I also have no sympathy for the magazines, they really do need to improve the quality of articles.
I find that the trip reports focus heavily on the 'how the experience felt' and about the airfields, but really doesn't go into enough background about the planning and operational aspect of the flight. As a lesser experienced pilot, I enjoy some of the US magazine articles which go into quite a lot of depth, talking about the planning, procedures and approaches. They seem to be designed to be more intellectual, and less a few photos and how the coffee tasted.
I just hope that the magazines are listening...