Ironically, it was living in THE DAILY BEAST’s fast and furious news cycle for the past two years that revealed to me what a newsmagazine can bring to the table when it’s no longer chasing yesterday’s story. It’s about filling the gaps left when a story has seemingly passed, or resetting the agenda, or coming up with an insight or synthesis that connects the crackling, confusing digital dots. NEWSWEEK’s cover story last week—“Brain Freeze”—made the point exactly: a surfeit of information seizes up the ability to process it. What a magazine can offer readers is a path to understanding, a filter to sift out what’s important, a pause to learn things that the Web has no time to explain, a tool to go back over the things we think we know but can’t make sense of. A magazine allows the reader to play in a different key.

There is a time for the quick zap of news on the Web—and a time for the more interpretative pleasures of the printed page. Both of those rhythms are on display in the new structure of NEWSWEEK. Our front section NewsBeast reflects the fast tempo of Web culture. Omnivore, our new culture section, embraces the contemporary reader’s desire to graze, from a good new book to an exciting travel destination, from a must-see art exhibit to a must-have iPad case.