• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, March 10, 2005

Over the years, Money magazine has earned props for its thoroughness and insight. It has been cited for its reportorial and analytical vigor, and become a mainstay on the waiting-room tables of ophthalmologists from Concord to Cabo Wabo. The words "warm" and "fuzzy" rarely entered the discussion.

Which is why it's been so disconcerting over the last few months to see the magazine's gradual shift in focus. Its forbidding covers (banker dudes looking slightly more rabid than a pre-kickoff Deacon Jones) have gradually morphed into snuggly-wuggly depictions of happy couples and families. At this pace, kittens will ascend to the throne by October.

Such aesthetic quibbles notwithstanding, the decision to humanize Money appears to have been a smart one. Poring through the April 2005 issue, the first to formalize many of the changes, one is immediately struck by the obvious thought that went into the tonal and design shifts - not to mention the precision with which they're carried out. As opposed to other semi-relaunches, this one seems to have, you know, a point.

Banished are the mag's vast continents of text, with a crisp mix of photos, illustrations (even for columnists, à la the WSJ), and information boxes in their stead. First time through, the effect is almost jarring: Look kids, a sidebar! O happy day, a chart! But it works, neatly encapsulating in graphic form what the "old" Money used to take zillions of words to accomplish. 

Content-wise, where the magazine formerly filled its pages with little besides dry financial how-tos, it now offers an array of items that survey "the areas in which life and money intersect," as managing editor Eric Schurenberg puts it in his editor's note. 

The newly installed "Home" section may not live up to its potential in the April issue - a suggestion about trying to find "bad homes in good suburban neighborhoods" isn't exactly a revelation on par with the denouement of "The Sixth Sense" - but devoting a few spreads to the reader's most valuable asset can't be a bad idea.

Nowhere are the changes more glaring than in Money's first 30 or so pages, in which the plodding "Briefing" has been replaced with the lighter-minded "Start." In the March issue, "Briefing" featured a vaguely fascist take on "Altruism: What's In It For You?"; in April, "Start" leads with a cuddly guide to "Making Time For Time Off." Two different magazines, indeed. 

The features remain uniformly solid, if less elegant than those in Fortune and other business pubs. Give Money points for being ahead of the curve with a handful of contrarian viewpoints: that Social Security isn't on the cusp of implosion, that online grocery shopping isn't a total scam, that the Baby Boomers won't bankrupt every generation that follows. The section has a handful of lemons - "Secrets, Lies and Money" isn't as lurid as its title promises, and its title ain't all that lurid to begin with - but for the most part, it offers a savvy mix of opinion and analysis.

Before the April 2005 issue, I'm not sure I'd ever spent more than 10 minutes with a copy of Money. The combination of being a sports/culture junkie and... uh, what's the opposite of "rich"?... left the magazine about as inaccessible to me as the Mars probe. But I'm pretty much sold on the changes. If you'd written Money off following its 2002-2004 slump, it deserves a second look.