I subscribe to US News and enjoy reading it as a means of catching up with what's going on in America, and to some extent, the world. I don't read newspapers, and rarely read The Economist in its entirety (often skipping over the news relating to small and obscure countries, etc), so US News fills a nice niche in my magazine reading.
US News also does some worthwhile special reports/investigations regarding health care, colleges, employment, etc. I do enjoy the magazine, and find it is the best of the Newsweek and Time trio. Their format changed not too long ago, in that it now has a newspaper-ish layout, with the magazine opening with political news and notes, a two page Cross Country section, and then a two page The World section, that has short stories recounting news relevent to the area covered, set on a geographical map with the locations featured in the stories indicated. After that it has the following sections: Nation & World, Special Report, Money & Business, and Health and Medicine. I've subscribed for awhile now, and forget exactly when the formatting switch took place, but IMO the switch did improve the magazine, and resulted in me extending my subscription.
The Economist is a bit overwhelming, just because it covers so much. Initially I had some trouble with it, as I tend to take the approach that I have to read an entire magazine if I am going to read it at all, but I've now managed to skip articles and sections that don't interest me, and it's much more manageable now.
I like subscribing to both magazines because there is overlap in the stories and thus I have a better chance of remembering what I read in a day or so. I often find that when I am reading the Economist I am not taking it all in, and instead am just reading for the sake of reading. This often results in me not even remembering what I read about, and again, this brings into focus the benefit of reading multiple news magazines.
I am able to read fiction really well, remembering everything entirely, but when it comes to news, a lot of it goes into the brain, and then leaves shortly thereafter.
I'm interested in checking out a copy of Maclean's, but I am afraid they don't sell it around here. The magazine sections at the chain bookstores around here are lacking, and there is no chance of finding it at a smaller, privately owned, shop.
What percent of Maclean's would you say is Canada-specific news? Do you think there is enough "outside" material there to interest an American that is not overly familiar with Canadian politics?
I enjoy reading about world events, news, happenings, etc. But I am not as keen as reading about extremely localised foreign news. If it is an opinion piece on a Canadian event that somehow applies to the bigger picture, or world, then I'd certaily be interested in reading it, etc.
I try to read, and be informed, about news outside of America so that I don't become oblivious to the world outside of my country. I also like to get multiple views/opinions on the same issue so that I can avoid tunnelvision and an ignorant bias in discussions I have with others.