Amazon has some great discounts right now on magazine subscriptions – so it’s as good a time as any to purchase a subscription to your favorite Brit related magazine. Prices are good until May 31st so act quickly!

I highly recommend getting subscriptions if you love reading these magazines as it’s more affordable and it’s getting harder and harder to find these at local bookstores.

Britain Magazine Subscription – 1 Year $29.95 / 6 Issues

Realm Magazine – 1 Year $34.75 / 6 Issues

British Heritage Magazine Subscription – 1 Year $30 / 6 Issues

BBC Knowledge Magazine Subscription – 1 Year $29.95 / 6 Issues

BBC History Magazine Subscription – 1 Year $75 / 12 Issues

Even if you’re just looking for a subscription to non British related magazine, follow this link for great savings on every other magazine that Amazon.com offers.

Anglophile Alert: Great Deals on British Related Magazine from Amazon.com is a post from: Anglotopia.net

One of the great things about the BBC America shop is that they feature a lot of products that are hard to find in local stores. One product I’m really glad they offer are subscriptions to excellent BBC published magazine.

So, if you were wondering where to get a subscription of your favorite BBC magazines – look no further than the BBC America Shop for magazines.

Here’s a selection of my favorite BBC Magazines. BBC Knowledge is by far my favorite magazine as I love learning new things – so I’m glad to see you can buy a BBC Knowledge in America subscription here!

BBC Knowledge Magazine Subscription USA Voted one of the top 10 magazines in 2008 by Library Journal! Aimed at the curious mind, BBC Knowledge Magazine offers informative, entertaining and inspirational features on science, history and nature, drawing on the BBC’s existing portfolio of quality specialized titles including Focus, BBC History Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

BBC History Magazine Subscription America History comes alive as you travel into the past and around the world with Britain’s lavishly illustrated and expertly written monthly history magazine.

BBC Top Gear Magazine Subscription in the USA Top Gear Magazine is Britain’s top-selling car magazine, thanks to its unique blend of information and entertainment. Road tests, reviews, price guides and motor sport, plus the cheeky wit of Jeremy Clarkson delivered direct to your door each month – what more could a car buff want?

BBC Homes & Antiques Magazine Subscribe USA Classic meets contemporary in this beautifully illustrated magazine filled with gorgeous photographs of elegant British homes. You’ll discover a wealth of ideas and inspiration.

BBC Focus Magazine Subscribe in the USA Satisfy Your Curiosity! Experts explain things you’ve always wondered about and reveal the latest findings on scientific marvels, from ancient times to tomorrow.

BBC Sky at Night Magazine For Subscribing in America Your Essential Guide To Astronomy. Perfect for both experienced and amateur astronomers, BBC Sky at Night magazine brings you the latest findings of world-leading astronomers.

BBC Music Magazine Subscription USA BBC Music Magazine is the world’s best-selling classical music magazine. BBC Music Magazine is for the serious and not so serious collector of classical music. Each issue features numerous photographs of musicians and reviews of current classical and semipopular CDs.

Where to Get BBC Magazine Subscriptions in the USA is a post from: Anglotopia.net

One of the best British newspapers has finally released their own new iPhone app and it’s simply awesome.

I hope Rupert Murdoch is paying attention!

This paid app features access to the best content the Guardian has to offer. You can customize which news feeds to receive, so that you only download the news you care about.

You have the option to view photo galleries, listen to audio podcasts and see the most view stories.

There’s also an innovative option to download all the news for offline viewing so that you can read it anywhere. You can also see trending news topics which is very cool.

I’m in love with this app and I hope the Times of London implements something similar as they put up a paywall to their content in the next year.

The app is pretty cheap at $3.99/£2.99. Click here to purchase the Guardian iPhone App in iTunes:

The Guardian Releases Awesome New iPhone App is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I got an interesting tweet from @petermeza yesterday asking me where he could pick up recent editions of Time Out London – the venerable London events guide. Generally, I know of most of the places you can find these things and jotted off some suggestions for him.

Well, he got back to me later in the day to let me know that he called all my suggestions and NO ONE in the USA is carrying Time Out London anymore. The distributor stopped distributing them in the USA for some inexplicable reason.

This is very sad and Time Out London can be very useful in planning a trip to London or just seeing what’s going on. Heck it’s worth it just for the great articles!

But if you’re in the USA, you still have an option. You can order it direct from the UK here. You’ll pay a little more with exchange rates and with shipping but at least you’re still able to pick up a copy.

Buy Time Out: London in the USA here.

Also, if you’re ever looking for something British in the USA, feel free to ask me as I can usually help locate it.

Time Out: London No Longer Available On US Newstands is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Photo from Flickr

My favorite British Newspaper is by far the London Times, specifically the Sunday Times. It’s a great newspaper, with a great history backed up by strong journalism.

