Once the internet started eating magazines, like many other magazines, New Scientist turned into a clickbaity, ad-heavy rag.
It's possible it's improved recently, but many people wrote it off a long time ago, which is probably why you don't hear much about it.
NASA SEXTANT mission demonstrated pulsar navigation to about 10km of error, and should be valid through interstellar space. This parallax method seems not really in the ballpark? Still pretty cool they are able to teach an old dog new tricks given New Horizons launched in 2006!