The currently biweekly U.S. News & World Report is going monthly. The magazine, which has struggled to compete with its traditional competitors -- Time and Newsweek -- will concentrate on its Web site while using the print edition to embrace its image as the-magazine-that-makes-a-lot-of-lists. WaPo: The shift to the Web site, now attracting about 7 million unique monthly visitors, "allows us to stay ahead of a changing media landscape and do an even better job of motivating our readers to act on the information we provide them," wrote the magazine's President Bill Holiber and editor Brian Kelly. NYT: Sales of U.S. News averaged 1.8 million an issue in the first half of this year, compared with 2.7 million for Newsweek and 3.4 million for Time. The Economist sells almost 750,000 copies, and The Week 500,000.
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/magazines/breaking_us_news_world_report_going_monthly_99571.asp
The first of many is my guess.- AC
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AC, I agree, and I think this will be a case study that will be watched carefully both for the technological changes as well as the business model.
The memo to staff can be seen here.
This move to become a "multi-platform digital publisher of news you can use and analysis" instead of only a print magazine with a decent website was inevitable although it was projected to take effect a little further down the road in 2009. I think the acceleration of the changes reflects both the willingness and the necessity to react much more quickly to the trends than a major publication would have been able to do in the past. It is a reflection of the times in that the tools of social networking challenging journalism are also the tools that will enable US News to respond quickly and to increase viewership. As the memo says,"For all of you who have worked so hard to make this transition possible, say good-bye to Web 2.0 and welcome to Journalism 5.0... This new model allows us to focus even more energy on our online audience and revenue growth which... has gone from strong to phenomenal in the second half of the year." The new model is clearly evident in the re-structuring of the staff with the creation of "a dedicated interdisciplinary team (that) will be charged with producing even more targeted consumer products, including special reports, daily news updates, blogs, newsletters, rankings, guides and videos, as well as developing lead generation businesses and partnerships."
It going to be interesting to see how it plays out, something I am watching as part of my class assignment monitoring the US News website.
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