The sheer amount of content in a Sunday Times is always impressive and keeps me occupied for weeks. You used to be able to pick up the Sunday Times in most big US cities at specialist newsstands. However, in recent years you pretty much can’t buy the UK edition of The Times anywhere, at least not in the Chicago area.

So, what’s an American Anglophile to do if he/she wants to read the London Times in the USA?

London Times Website

Of course, the easiest way to read the London Times is to visit their website. Most of what is in the newspaper ends up on the websites. It’s just not the quite as enjoyable as reading a physical paper. It’s still a great resource and I make sure to visit it everyday.

Cost: Free
Website: Times of London

Times of London E-Edition

The Times offers an innovative solution for overseas readers: The Times E-edition. They scan every page of the newspaper and post it online in an easy for read (and print off) format. You can read it the day it’s published, which is nice. It’s not very expensive and is a good substitute for the printed paper. Again, though, it’s just not the same as cracking open that beautiful Sunday Times Broadsheet.

Cost:

Single Issue: £2.50
Monthly: £8.99
Yearly: £89.99

London Times US Edition

The Times recently began publishing an US based edition based out of New York. Keep in mind that it’s substantially different than the UK edition. It wasn’t exactly clear what the differences were, so I wrote them and asked.

Please find some information explaining the differences between the UK and US editions of The Times:

US edition is 64pp and 96pp on Saturdays. It contains the best of The
Times – including content from Times2 and the Saturday sections,
especially the magazine. Having fewer pages obviously means that we have
to be selective!

The US edition Page 1 has at least 10 international (not UK) summary/
cross-reference stories (words and pictures). It’s heavy on Business
News – there are a lot of summaries on Page 2 under the headline Global
Business Briefing.

Unlike the UK edition, the news pages open with World News, which runs
all the way to the Comment/Opinion editorial section (which is identical
to the UK section). Times Britain starts after Oped.

Then you get Features – which is the best of Times 2 (or on Saturdays,
Saturday Extra). Then Business, then Register, which is just Obituaries.
Then a full page of Puzzles and Games (not in UK edition). Then The Game
and Sport.

There are some exclusive features (eg Michelle Henery’s New Yorker in
London column). All our US correspondents and commentators such as Gerry
Baker are well displayed – and the fact that the paper is smaller than
the UK edition means that you get natural feel of a bias towards
American news. It is very much aimed at serious, cosmopolitan business
folk in New York and the tri-state commuting area.

The Sunday Times would not contain all of the colour magazines
(Culture, Style & ST Magazine) you would receive Culture International
instead.

You can usually pick up the US edition of The Times at Newsstands in the New York Metro area.

You can purchase a subscription from OCS Media. Check out their website here.

Cost:

3 Months: $78.00
6 Months: $143
1 Year: $260.00

Order Subscriptions here.

UK Edition of the London Times in the USA

I’m a purist. I want the UK edition of the Sunday Times. Thankfully, there are still companies that will deliver the Sunday Times to your door in the US. IMS News is the big player and they specialize in mailing UK newspapers to the USA. I used to use this service when I could afford a subscription and you can rely on the papers getting to you a week after they’ve been published. I was very happy with this service and highly recommend it.

Cost:

Per Quarter: $165
1 Year: $660

To order a subscription to the Sunday Times, check out the IMS News website here.

Writer’s Note:

If any readers based in the UK would be interested in sending me the Sunday Times, I’m willing to barter ad space, blogging work, SEO work, etc for delivery. Contact me for more info.

How to Get a London Times Subscription in the USA – Times of London in America is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Not only do I love to listen to British music, I am a huge fan of their music magazines. Maybe my Anglophile view on life has clouded my vision, but I really believe their magazines are superior to ours, including Rolling Stone. (And for the record, I am a subscriber to RS.)

There are three major magazines, each with their own personalities:

New Musical Express: Lovingly known as NME, it’s the Granddad of music magazines. It was first published in March 1952 after the well advised merger of Musical Express & Accordion Weekly (that must’ve been a fabulous read!). Taking a page out of our Billboard, NME was the first British paper to include a singles chart, which made its debut in November 1952. NME is published weekly. It is filled with brief articles, tidbits, reviews and a pretty extensive listing of upcoming concerts around the UK. I always think of NME as the musical newspaper. It was once printed on newsprint, but now it has taken up a glossy look.

NME has had its highs and lows over its fifty plus years – it was most successful during the British Invasion, Punk and BritPop eras – but it has always found a way to adapt and change. Their website is a fantastic resource for up-to-date music news and concert announcements. They’ve really embraced the internet world and I think that will continue to contribute to their success.

Random fact: Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders was once a staffer.

