Theweekmagazine.com

The companion to the cheap but hard-to-find print version of The Week, Theweekmagazine.com filters major international newspapers and websites to provide a snapshot of the best columns, op-eds, reviews, headlines, and controversies of the past seven days. With a refreshingly balanced, albeit cheeky, perspective, it's a CliffsNotes-style solution to becoming well-informed. -S. Aki Moorman

Themorningnews.org

Everything that newspapers should be but aren't, the Morning News is already an Internet institution — but it still deserves another pat on the back. With wildly eccentric reportage, curious personal essays, thoughtful interviews, and the ever-unhelpful-and-entertaining Nonexpert advice column, the News is nearly as essential as strong coffee for waking up on the right side of bed. -Toby Warner

Themodernist.com

Pervy furniture snobs and other fetishistic aesthetes were thrilled when Jason Mojica and Eric Ottens launched the Modernist in late 2003. Featuring articles on architecture, art, literature, and modernist furniture — along with plenty of photos of naked women on said furniture by the likes of Richard Kern — the online publication is like '60s-era Playboy-meets-Wallpaper-meets-Cabinet. -Annette Ferrara

Musichurts.com

Music Hurts ups the ante for online mags everywhere with its stylish and substantial second issue. Articles on everything from the cult of Cobain to grime MCs' obsession with mini-motorbikes are packaged in a dynamic flash interface. Crucially, many articles also offer a musical bibliography complete with iTunes support. Trainspotting has never been easier on the eyes. -Toby Warner

Thisisamagazine.com

Milan-based art publication This Is a Magazine is revolutionizing online publishing by leaps and bounds. Having recently branched out from Flash-interactive, folio-style issues to experiment with PowerPoint, its latest issue also includes over an hour of mesmerizing QuickTime video "peep shows." Rarely are experimentation and quality so well matched. -Jocelyn K. Glei