've been reading Newsweek for more than half my life. I started as a kid, reading my parents' copy. As I got older, and left home, I would take away all the accumulated Newsweeks with me when I would visit. My parents had long stopped reading it, but continued their subscription for me. I never read the whole issue, and sometimes didn't read anything. But for many periods in my life, it was my only source of news. Eventually, after I was married and had children of my own, my parents stopped their subscription and told me to get my own. So I did (actually, my wife did).

I remember once in high school, a history teacher (Mr. Schweidel, who was not religious but also taught in Breuers and thought that Rabbi Schwab was the best rabbi since Moses) asked me what periodicals I read. When I answered Newsweek, he said that they have a good business section. I told him that I always skipped that section. As I got older and entered the corporate world, the business section eventually became my favorite section. I also greatly enjoy George Will's and Fareed Zakaria's columns.

But over the years, and particularly over the last few years, the news coverage has seriously deteriorated. It has become much, much more partisan. Especially during the most recent election, the news articles read like Op-Eds. Why did this week's coverage of Deep Throat have to be anti-Bush? Newsweek has also shortened its news articles and added in a lot more fluff/personal interest material. That doesn't interest this person.

Moreover, over the past two years there was a devastating heatwave in France and a series of devastating hurricanes in the US. My wife only found out about them long after the events because they were never mentioned in Newsweek. That was the last straw. My wife never forgave Newsweek for not mentioning the thousands of deaths due to the heatwave in France.

So we decided to end our subscription. Our last issue arrives within the next few weeks. This was a decision that took years and is the end of an era in my life. In July 2005, I will be Newsweek free.

My question to readers:

Which weekly should we get instead?

US News & World Report?
Time?
An ultra-Orthodox newspaper like Yated or HaModia?
A weekend subscription to the NY Times or The Wall Street Journal?
Other?

Please help us out in the comments section.