US News & World Report quits print ...

Newsweekly going entirely online after its December issue

By Bill Cromwell

For years, U.S. News & World Report trailed after Time and Newsweek as the weakest of the three newsweeklies.

No more. As of December, U.S. News will cease to exist as print magazine, beyond occasional special issues.

Word that the publication was going exclusively online came Friday in a joint staff memo from publisher Bill Holiber and editor Brian Kelly.

“Colleagues, we're finally ready to complete our transition to a predominantly digital publishing model,” says the memo.

“All of us at U.S. News Media Group have been aggressively responding to the changing habits in the media marketplace, and these latest moves will accelerate our ability to grow our online businesses and position ourselves to take advantage of the emerging platforms for distributing information such as the iPad and Android tablets.”

The publication will continue to put out special print editions on themed topics, such as history and religion, as well as its guides on colleges and personal finance and the like, to be sold on newsstands or distributed by other means, not by subscription.

The title is getting out of the subscription site of publishing with its December issue.

It also appears the magazine will be largely exiting the news business, shifting its much-reduced reporting staff to putting out more guides such as those ranking colleges and grad schools.

“Our emphasis on rankings and research content is the right path, making us an essential information source in a commoditized marketplace. We provide information that helps people make important decisions,” reads the memo.

“It's clear from the response of our users that accurate, searchable information is something they value highly. The proof is in the audience. People come to us every day, all day, for information they can’t get anywhere else.”

As the memo suggests, the switch out of print hardly comes as a surprise.

The title switched from a weekly to a monthly two years ago, and it was clear then that owner Mort Zuckerman, who had been losing money on the publication for some years, saw little future for U.S. News as a print publication.

The question then was whether the magazine’s prospects were any greater as primarily an online publication, with so many much bigger sites already dominant in news. The logical course was to expand in the one area where it excelled, guides, and that’s clearly where it is headed.

The memo goes on: “In addition to upgrades in college and hospital rankings, we’ll refine and expand the data and tools that allow consumers to evaluate mutual funds, high schools, cars, online education, health plans and more. Travel is getting ready to come out of beta. Politics & Policy is developing its extensive database allowing citizens to examine the records of every member of Congress and is part of an expanding group of public policy tools.”

It could prove a smart move.

The newsweekly category has been struggling since the onset of the last ad downturn in 2001, along with business titles, and things didn’t get much better when recovery came.

While U.S. News saw the most hurt as the No. 3 title, both Time and Newsweek suffered as well. Ad pages tumbled as advertisers shifted dollars elsewhere, including online.

All three titles began chopping circulation, and continued to do so. U.S. News went from just over 2 million in 2005 to just over 1 million in first-half 2010. Newsweek cut its circulation in half, to 1.6 million, and Time shaved 1 million, down to 3 million.

Earlier this year, Newsweek, also long ailing, was sold for $1 to stereo king Sidney Harman, who’s now pondering how to restore the magazine to profitability.