Q: Launched in 1986 with Paul McCartney on its cover, Q is very much modeled after Rolling Stone, minus the dose of politics. This monthly magazine really brought higher standards of photography, production and writing to music magazines. Mostly devoted to interviews with artists, Q boasts that they have “The World’s Biggest and Best Music Guide”, featuring reviews of new and reissued releases, along pieces on live shows, books, television and radio programs and movies.

Q also shows a bit of good old British cheek with their “spine messages”. On the spine of the magazine are words or phrases and readers try to figure out how the message relates to what is inside. To date, I have never been able to figure it out – maybe I need to try harder.

The magazine is also known for compiling lists (ie 100 Greatest Albums or 100 Greatest Singers) more than necessary. While seeing the 100 Greatest… every year is a bit annoying, it is fun to see how the lists change and how what is currently popular influences that listing.

I have been a reader of Q for many years now. I find it to be a fantastic magazine, even tho recently it goes thru changes and redesigns more often than not.

Mojo: Now, I find this magazine to be the most quirky out of the three. Started in 1993, its main focus is on classic rock and rock’n roll history, which is why I read Mojo. But while it has one foot in the past, its other foot is firmly in the future with features and reviews on new and indie acts. Each month the magazine comes with a CD related to an article or that month’s theme, another great way to discover new music.

If you want to stay on top of music news or discover new acts, I really recommend checking out any of these magazines. Since we are across the pond, these magazines are a bit pricey, costing up to $10 a piece (I know, but my Anglophile music loving ways know no boundaries.) and can be found at major booksellers.

Anglophile in Exile: Inside the Pages of British Music Magazines is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I came across this really cool video earlier today. Did you know that the largest printing plant in the world is in England?

News International, the media conglomerate owned by billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch, operates this massive plant in the London suburb of Wapping. This plant churns out the notable titles of The Times of London, the Sun and the News of the World, amongst others.

From the blog post I found:

This new Rupert Murdoch-owned printing plant is the largest printing plant in the world so you can only imagine the huge volumes of ink cartridges they get through. It’s able to easily accommodate the printing for all four of the newspapers that fall under the News International brand and still have plenty more room for additional printing. It’s large enough to fit over twenty football stadiums inside of its walls. What’s really interesting about this is that the large size is made up mostly of machines since this is a highly-automated printing plant that requires very little in the way of human labour.

Also check out this really cool video from the Times of London detailing the whole printing process. Very cool.

Read about the rest of the World’s Coolest Printing Plants on Geekabout.com

P.S. This is post #100 on Anglotopia – Wow!

Inside the Largest Printing Plant in the World is a post from: Anglotopia.net

The Anglophile Link Directory is one of the most traffic pages on the site, but it’s still not very full of links.

Anyone can submit links to the directory and it’s not hard at all.

Let’s make this directory the best and only Anglophile link directory out there!

So, please dust off those old bookmarks and submit them! I know you all have your own treasured sources of Anglophile goodness, so why not share them? You can submit any relevant links and I’ll approve them. If you don’t see a category and you have sites for it, let me know and I’ll add the category.

You can visit the Anglophile Link Directory Here.

Thanks!

Anglophile Link Directory Hungry For Links! is a post from: Anglotopia.net

If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the British Prime Minister and what he’s up to, you can now follow him on Twitter.

10 Downing Street on Twitter features updates of the Prime Minister’s movements and meetings. It’s pretty fun to follow. Check it out.

Downing Street on Twitter

Follow Downing Street on Twitter is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I don’t know how I didn’t know about this awesome little gem. It’s called the Union Jack and it’s America’s only regularly published British newspaper for Anglophiles and British Expatriates. 

It’s been around since 1982 and they provide a montly newspaper that summarizes the big news in the UK, has Brit TV and Soap Reports, messages from across the pond and best of all – advertisements for British Shops in the US. It’s a fantastic resource for Anglophile stuff.

Best of all, you can read it all online, if you can’t swing a subscrption. Every month, they post .PDF files of the current issue for you to read. It’s brilliant. They claim to have over 200,000 readers – which is bloody brilliant!

My only criticism is that they’re website is stuck in the 1990′s. There are much better ways to manage content and run a news site than the old fashioned way they are doing it. I could make them a much nicer and useful site, maximized for ad revenue based on Drupal or WordPress. For example, they would do well to have an article archive instead of the current way they have articles posted. Archives are great for SEO and ad revenue.

It would be my dream to write an Anglophile related column for them! If you’re interested in a subscription, it’s only $35/year in the US.

Check out the Union Jack News – British Newspaper.

Union Jack – Newspaper for Anglophiles and Ex-pats is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Jim Hacker from the classic British Comedy “Yes, Minister” said it best when talking about the differences between the popular British newspapers:

Update April 14th, 2009 – The BBC has removed the above video and reposted it here. It’s worth a watch! Very funny!

