.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Dear Mr. Berko:

Dear N.R.:

I have a philosophy about magazine and newspaper subscriptions. Never, never subscribe to a publication that does not have a land address with a ZIP code.

Investor’s Business Daily is one of those “gotcha sucker” publications. IBD is so hard up for subscribers that it even mails free subscriptions to me. Because IBD is fearful of publishing a land address, there are only two methods of communication: (1) a toll-free phone call and (2) the Internet. I tried to cancel my free subscription via phone and I had to wait more than 50 minutes until my call was answered. And I discovered that the IBD phone people either have room-temperature IQs or a vested interest in making certain you do not cancel.

IBD’s publication presents information too long after the fact, and that information is poorly presented as well as too superficial to be useful. It’s a jumbled compendium of sophomoric data seemingly cobbled together to fill white space. Cancel if you can figure out how to do it.

Time and Business Week are excellent magazines. You don’t need both, and I’d advise you to cancel Time. Business Week presents topical, well-written information with enough depth to assist you in making the right decisions.

Barron’s is a must. Its articles are superbly written and unlike the comic book presentations of Kiplinger’s, Money, Worth and Smart Money (cancel all of them), Barron’s is written for the intelligent investor.

Meanwhile, your Global Investor is dry as dust and about as useful.

The Wall Street Journal tries to cover too much with too little and is basically an adult version of IBD. Cancel it.

Fortune is a dynamite publication. Its articles are painstakingly re-searched.

Keep your Forbes subscription.

The Economist may be my favorite. It’s sort of a cross between Business Week, Barron’s and the International Herald Tribune. Its solid reporting is impressive, and its weekly presentation is a compelling compendium of worldwide information that you can take to the bank. I’ve been reading The Economist every week for nearly 30 years.

Value Line is a dynamite publication chock-full of current, important and commanding financial numbers. And management’s interpretation and projections are often on the mark.

Morningstar’s research opinions are better by orders of magnitude than any of the tripe you might get from Merrill, Oppenheimer, etc. The Morningstar people don’t pull punches (like most brokerages do), and I trust their conclusions.

Weisenberger is overkill; drop it.

Standard & Poor’s is getting tired and sloppy. Cancel it and save yourself big bucks.

Lastly, don’t bother listening to Bloomberg on satellite radio. Its content is designed for unsophisticated investors, and its specious advertising smells of filmflam artists and varnished fraud.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, Fla. 33429 or e-mail him at malber@adelphia.net.© Copley News Service