U.S. News & World Report

American media company and magazine

  • Washington, D.C., U.S. (editorial staff)
  • New York City, U.S. (advertising, sales)
Key people
  • Eric Gertler
    (CEO)[1]
  • Bill Holiber
    (President)[2]

Dafna Linzner
(Editorial Director)[2]

Products
OwnerU.S. News & World Report, L.P. (Mortimer Zuckerman)Websiteusnews.com

U.S. News & World Report (US NEWS) is an American media company publishing news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. The company was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper U.S. News and international-focused weekly magazine World Report. In 1995, the company launched its website, usnews.com and, in 2010, ceased printing its weekly magazine, publishing only its ranking editions in print.[3][4]

While criticized by the institutions it reviews, the company's rankings of American colleges and universities are widely subscribed to,[5] and influence college application patterns.[6]

History

20th century

Mortimer Zuckerman, who acquired U.S. News & World Report in October 1984

After the closure of United States Daily, which was published between 1926 and 1933, David Lawrence (1888–1973) founded the newspaper United States News in 1933, which was converted to magazine format in 1940.

In 1946, Lawrence founded the magazine World Report. The two magazines covered national and international news separately. In 1948, Lawrence merged them into U.S. News & World Report.[7] He then sold the magazine to his employees. The magazine initially tended to be slightly more conservative than its two primary competitors, Time and Newsweek, focusing more on economic, health, and education stories. It also eschewed sports, entertainment, and celebrity news.[8]

Important milestones in the early history of the magazine include the introduction of the "Washington Whispers" column in 1934, and the "News You Can Use" column in 1952.[9][10] In 1958, the weekly magazine's circulation passed one million reaching two million by 1973.[9]

Since 1983, U.S. News & World Report has been known primarily for its influential ranking and annual reports of colleges and graduate schools, spanning across most fields and subjects. U.S. News & World Report is America's oldest and best-known ranker of academic institutions,[11] and covers the fields of business, law, medicine, engineering, education, social sciences and public affairs, in addition to many other areas.[12] Its print edition consistently has been included in national bestseller lists, augmented by online subscriptions. Additional rankings published by U.S. News & World Report include hospitals, medical specialties, and automobiles.

In October 1984, New York City-based publisher and real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman purchased U.S. News & World Report.[10] Zuckerman had owned the New York Daily News. In 1993, U.S. News & World Report entered the digital world by providing content to CompuServe and in 1995 the website usnews.com was launched.

21st century

In 2001, the website won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online.[13] In 2007, U.S. News & World Report published its first list of the nation's best high schools. Its ranking methodology included state test scores and documented the success of poor and minority students on the exams, and schools' performance in Advanced Placement exams.

Beginning in June 2008, the magazine reduced its publication frequency in three steps. In June 2008, citing a decline overall in magazine circulation and advertising, U.S. News & World Report announced that it would become a biweekly publication, starting in January 2009.[14] 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.[15]

In August 2008, U.S. News expanded and revamped its online opinion section.[16] The new version of the opinion page included daily new op-ed content as well as the new Thomas Jefferson Street blog.[17] An internal memo was sent to the magazine's staff on November 5, 2010, 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."[18] The memo said that the publication would be moving to a primarily digital format but that special issues such as "the college and grad guides, as well as hospital and personal finance guides" would be printed.

Prior to ending physical publication in 2010, U.S. News was generally the third-ranked general United States-based news magazine after Time and Newsweek.[19] A weekly digital magazine, U.S. News Weekly, introduced in January 2009,[20] continued to offer subscription content until it stopped publication at the end of April 2015.[21]

Ownership

The company is owned by U.S. News & World Report, L.P., a privately held company with editorial headquarters in Washington, D.C. and its advertising, sales, and corporate offices in New York City and New Jersey.[9] The company's move to the Web made it possible for U.S. News & World Report to expand its service journalism with the introduction of several consumer-facing rankings products.

By the early 2010s, under the leadership of Brian Kelly, the company had returned to profitability, largely through its list model, adopted in 2009, and the ease with which that transferred to online publishing.[22]

The leadership team includes executive chairman Eric Gertler, president and chief executive officer William Holiber, chief financial officer and chief operating operating officer Neil Maheshwari, and Dafna Linzner, the editorial director. Brian Kelly was the chief content officer from April 2007 to August 2019 and Kim Castro was the chief content officer until 2023. The company is owned by media proprietor Mortimer Zuckerman.

Rankings

Who Runs America?

The first U.S. News & World Report's rankings was its "Who Runs America?" surveys. They were published in the spring annually from 1974 to 1986. The magazine cover for each release featured persons selected by the USN & WR as being the ten most powerful persons in the United States. Each edition of the series listed the president of the United States as the most powerful person, but the #2 position included people like Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (1974),[23] Federal Reserve Chairmen Paul Volcker and Arthur Burns (each listed multiple years), and U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (1979).[24] Most of the top ten each year were government officials; occasionally others were included like TV anchormen Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman David Rockefeller, AFL–CIO leader George Meany, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. The only woman to make the top ten list was First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1980.[25]

In addition to these overall top ten persons, the publication also included top persons in each of several fields, including education, business, finance, journalism, and other areas. The survey was discontinued after its 1986 edition.

Best Colleges

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