Ode to the Washington Post Magazine

The Washington Post Magazine may be the greatest piece of journalism known to man. Ok, so maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the Magazine certainly functions as a highlight of my week. The overall aim of the Washington Post Magazine is to challenge, inform, and entertain. In fact, the Post describes the Magazine as, "Ground-breaking journalism. Local lives. Political and popular commentary. Each week the Washington Post Magazine opens eyes, takes a measure of our society and perhaps gets under the skin a little." (Washington Post Ads) To do this, it contains a variety of features, and ones that are constantly changing. The magazine refashioned itself in the last few years to contain more “mass appeal” segments, including “Date Lab", "Cul de Sac", "Making It", and "Editor's Query." The “Editor’s Query” section uses short personal stories from the readers in response to a variety of entertaining prompts, like "Tell us about the strangest thing you ever found in your purse or pockets." (The answer in this case, if you're wondering, is a pair of Little Mermaid underwear.)

The magazine caters to educated, middle/upper class metropolitan DC individuals. The Post claims 1.4 million readers every week and 38% of their households making over $100,000 (Washington Post Ads). The Washington Post Magazine is put out as part of the Sunday edition of the Washington Post. The Washington Post Company publishes the Washington Post. (They are not part of a larger corporation.)

If it was not already apparent, I adore the Washington Post Magazine. There was an ongoing weekly debate (and still is when I’m home) within my family over who gets to relish the magazine first. My father loves the crossword puzzle. I harbor for the humor/satire articles by Gene Weingarten and Joel Achenbach. My mother grabs for the feature articles. I think this is the strength of the magazine; there is enough variety to garner interest from a variety of individuals in different stages of their life.

One of my all-time favorite articles from the Magazine was an article by Gene Weingarten about Joshua Bell. It contained a very simple premise: If one of the world's greatest musicians played in a metro station during rush hour, would anyone notice? The sidebar of my page contains a video link to Joshua Bell playing and the original article link to "Pearls Before Breakfast." While I would highly recommend reading the article yourself, I'll give you a hint as to what happens: it was only kids that routinely stopped to listen to Bell and there was never a crowd around him.

My least favorite section of the Washington Post Magazine is the one entitled "Dining". It reviews a variety of restaurants in the DC metropolitan area. Not only are the restaurants featured usually out of my price range, but the article itself is very pretentious. I am absolutely not the demographic that is being catered to with this article. Another improvement for the Washington Post Magazine would be to bring Joel Achenbach's article "Rough Draft" back in on a weekly basis. I also miss the fantastic musings of Dave Barry but understand that it was his choice to take a hiatus. Overall, I think the Washington Post Magazine is a fabulous piece of media.