It's really interesting that two of the (only?) magazines that seem to be doing well are the very intellectually focused Atlantic and Economist right now. Ironically this is a piece in Atlantic about the Economist's success: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/the-news...
Outside of the US, Monocle - http://www.monocle.com/ - is doing very well and is similarly intellectual. It was founded by Tyler Brule, the guy who founded the similarly successful Wallpaper in the 90s. It's like The Economist meets Vanity Fair and describes itself as "a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design." I love it. New York Magazine ran a feature all about it and its model just a week ago: http://nymag.com/news/media/69921/
An even more successful one is Germany's Der Spiegel - they employ about 380 people and run a pretty intellectual ship. They have entire sections of their building dedicated to things like the "fact checking department" and such. Turning a profit with such a large ship either shows how good they are or how loyal Germans are to their flagship magazines..
God yes. I've been a subscriber since about the begining. Tyler has a very no bullshit view on business - real business done well. The first issue had an interview with the CEO of lego, they regularly feature small business and leaders in their video series.
He also has a fantastic eye for style (not surprising), more people should aspire to his level.
The Economist is successful because the content can be useful for professionals. It gives you a great weekly snapshot of geopolitica/global economic events and commentary. So you can expense it to your employer.
I know of a few big global macro hedge fund managers that actually get investment ideas from articles they find in it.
