I do almost all my reading on a screen these days, and rarely have the time to switch off and consume paper. When recently buying a magazine for my daughter, though she chose Peppa Pig Magazine because it had a plastic toy on the front , my eye was drawn to The Forecast by Monocle. It was a mistaken purchase, really. It sat, beseeching me to open it, on the coffee table and then, after it was cleared in a tidying spree by my partner, on the Pile Of Pieces Of Paper on my desk.
It is a collection of very short articles web-page length articles , covering all kinds of things. The writing is accessible but intelligent. Photo essays are printed on bleached, shiny paper. Shorter articles are on thicker, unbleached, rough-feeling paper. Advertiser-funded sections there was one on Wales are on different paper still, cut slightly smaller to effortlessly signal to the reader where the advertorial starts and finishes. A short section of opinion pieces were on, again, another paper stock.
Each article has been interesting without being elitist. Much has given me pause for thought. For a magazine?!!! Worth every penny. I picked up a free copy of the international edition of the New York Times : it languishes in my bag, after I tried to read this oversized broadsheet newspaper in an economy airline seat and decided that it was much more hassle than it was worth. And today, in an 8-hour flight from Brisbane to Singapore, I actually got to reading it.
Content, selling itself with an exemplary user-experience? Whatever next?
