I was reminded that I hadn't posted anything about this when I saw the article in the NY Times today. The Guardian, a great leftish British newspaper, is considering an American weekly magazine. I would buy several gift subscriptions right away? Not only is their political and world events coverage great, they are one of the smartest voices covering books and the rest of the arts. For an example, see this article on Strauss's opera Die Schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman):
The librettist was Jewish. The composer was head of the Reich Music Chamber. But Stefan Zweig and Richard Strauss still managed to beat the Nazis and get their comedy sea opera on stage.
New York Magazine had an article by Michael Wolff titled En Guardian! on this a couple of weeks ago.
Paul
The Guardian Weekly published here in Australia over the last few years is wonderful, although rather expensive. It also incorporates content from The Washington Post and English-language stories translated from Le Monde.
I'm surprised that there isn't already a US version -- Australia isn't often first cab off the rank in these things.
barry
I think they're going for the "charge a lot and have fewer subscribers" model, as The Economist does and seems to do pretty well here.
America's politics are very right-wing, so I'm not surprised that they would try to do it in Australia first. We don't have much media of any size that could be considered liberal. The best we can do is "middle of the road", like the New York Times, although I must say that New York Newsday is pretty good these days. Still, that's a paper without a huge circulation or much of a following outside of the region.