Content on MSN.com is actually readable, even...addictive?!

http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=4533&menuid=1&lid=428&ER=sessiontimeout

http://women.msn.com/relationshipsindex.armx

http://women.msn.com/160458.armx

I even like MSN Today... geez!!! Whatever happened to reading quality content online (and offline)?

You know, heavy, intellectual, current affairs-oriented newsy stuff, like...

http://today.reuters.com/news/default.aspx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/?ok

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

http://www.economist.com/index.html?uviewed=3

http://www.time.com/time/

Or stuff that one finds relevant to career development and the acquisition of more knowledge, post-university corporate world information, the like...

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/index.jhtml

http://www.darwinmag.com/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/

http://startup.wsj.com/

http://www.marketingprofs.com/

We just don't have the time to read anymore, do we?
I've been stuck in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink for ages, and this other book, The One Minute Millionaire, by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert Allen, for even longer. Not that I dislike the 2 books...it's just slow going! This coming from someone who devoured The Lord of the Rings in its entirety (Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, Return of the King, and the Appendices) within a few days (less than a week, for sure), The Silmarillion within 3 days, and most other books within a few hours (thicker ones go up to a day at the most).

Maybe it's tougher to read on the computer. Maybe non-fiction is more difficult to read continuously, and tends to be easier to take up and put down. Maybe The Working Life just doesn't allow the time and energy for reading - and I'm talking about the meaningful, constructive, brain-feeding, truly enjoyable kind of reading that only bookworms can understand. Maybe it's age!

Or there's just too much entertaining, attractive, useless, trivial crap out there that just hooks you in and gets you to waste time reading bullshit...just for mental recreation, just to let your brain relax in the embrace of trashy news and utterly forgettable information...

I don't know. Am I just being neurotic and anal, now?

I am disappointed, though, that Mediacorp Publishing has acquired Elle Magazine. It's the only female magazine that I bother buying & keeping...if the content quality drops then, well, there's no more hope!

Here's the article:

Marketing Weekly, 31 August 2005

MediaCorp Publishing takes control
By Clarice Chiam

Singapore - MediaCorp Publishing (“MPB”) has acquired Hachette MediaCorp (“HMPL”) in a move that will see MPB publishing Elle Singapore under licence from Hachette Filipacchi Presse S.A directly.

MPB released a statement saying it decided to do away with the original joint venture between itself and Hachette Filipacchi Presse S.A in a bid to “respond better to the magazine’s reader and advertiser’s needs” as it will handle all aspects of publishing from content creation to marketing and distribution.

“The acquisition of HMPL is in-line with our strategic plans to streamline our corporate structure as we expand into the region,” said Philip Koh, CEO of MediaCorp Publishing. MPB also holds the licence to publish the Malaysian edition of Elle.