U.S. News & World Report - Publication History

Publication History

United States News was founded in 1933 by David Lawrence (1888–1973), who also started World Report in 1946. The two magazines initially covered national and international news separately, but Lawrence merged them into U.S.News & World Report in 1948 and subsequently sold the magazine to his employees. In 1984, it was purchased by Mortimer Zuckerman, who is also the owner of the New York Daily News.

The editorial staff of U.S. News & World Report is based in Washington, D.C., but the magazine is owned by U.S.News & World Report, L.P., a privately held company based in the Daily News building in New York City.

Historically, the magazine has tended to be slightly more conservative than its two primary competitors, Time and Newsweek. It also eschews sports, entertainment and celebrity news.

In 1995, its web site, 'usnews.com' was launched providing access to all articles from the print edition.

In 2007, U.S. News published its list of the nation's best high schools for the first time. Its ranking methodology includes state test scores and the success of poor and minority students on these exams, and schools' performance in Advanced Placement tests.

In June 2008, citing the decline in overall magazine circulation and advertising, "U.S.News & World Report" announced that it will become a biweekly publication, starting January 2009. It hoped advertisers would be attracted to the schedule, which allowed ads to stay on newsstands a week longer. However, five months later the magazine changed its frequency again, becoming monthly.

In August 2008, U.S. News expanded and revamped its online opinion section. The new version of the opinion page included daily new op-ed content as well as the new Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

An internal memo was sent on November 5, 2010 to the staff of the magazine informing them that the "December issue will be our last print monthly sent to subscribers, whose remaining print and digital replica subscriptions will be filled by other publishers." The memo went on to say that the publication would be moving to a primarily digital format but that it would continue to print special issues such as "the college and grad guides, as well as hospital and personal finance guides."