Magazines : Us Weekly (1-year)

- Prompt and worth the money
I went with this subscription because it was the same price as only 6 months of "People". My friend loves it (it was her birthday gift) and so far they've arrived on schedule - the first one only took two weeks or so! Thank you!

Rating:

- trash
This is one trashy magazine. I suspect most of its subscribers are "accidental"--I wound up with it after purchasing something at Best Buy three years ago. It was supposed to be free for six months, but of course they do not bother to contact you to see if you'd like to continue. They just keep billing you, and I was too busy to deal with it.

Recently I was motivated to seek out their address and write for a cancellation. Hopefully that will get rid of it.

Rating:

- US Weekly
Great Magazine. Celebrity gossip is my crack, there could be worse addictions! The company/publishers are hard to contact if you have a change of address!

Rating:

- It's appreciated
This is an unusual review. I think US Weekly isn't worth reading - but I am a man. I give an annual subscriptions to our admin assistant every year as recognition / appreciation for Admin Week. I appreciate all she does to help me. She appreciates receiving US Weekly every week. That works for me (and hopefully works for her). That's good enough for me to give a high rating.

Rating:

- Not as good as it used to be
I have read this magazine for several years. It is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. It's not a serious magazine, but it really doesn't claim to be.

I do have to say that this magazine has gone downhill in recent years. Like a number of the magazines that Bonnie Fuller has edited, it has never really recovered from her tenure.

For one thing, most magazines of this genre have paparazzi photos, including People, which uses them in its "Star Tracks" section. But lately Us has pages and pages of these photos, to the point that I have to agree with the reviewer who said it feels like you are stalking these people. A recent issue of Us had a photo of a celebrity waiting in line to use the john. Not kidding. Celebrities are just like us, they have to go to the bathroom! A photo like that just seems intrusive and not at all interesting or newsworthy.

Another recent practice of this magazine is to interview a medical physician or psychiatrist about a celebrity they have never met, let alone treated, and ask for a possible diagnosis and treatment for that celebrity. I really question the ethics of medical professionals who participate in this sort of thing. This magazine now frequently describes Britney Spears as having bipolar disorder, as if it's gospel truth. It may be true, but until Britney publicly confirms the nature of her illness (not that she should have to), I would object to this magazine publicly labeling her as bipolar and asking psychiatrists how her bipolar disorder should best be treated.

The magazine has also started a feature where they show the covers of competitors, primarily Star and Life & Style, and demonstrate that the rumors reported on these magazine covers are false. For example, a Star cover saying "Brad and Jen Reunite!" will be shown, along with a little blurb about how this is obvious BS and you can't believe the crap you read in Star magazine. I find this feature incredibly hypocritical. I've lost track of the number of times that Us has incorrectly reported that a Brangelina wedding/breakup/adoption/pregnancy had happened or was imminent.

I will say that Us has a better beauty and fashion section than a lot of magazines of this genre, although they don't devote many pages to it. The movie and TV reviews used to be good, but have really declined in quality. The one section of this magazine that remains worth reading is the Fashion Police, which is often quite clever and always good for a laugh. Although I enjoy that section, it's kind of sad that it should become one of the magazine's biggest selling points.

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