[dasboth]

Came here to post this. I swapped my daily news reading habit for an Economist subscription (paper only) and have not looked back. The first 1-2 pages will typically summarise the week's news well enough for me not to feel like I've missed out on anything, and the quality of writing and variety of interesting topics is excellent. I also agree with your second point about feeling obligated to read it!

Edit: for some humorous and UK-specific news/investigative journalism/cynicism I can also highly recommend a subscription to the fortnightly Private Eye. It works out at like £1 per copy and is always a fun read.