So, humor aside, if you’re an Anglophile, you need to pick a favorite paper. I used to love them all, but as I’ve become more familiar with England, I’ve hardened in my choices and prefer a certain few.

What are our choices?

The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a broadsheet newspaper that was founded in 1855. It’s one of the few broadsheet newspapers left. It has a sister paper, The Sunday Telegraph that was founded in 1961. According to recent reports, the Telegraph is the highest selling British quality paper.

The Daily Telegraph takes a politically conservative slant and is popular with that audience. Oddly enough the links between the paper’s editors and the leadership of the Conservative Party lead the paper to sometimes be called the Torygraph.

The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday

The Daily Mail is a tabloid style British newspaper. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom’s second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982. The Daily Mail was Britain’s first daily newspaper aimed at the ‘middle-market’ and is known to sell a million copies a day.

According to the Wikipedia:

The Daily Mail considers itself to be the voice of Middle England speaking up for conservative values against what it sees as a liberal establishment. It generally takes an anti-EU, anti-mass immigration, anti-abortion view, based around what it describes as “traditional values”, and is correspondingly pro-family, pro-capitalism (though not always supportive of its aftereffects), and pro-monarchy, as well as, in some cases, advocating stricter punishments for crime. It also often calls for lower levels of taxation. The paper is generally critical of the BBC, which it argues is biased to the left.

The Daily Mail is a bit of a joke in many realms, because it takes itself rather seriously while reporting on sensationalist, sometimes absurd stories. They wear their conservative values on their sleeves and have to qualms about it. It’s fun to read though and is usually good for a laugh.

The Daily Mirror

The Daily Mirror is a British tabloid newspaper founded in 1903. It’s commonly referred to as The Mirror. It is the only UK national daily to have consistently supported the Labour Party at each General Election since 1945.

It’s not really a ‘serious’ newspaper, it reports on many of the same stories as the other tabloids, but it is just that a tabloid newspaper.

The Times and The Sunday Times

The Times is a daily national newspaper published that has been published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was then known as The Daily Universal Register.

The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International – which is owned by Rubert Murdoch. It’s traditionally a centre-right newspaper and a supporter of the Conservatives but it broke with that and supported the Labour party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections.

The Times is the original “Times” newspaper, lending its name to many other papers around the world, such as The New York Times, The Times of India, and The Irish Times.

The Times is considered the UK’s ‘newspaper of record,’ The Times is generally seen as a serious publication with high standards of journalism which puts it a few rungs above rag sheets like the Sun or Daily Mail.

The Sun

The Sun is a tabloid daily newspaper and is one of the highest circulating newspapers in the world. Mostly because there are naked boobs on Page Three every day. It’s as tabloid as you get with the Sun. They’ll report garbage and sensationalize stories likes it’s second nature. Did I mention they have naked boobs every day?

It’s always good for a laugh. There is also a Sunday version called “The News of the World.”

The Independent

The Independent is a British compact newspaper It’s nicknamed the Indy, with the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, being the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers. The Independent is politically left-leaning.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of the Independent. It’s one of the few UK Broadsheets still available in the US (at international newsstands), but I never got a liking for it, despite trying.

The Guardian

The Guardian (until 1959, The Manchester Guardian) is published Monday to Saturday in the Berliner format from its London and Manchester headquarters.

There are many stereotypes, but perhaps the most prominent from the Wikipedia article:

is that of the Labour-voting middle-class Guardian reader with centre-left/left-wing politics rooted in the 1960s, working in the public sector or academia, sometimes eating lentils and muesli, living in north London (especially Camden and Islington), wearing sandals, sometimes believing in alternative medicine and natural medicine though more often atheistic or non-religious and rational.

It has been claimed that the majority of university students in the UK who read a newspaper read The Guardian.

The Evening Standard

The Evening Standard is a tabloid-style regional local newspaper published and sold in London and the surrounding areas of southeast England. It is the dominant London local daily paper, with a strong financial emphasis as well as carrying national and international news. It’s been published since 1827.

This is THE paper to read when you are in London. Has excellent local news coverage, TV listings and movie/theater times.

What’s my Favorite British Newspaper?

My personal choice out of all these is the Times, especially the Sunday Times (which, they are technically separate papers entirely). When I’m in London, I love the Evening Standard and buy it every day.

For some reason the Sunday Times is no longer available in most newsstands in my area, so I try to read the electronic version online, every Sunday. I can usually find the Mail on Sunday at my local Borders and pick it up, even if it’s for laughs.

There are many more British newspapers. If I missed your favorite, feel free to post about it in the comments.

Which British Newspaper are You? – A guide to British Newspapers is a post from: Anglotopia.net