Magazines Matter: Vol. 7 - April 2011

Sports Illustrated magazine kicked off the month with a baseball preview. The Phillies graced its April 4th issue with Cliff Lee in the forefront. Gary Smith in "The Legion of Arms" compared Cliff Lee and his teammates to superheroes.

Philadelphia magazine also had Cliff Lee on the cover, this time by himself. Senior editor Jeffrey C. Billman blurbed about eight people. Each blurb focused on how much those people were part of "Phillies Fandemonium." The best blurb was of Susan Finkelstein who was arrested for offering sex to an undercover cop in exchange for World Series tickets. The real, meaty article was "Arms Dealer" by Nick DiUlio, which profiled Rubén Amaro Jr, the general manager of the Phillies.

The April 14th issue of Time had staff writer Sean Gregory on baseball in the back pages. Gregory remarked that pitchers ruled the sport in 2010. He even called Cliff Lee one of "The Fab Four" of players on his team. That week, Time led with a cover story about shale. Bryan Walsh addressed the energy and environmental concerns regarding shale in "The Gas Dilemma."

Entrepreneur magazine also dealt with energy and environmental concerns. This month's issue had Marlo Scott on the cover. Marlo Scott is better known for her beer or wine-flavored cupcakes, but inside the mag were three articles dedicated to green technology. It was all in an effort to make the world cleaner and greener.

Paul Goldberger's "Miracle Above Manhattan" in National Geographic was in the same vein. The article talks about how the High Line in lower Manhattan has been renovated into a beautiful park. The idea of renovating or revitalizing something is one that could also be found in Catherine Mayer's "Amortality," which was in the April 25th issue of Time. Mayer talks about the trend of people doing what they can to resist aging.

Ebony magazine proclaimed itself as the "Biggest, Baddest Comedy Issue Ever." The book compiled a list of the top 20 black comedians of all time as chosen by the readers. This didn't prove difficult being that all the readers had to do was simply list all the black comedians in existence. The obvious ones were on the cover, which were Chris Rock, Steve Harvey and Mo'Nique. What wasn't a laughing matter though was Kevin Chappell's "The Death of Black Radio."

In Bloomberg Businessweek, I found in the April 11th issue Ronald Grover's brief profile of Andy Cohen's new gig as talk show host on Bravo and dubbed the openly gay TV personality, "The New Queen of Late Night." Peter Savodnik's story of Kirk Cameron and Stephen Baldwin spotlighted both actors who have become evangelicals, as Savodnik describes in "The Passion of the C-List." Also, in its April 11th issue, the mag had a special pull-out section, a magazine within a magazine, called "Bloomberg Government Insider," which turned out to be a cool analysis of the tax code. Alison Fitzgerald and Catherine Dodge's article "Wanted: A Tax Code for the Digital Age" is the most notable.

The Christian Science Monitor also had a special 16-page section inside its April 18th issue. The section was titled "Future Focus" and inside freelance writer Douglas Fox kicked things off with "5 Innovations Changing the World." Cliff Edwards' story in the April 18th of Businessweek also had a future focus. His article, "Fighting for 3D Survival," dealt with the waging war between Samsung and LG over the future of TV technology.

Delaware Today touched briefly on the local Oscar-winner Luke Matheny. Matt Amis called him the "God of Film." The state magazine also had a touching story by Susan Oates called "This Ain't Your Mama's Childhood," which focused on teenager Adeola Babatunde of Claymont, Delaware, and how modern technology and societal changes have re-shaped the way young people live in the world.

Best Magazine Articles of April 2011

1. "The Kill Team" by Mark Boal for Rolling Stone.
2. "Johnson & Johnson" by David Voreacos, Alex Nussbaum and Greg Farrell for Businessweek.
3. "I Was Gandhi's Boyfriend" by Paul Rudnick for New Yorker.
4. "Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media" by James Fallows for The Atlantic.
5. "The Real Housewives of Wall Street" by Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone.
6. "Why America Won't Raise Taxes" by Liz Marlantes for Christian Science Monitor.
7. "Pension, or Ponzi Scheme" by Roger Lowenstein for Businessweek.
8. "Queen of the D-League" by Ben McGrath for New Yorker.
9. "Bill Maher is Duh, Winning" by Tim Dickinson for Rolling Stone.
10. "Wilmington Bust" by Richard L. Gaw for Delaware Today.