My favourite magazines

I define a magazine as having multiple writers, frequent publication, and funding from ads and subscriptions.

For magazines without ads, check out Slow journalism.

For blogs with only one writer, my favourite blogs and digital gardens.

The list

The Good Trade is extremely pretty and has some notable articles, like How To Respond To Someone Who Is Grieving

Serve The Home is a magazine for self hosting. I go here for networking hardware news and reviews. There are so many ads here that I sometimes consider installing an ad-blocker, even though Ad blocking makes the free internet worse.

National Geographic is one of the most gorgeous magazines of all time. Photographers who work there shape the entire photography industry. In addition it is highly respectful of your advertising privacy, allowing you to opt out of specific advertising networks. As I start to enter my 40s, I find it is a much better source of travel inspiration than Instagram and other social networks.

The contentious

The Cut covers interesting and difficult topics in a clear writing style with wonderful typography that seem to be well researched. They write primarily for women and parents, of which I am neither, thus their lower status on this list.

Gothamist is a free magazine about New York city, with nice typography. I don't read it as I don't live in NYC.

The Strategist is a product review magazine owned by NYMag. They post with such high frequency that I have doubt at the level of quality of its recommendations. But their articles still serve as a useful starting point for new product types.

Wired magazine was once one of my most beloved tech magazines, particularly in the 90s when they were a print magazine. Hundreds of Ways to Get S#!+ Done—and We Still Don’t is an article from them that I still reference often. I bought a digital subscription from them in 2022 but found myself skimming, disagreeing, and otherwise getting no value from most of their articles, so I've since cancelled my sub.

The Wirecutter is a consumer product reviews magazine acquired by The New York Times. Was once highly acclaimed but has since become slightly infamous, to the point where people who read it are judged for their lazy thinking. For alternatives, there are RTINGS.com and Consumer Reports