I started reading the magazine in college. Utne was the first magazine I ever really enjoyed reading, I suddenly "got it". I would really like to subscribe to this magazine but, they have an automatic renewal policy, and I am personally against anyone taking my money without permission. I also don't subscribe to anything by Rodale Publishing for this reason; Men's Health, Fitness, Prevention, etc.

I ordered a subscription to Utne as a gift for christmas 2006 and, in spite of follow-up, the subscription never started. I don't know where the process broke down between Amazon and others, but I now avoid doing magazine subscriptions via Amazon.

This is not a magazine for the faint of heart, or anyone with anything less than an unshaking liberal view. If you are even remotely conservative, you probably won't enjoy this.

However, if you enjoy a new perspective, or want to see things at a different angle, you just might like this. The magazine takes the best of alternative press-including literature and articles ranging from the political to the romantic and everything in between.

It has a very well-targeted demographic. It aims for slightly older, perhaps middle-aged extreme liberals. That's not to say others won't like it, but that seems to be who it targets. There's a lot of self-improvement involved.

I began reading this in college and a lot didn't apply and there was a lot I really couldn't relate to, but enjoyed reading none the less. It's facinating, and although i'm a lot less liberal and a bit older now-I still look forward to getting a copy in the mail.

...and just a warning, I have had a lot of trouble with their subscription people. I've moved a lot in the last few years and getting it all sorted out with them has been a massive difficulty.

Utne takes on all the right issues, but doesn't deliver the kind of indepth reporting to make it matter. Most articles are short and too tidy. An interview with Alan Ball (creator of Six Feet Under) is a perfect example. Several times in the article you think "hey, they're going to get into something interesting," but each time the interviewer changes the subject before that can happen. Another article with great potential: ten green urban projects. Unfortunately, each project gets a palty 4 lines . . . and there are no links to other sources for follow up. There is great potential at Utne, but it needs to be developed.

It always seems like a holiday when my UTNE arrives. It has never failed to delight me in my long tenure as a subscriber and fan.

Nowadays, with so much of our "news" actually being political spin and hype, with that forced-fed feeling, it is so refreshing to be able to read interesting, tasty, thoroughly satisfying stuff that is not the run-of-the mill, banal, overly celebrity-focused junk. [Hey, I like celebrities just as much as the next guy, but I like to take a break once-in-a-while.] UTNE respects your intelligence. It seems to arrive just on time, every time.

The focus here is on improving one's life and, perhaps, one's corner of the world (or just a corner of a room). Sure, there is a progressive bent to the content (it used to be dubbed "the best of the alternative media"): there's ample pro-environment, pro-organic, pro-diversity, pro-spirituality content here. [Have they made "progressive" a dirty word, too???] I find it consistently conducive to recharging my batteries.

GO FOR IT. YOU WILL BE AMPLY REWARDED. Like entering a fresh, new world every two months. You will likely read it from cover-to-cover.