Under such conditions, it would seem that traditional opinion journals are a dying genre. But to the contrary, readers still turn to thought-leader magazines like the The New Republic.

"I think I take opinion journals more seriously that I use to," says Nathan Glazer, professor of education and social structure emeritus, who contributes regularly to The New Republic.

The reason, according to some, is that this trend toward the visual has lead to an impoverishment of the quality of public discourse, giving opinion journals an increased role in filling the void.

"Serious political and cultural discussion has become much less commonplace," Peretz says.

According to Peretz, one trend that exemplifies this is the use of personality profiles to cover complicated issues.

"When you reduce complicated issues to personality, you add something to the discussion but you sap its texture and tautness," he says.

"Politics on television is reduced to soundbites, shouting matches, and food fights," says Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel, another regular contributor. "There are few arenas within contemporary life for serious debate of social and political questions."

And so, while readers of younger, more "hip" weeklies often skim pages and are drawn in by fancy pages designs, readers of The New Republic approach each issue with a certain patience and thoroughness. According to demographic surveys, readers on average spend more than an hour on each issue, often referring to the same issue multiple times.

"There's sort of a difference between TNR pieces and pieces found anywhere else," Lane says. "There's so much out there that's not serious--that's 'soundbitey'--that the real original and unique thing is seriousness."

More Information, More Clutter

Inevitably, as information becomes more available, the number of talking heads also increases.

Not only have magazines like Slate taken advantage of the new digital medium, but newspaper op-ed pages have grown over the years.

"Television and the World Wide Wed can provide news more quickly than newspapers," says TNR Executive Editor Jonathan S. Cohn '91, also a former Crimson editor. "Even in newspapers there has been a trend towards news analysis instead of straight news."

For a traditional opinion journals like TNR, this influx of political an social commentary comes as a mixed blessing. One the one hand, readers are more inclined to turn to the magazine with the hope of receiving a concentrated dose of thought in an increasingly wide world of text.

"There is a lot of good material out there," Cohn says. "You just have to sift through a little more to get it."