Clear in its mandate, comprehensive and authoritative in its coverage of Asia's most important issues, it's a welcome break from the 'empty calories' of most international weeklies.
In these times of media hysteria about this or that, it's also mercifully devoid of inset diagrams of missile parts, topographical sketches of the Euphrates River Basin or street maps of downtown Baghdad. Thank you for that. Indeed, if you want thoughtful opinion on what matters to Asia, then this is a weekly for you.
Of late, the publication has begun introducing an element of 'lighter' content into its pages. For me, it doesn't quite work. Snappily named "Currents", I understand that this new monthly lifestyle section intends to "spot and cover trends before they become trends".
The notion of such a 'lighter' section isn't a bad one, however, the publication appears half pregnant with this current rendering.
As an audience of one, I think it should either slip in these kinds of pieces on an ad hoc basis, or conceive of an idea that takes the 'lifestyle' generic in a direction that's fiercely true to its brand.
Right now it's neither.