Richard Stengel, the same TIME Managing Editor responsible for "Person of the Year:YOU" edition tells readers of the March 26 magazine:
"A New Chapter: We've redesigned TIME to provide you with a clearer and more forward-looking take on the world."
His editorial describes some of the shifts TIME is making including "getting the magazine to you before the weekend" and "creating a TIME that is more meaningful and forward looking".
Given the challenges print publishing faces, with burgeoning sources of timely online news (traditional media industry and consumer created), I'm interpreting as TIME magazine needing to change their focus and adapt by repositioning TIME's job:
"to outline the choices ahead and help you make those decisions."
TIME's redesign editorial caught my attention having just bumped into a dated (October 2006), series of "blunt" blog exchanges around the term "User Generated Content" (UGC) inspired by Stowe Boyd's "Nielsen is Clueless" post. Following the threads finds Mark Kaloff (representing Nielsen BuzzMetrics) confronting leading participatory media practitioners and advocates, catalysts to the search for new business models the media and advertising industry confront.
It was the "Briefing" article that I first noticed in the redesigned TIME magazine. The headline "Briefing" followed by the words "The Moment" tagging the photo. The phrasing encapsulated what everybody I know faces and the reality that will no doubt continue to challenge all media: people have no "time" and getting our attention for just a "moment" is increasingly difficult.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
