This article fails to mention one of the best magazines on the market: The Economist. It is always the same: simple title, one picture, and lots of columized text.
In addition, they also forget the newspapers. They are always identical from day-to-day. Just because it might be easier to style a "Top X" list doesn't mean it still isn't a useless "Top X" list.
Absolutely. I posted a rant recently on how Scientific American lost me as a subscriber (and an evangelist) when they switched away from the 'journal' format, going so far as to increase the size of the body text to put out the same number of pages with about 10% less content.
I like and admire good graphic design. But not as much as I like and admire good writing. Does anyone think sites like Metafilter or HN would benefit from an orgy of visual style?
In addition, they also forget the newspapers. They are always identical from day-to-day. Just because it might be easier to style a "Top X" list doesn't mean it still isn't a useless "Top X" list.