mattyd5's Full Review: Entertainment Weekly Magazine
One of the perks of having an employed older sibling is that I occasionally am able to relish in his subscription of magazines. Though various publications would clutter my humble abode, I only found Entertainment Weekly the only one suitable for one's "bathroom business." I find it to be a cross between People and Premiere.
Perhaps what attracts me most to Entertainment Weekly is it's fantastic layout. The covers are usually exciting without being cheesy and overdone. The photos are a pleasure to view, and the drawings are creative and humorous. I believe their main draw to the general public is with their numerous, SHORT articles and regular lists, comparisons, etc. For example, they run a weekly list of Tim Mullen's "Hot Sheet: What the country is talking about this week..." It grabs the reader's attention because of its quick read, but also informs the reader of the latest news in Hollywood. Other similar regulars in the magazine include celebrity quotes alongside geometrical/abstract drawings, and "Gimme Shelter" (a small blurb describing a famous person's home). Another plus is the absence of those annoying subscription inserts!
What I found the most informative of the magazine were its lists of top movies for the week (box office profit), the top musical albums sold, and the top novels (main genres included) sold. The "Winners" and "Losers of the Week" are staples of the magazines too. Readers' letters are of course standard for the magazine. Usually, Entertainment reviews a hot artist's album or author's book approximately a page and a half in length. They also give condensed reviews of the new releases of movies, books, and videos. In addition to a written review, a letter grade is given to each reviewed piece. At times the magazine will list the top ten internet sites for anything Hollywood related (search engines included). Also, at the end of magazine, Entertainment provides a one-page article of a past event in Hollywood history.
Other things I noted were it's easy-to-read Table of Contents, and thankfully, moderate amount of ads. As you know, some magazines contain more advertisements than reading material! Fear not - Entertainment Weekly is not like that! The issues themselves are usually 84 pages in length, so they're not bulky at all. They are approximately 8" x 11" and the individual pages are smooth and easy to flip (they are a good thickness). The print appears to be Times New Roman size 9 - about the size of newspaper print and all pictures are clear. I estimate that the reading difficulty level to be about 7th grade, or a little easier and significantly more colloquial than your principal (local) newspaper.
Periodically, the magazine will create special or collector's issues. A past one was about the 100 most memorable TV events. However, each year, Entertainment Weekly sends out "The Best of (year here)". In these issues, they highlight, well, the best of that year (actors, movies, historical moments, etc.). For regular issues, they run a Fall and then Summer Movie Preview, so that is very helpful in learning about what movies you can expect to see in those seasons; it is like the text version of Sneak Previews.
What I am a little disappointed about in this magazine is that they do not seem to run enough articles profiling up-and-coming actors, musicians, etc. Although they do write about past and present Hollywood figures, I feel as though most of their chief articles revolve around reviews of recent releases. They tend to follow whatever is hot, and not enough on POSSIBLE successes. In general, they do not like to stray from the mainstream road of entertainment, which have, of course, its pros and its cons. Simply, as refreshing and relaxing it is to read, there are no surprises.
Other
It's $3/50 per issue so it is cheaper than most magazines on the stands/@ the supermarkets. It's also published weekly, which I think is better than the monthly magazines, simply because you'll always have something to look forward to each week! :) The only problem with that would be it quickly filling up shelves, tables, etc...but then again, you can always recycle!
Entertainment Weekly magazine's award-winning news, reviews and feature stories provide the latest on movies, TV, music and more. Each issue of Entert...More at Magazines.com
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