03/19/2007 11:59:00 PM 
Let's start with the redesign, it's been nicely executed by design firm, Pentagram.
The problem is that it doesn't go far enough, there's simply too much reverence for the past, for the old typefaces and for the layout and guidelines from the ghosts of its long-dead founders, Henry Luce and Briton Hadden.
The brief to Pentagram should have been "blow-up Time and start again", instead of the more putrid, "evolve it".
Magazines and newspapers have always updated their design, even pre-internet. Today the stakes are so much higher and Time should have used the opportunity to show the world a more radical version of itself.
Clearly Time is wrestling with the conundrum that many in the publishing world are trying to deal with.
What relevance do they have in the world now the internet has come along?
How can we still rake in advertising revenue, keep out costs down in the face of increased competition?
McKinsey and Co has been spending a lot of hours in the offices of Time Inc, trying to answer these questions. The highly paid consultants have been make recommendations for each of the company's major titles and suggestions for cost cutting. McKinsey are spending time at Time because the magazine's profits have been in freefall, from $95 million in 1999 to $50 million in 2006.
At least, Time's editor, Richard Stengel has a vision; he wants the title to be a smart analyst of the week's news. He changed the publication date to Friday, based on research findings showing consumers obviously had more time for analysis and reflection on the week's stories, during the weekend.
Stengel sees Time as publication that's a notch down from The Economist, but one that still manages to be smart and provocative.
"As a nation and as a people, we are once again faced with consequential decisions. TIME's job is to outline the choices ahead and help you make those decisions.'
Source: Stengel's letter in the new re-designed edition
Perhaps 80-yeard old Time suffers from a misguided belief that it has a paternal role to play. Something about keeping up standards and making sure the American public is kept informed. The big problem is the "smart masses" Stengel is so desperate to engage, are over supplied from a cadre of greats and smart amateurs, be it on the Internet, or through more conventional sources.
More importantly, this in this age of personalization, people are selecting and defining the news they want.
A definitive oracle of reason isn't something people are currently looking for.
Although Life magazine is no longer with us, in it's time, it understood the power of imagery, looking at it was an experience and something that fitted in perfectly with the emergence of television as a visual medium.
There is still something deeply compelling about the fundamental idea of a magazine; unlike the web, it's tactile and tangible and some people are still finding ways to make magazines relevant, by finding new ideas and playing with design.
Tyler Brule's Monocle has been getting rave reviews for its design, approach interesting content that covers the world of business culture, an area that's been untouched by magazines. It's a niche title, lacks the scale of Time and its overhead, but proves that magazines can still be vital. The same can be said of Ben Goldhirsh's Good Magazine. It's focused around the ideas of social responsibility and conscious consumption.
Time is one of America's great brands, but it won't be for much longer, if it can't be relevant.
It would have been interesting to see what Brule could have imagined for Time, or for that matter, the great designer, sadly no longer with us, Tibor Kalman, the man who made Colors magazine great.
Instead of launching a slightly updated version of the existing magazine, Time should have launched a Colors-style news weekly, something that stands out from the sea of grey in the world of news magazines on the newsstand; a magazine with quality stock, great photography (it could have teamed up with star photojournalist agency Vii, great information design and pithy, but intelligent writing. A title that understands that in today's visual age, it's not all about writing, because design and photography can also play an important role communicating intelligence and generating conversation.
Time.com should be about bringing its readers the essential stories of the day and providing real interaction (think Web 2.0/Digg/USA Today) for its readers (not just renaming its Letter's Page, Inbox).
If Time did both these things, it might not lead to a return to the great days of old, but it could make people to want to take a look at it again.
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