Since its founding in 1995, the Bill Kristol–edited Weekly Standard has been the most consistently entertaining, and sane, of the conservative political magazines. But its Web site has sucked — until now. On Monday, the Standard unveiled a redesigned site (www.weeklystandard.com) that its competitors should study.

Some of the innovations aren’t all that innovative. It’s (finally) offering just about the entire magazine online, and posting daily Web-only pieces. What’s truly novel, though, is that the print edition is being posted as a PDF file (you know, those things you open with Adobe Acrobat) on Friday nights, right after it’s been sent to the printer. This feature — available only to subscribers — means you can download the issue to your laptop and take it with you, or print it out. No more being chained to the modem, or waiting three, five, or more days for the magazine to arrive in the mail.

Other publishers, take note.

Issue Date: October 4 - 11, 2001