Under the direction of Senior Editor Barbara Kantrowitz, Focus on Your Family will bring you news and views on everything from early-childhood development to the difficult and often painful choices that face families with aging household members. A look at recent NEWSWEEK covers provides some idea of the range of concerns: “Does Your Child Need a Tutor?” “How to Build a Better Boy,” “Do Parents Matter?” “Home Schooling” and “Tomorrow’s Child.” This week’s issue contains a look at “play therapy,” which gives young children help with the social skills they need to do well in school and other public situations. We also have an interview with the 14-year-old winner of the nation’s most prestigious prize for science students (how does she do it?) and a roundup of Web sites that offer students help on homework. Future editions might include stories on such subjects as selecting a college, avoiding marital trouble and bringing your elderly parents home to live with you. If it affects the relationships within a family, or the stewardship of a home, we’re interested in it and we’ll bring you the very latest reports, findings and opinions.
NEWSWEEK’s commitment to family coverage dates from the 1980s, and since then the magazine has featured stories on such subjects as learning disabilities, childless couples (“No Baby on Board”), the adult children of divorce and the special dilemmas of working mothers. These stories, many of them written by Kantrowitz with Washington Correspondent Pat Wingert, were distinguished not only by their timeliness, their depth of reporting and their stylish presentation but also by their commitment to reader service. Not surprisingly, they also attracted readers in notably large numbers, and for good reason. In this area particularly, NEWSWEEK has always aimed at giving you news with meaning for your own life. Focus on Your Family will carry on that mission. It is an expression of our belief in the corollary of the expression “family values”: value for families.
