Magazine Content

Newsweek: Like Time, Newsweek is not really a summary of the past seven days but instead a complement designed to keep its readers apprised of news topics and trends that the magazine’s editors see as important. The world presented in the May 23 issue in many ways resembles the one offered by Time.

The current-events section, or the “front of the book,” is particularly short. There are just five hard-news stories, which go up to page 36, and a later two-column piece on the Illinois slayings. The rest of the magazine’s 84 pages are devoted to lighter trend stories. Removing the letters, cartoons and table of contents, the hard-news hole in the issue is 13-plus pages — including ads.

Three of the stories we saw in our Day in the Life study turn up in Newsweek. The plane violating D.C. airspace gets about two-thirds of a page in the Periscope section. North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are covered in a one-page column. And the slaying of two girls in Illinois is covered in a short two-column piece near the back of the issue’s hard-news section.

Cover — Newsweek’s May 23 cover isn’t news, it’s about a book excerpt. The cover face is more than 200 years old — a picture of George Washington looking defiant astride a white horse. The cover, “The Real George Washington” is based on an excerpt of David McCullough’s book “1776.” Also teased on the cover are a special section on “Design 2005: What’s Hot” and “The Filibuster Fight” in the Senate.

Inside, the four-page piece leading into the excerpt calls “1776” “powerful” and “vivid” and calls McCullough “America’s best-loved historian.” That kind of prose isn’t unusual for book excerpts. If Newsweek didn’t like the book or believe others would, presumably it wouldn’t have put it on the cover. The lead-in piece is mostly an essay on the author, his book and the nation. “For the country, the path ahead is never entirely smooth, but, as Washington’s story shows, faith and patience can see us through the longest nights,” it says near its end. The piece is followed by a five-page passage from “1776.”

The cover-teased “Design 2005” package looks at a variety of new product designs, from homes to video games to prescription bottles, in ways that range from multi-page stories to short items no longer than 15 lines. Design — in everything from Target products to iPods — has recently gained increased attention from the news media.

Rather than a searching exploration of design, however, the section, particularly near its close, turns largely into an advertising layout. A “Design Dozen” resembles a shopping guide — readers learn about the Mario Batali Basting Brush, Krups Espresso Maker and the hot colors for the year in paint. The subhead on this section: “Our pick of the names to know, stuff to covet, ideas to ponder. Wearables, listenables — even affordables.”

Also getting a cover mention is the filibuster showdown that threatened to erupt in the Senate. A large illustration of Senators Harry Reid and Bill Frist with dynamite around the Capitol dominates the opening spread, taking up five of the six available columns. The actual room for text is about four columns out of a 12-column spread.

The article delves less into the filibuster threat and more into the waning influence of moderate voices on Capitol Hill, in the Senate particularly. Much of the piece focuses on the moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, whom it calls “a relic of a bygone era.” It notes that Specter and a fellow GOP moderate, Sen. Susan Collins, stopped their weekly meetings among moderate Republican senators because they were the only two people there. Almost lost in the shuffle are the judges who prompted the GOP to consider the “nuclear option” in the first place. They are restricted to a graphic.

Other pieces — Next comes a three-page story about Newsweek’s disputed account of the reported desecrating of the Koran at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (an article that ran on May 9) — what the magazine got right and wrong and the violence that broke out in the Arab world after the story ran. The piece acknowledges possible inaccuracies in the earlier story, but adds that its source still recalls reports about Koran mishandling, including a toilet incident, but cannot recall where. There is also a one-page piece about the Defense Department’s base closure plans and a one-page column from International Editor Fareed Zakaria about the administration’s policy regarding North Korea .

Then comes a two-page report on Burger King’s plan to reach Americans by selling extremely caloric and fatty foods, including a new Enormous Omelet Sandwich. A one-page story explores how the runners-up on the TV show The Apprentice often did better than the winners. Another page and a third carries a piece on the rising star of the Miami Heat point guard Dwayne Wade, next to a two-column story about the slaying of the two young girls in Illinois.

The front and back of the issue are filled with briefs. The magazine’s four-page Periscope section contains its usual mix of short supposed insider pieces (an item about President Bush visiting battleground states after the election), short news-of-the-week pieces that don’t merit big play (the aircraft that entered D.C. airspace) and other news nuggets (the mayor of Las Vegas pursuing a reality TV deal). In the back, the magazine offers its “news you can use” section called The Tip Sheet, which covers everything from television season finales to safe cars of the future. Then there is the Newsmaker section, a place for gossip and entertainment shorts — an item on Dave Chappelle and one on Renee Zellweger’s engagement to the country singer Kenny Chesney.

By and large, Newsweek in this edition follows the same pattern as Time, though generally with a lighter and (it seems to hope) a hipper touch. Some of the editorial content hints of advertorials.