THE NEW YORK OBSERVER is edited for smart, savvy New Yorkers everywhere. It covers media, finance, politics, society and the cultural arts, and offers a unique, irreverent perspective on city life via columns, criticism, profiles and features.
With its cheekily grandiose old-style newspaper layout, giant Drew Friedman caricatures, hilarious wedding-cake-tiered headlines, and, of course, its salmon-pink pages, the New York Observer--"New York's Weekly Newspaper"--wears its smirky knowingness on its sleeve. The table of contents carries the bylines of some of the grand old men of New York cultural commentary--Andrew Sarris, Rex Reed, Hilton Kramer--but the Observer's real spirit is in the dishy, you-are-listening-in-on-the-cell-phone coverage of the city's (or at least the borough of Manhattan's) most naked obsessions: real estate, publishing, Wall Street, local politics, and social and financial excess. There you'll find the dogged publicists, the embittered former managing editors, the howling apartment brokers, and the bored teen socialites who make schadenfreude such an exquisite urban pleasure. At its best, the Observer lingers long and unobtrusively enough at the photo shoots and the tiny tables covered with empty martini glasses to make you feel that you are indeed hearing the talk of the town. --Tom Nissley

Customer Rating:
Summary: It's almost like being there...
Comment: For those of us who miss being in the center of the universe, reading the Observer is almost like being there. In its pink pages I can read stories about New York's political, arts, society, finance, sex and gossip scene. I can smell the inside of a taxi from my house overlooking the lake in Vermont.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Insider's Guide to NYC
Comment: If I had to pick one newspaper that captured the drama of NYC it would be the New York Observer. Unlike any newspaper (the New York Times, the Village Voice) or magazine (New York, Time Out NY) the Observer is always on the inside track when it comes to politics, business, theater, fashion, culture, publishing, the arts, real estate and society. This well designed (and illustrated) publication which is printed on a pale orange newsprint will become a welcomed guest to your weekly reading.

If your looking for dry objective facts then this is the wrong publication, however it's personality that makes New York City what it is and the Observer is like having a team of best friends write you a weekly cheat sheet. What's nice is that while the Observer can focus on high society and culture but it never takes itself too seriously and has quite a bit of good humor. There is a high attention to detail so even an article on a community board meeting or a real estate listing can become interesting.

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