Monocle Magazine
 

Often buy this when I see it at the airport before longer flights. I get the impression that the magazine wants to appeal to FT community. Do we have any readers here?

Sometimes it has some very interesting articles but sometimes it's so pompous it's unreal, like it was made purely for hipsters with money. It has an unhealthy obsession with all things Japanese and as a result everything Japanese is somehow better. That liveable city list really irritates me, I haven't spent a huge amount of time in Tokyo but how you can rate it as the top is just laughable.

Yet it does write about things which don't see in mainstream media anymore, just needs to takes itself a bit less seriously IMHO.

I was interviewed for Monocle a few years ago when I was running Mogadishu Airport. I found the contributing journalists probably among the most professional and knowledgeable of any that I dealt with during my time in Somalia. For example, I did an interview with CNN the same week as the Monocle guys and it was night and day. CNN wanted quick quotes and something to support a story whose purpose they already seemed to have mapped out, while Monocle actually wanted to understand what was going on and then write the story.

That said, when I got my free copy of the magazine a couple months later, I found most of the other articles to be contrary to my tastes. Never bought a copy.

https://monocle.com/film/affairs/mogadishu-take-off/
https://monocle.com/magazine/issues/...o-67-take-off/

I was first drawn to monocle because an airplane article and found it more interesting and dare I say actual journalism. But yes I do see the Hipster pomposity.

I was just flipping through the 2 (or 3?) magazines they have out for the summer and it looks greatly filled with airplane info. But the 13€ price tag brought out the Dutch cheapness in me and left it on the shelf. :(

Subscribed for a year. Not worth the outlay.

A local café has a subscription so now I can read it for free anyway! Not that I ever really bother to do so.

it's just recycled garbage about how they would design a hypothetical artisanal cold brew cafe in helsinki/oslo/geneva/singapore and how NRT's airport planning compares to HKG

Considering that I've never heard of this publication and that my first thought upon seeing the title was the hope that its tagline was "And you must be the Monopoly guy!" - I'm not in the target demo.

I've always enjoyed Tyler Brulee's column in the FT and that has driven me to buy Monocle occasionally - indeed I have the July/August issue on my coffee table in California right now. I love their travel guides to HKG and NYC - they significantly improved recent visits.

But I really did not like him when I heard him present at a book signing at Daunts in London - he came across as smug and arrogant.

Incidentally the price is €12 not €13, but it's only £7.

Does Tyler brulé ever actually write anything in FT?

I thought he used each column as a blog to scribble about how he had flown last week from LHR/MAD/CDG to JFK/FCO/CPH in J/F and marveled at the refined décor boutique clothiers offered at each location

It was good but it became a bit formulaic, trying to be a bit too cool. I have to admit I just gave up on it

That's how he comes across in print, too!

My sentiment exactly, he comes across smug and arrogant in print and I thought he would be better in person.... perhaps not.

Some of his FT articles make some good points/observation but he can be so haughty it's ridiculous. I sometimes think it's a joke but I'm not sure.

I also think the magazine is almost completely devoid of all humour.

I think it is an interesting magazine if you like design with a global emphasis, but I mainly picked it up because it was free here or there - I think I first got it in some airport lounges, and it did seem to have a lot of advertising from the airlines. But I haven't seen it in a long time, in a lounge or at an airport bookstore.

Of the FT column, I just remember some person wrote in to ask which UA business class flights would be worth taking on a trip to Asia. The answer was essentially "none". I get that, but at the same time, some of us have to fly US carriers sometimes for cost reasons, the 787s are not bad when working, and there are also a lot of worse carriers in Asia, so I thought that pretty snobby.

The correspondence section of the FT had a period of conjecture as to whether he was fictional and the column was a spoof.

I really love Monocle, although I rarely have time to read the whole thing. It is a great airline read, except I usually have to lug it back home because I don't want to toss it. Monocle is really one of the most international publications out there with offbeat articles that you never knew you were interested in...such as airport operations in Mogadishu (see above). Monocle and the FT are really in another universe of excellence in publications IMHO.

The Tokyo occasionally inhabited by Mr Brulee is a narrow strip between Harajuku and Ginza, which is quite pleasant in its own way.

The rest is a bit of a mix depending where you are - it can be liveable (like the area around Chez Planesquid, hey we have a field opposite our house, and we're in Tokyo proper) but I wouldn't give it a generic rating of excellent.