U.S. News & World Report to Shift Focus to the Web
U.S. News & World Report announced a major strategic shift away from print newsgathering to build its Web business. The move comes as major newsweeklies—like newspapers—face the continuing struggle for relevancy as a growing number of readers are comfortable with getting their news online and elsewhere.
“There’s no point as a news magazine to try to compete with that,” says U.S. News president Bill Holiber. “Rather than to try and chase everything down every week, we’re going to be more selective.” [See related Q+A with Holiber.]
As part of the shift, the magazine is consolidating its print and online sales and marketing staffs into one, though it is unclear how many of the company’s 300-plus staffers will be affected. [See related staff changes in this week's People on the Move column.]
Holiber says that there are no current plans to reduce frequency, and that the magazine added two additional issues this year. He says the investment in online will cost "several million" dollars initially.
U.S. News is also seeking to expand its collection of branded franchises—America’s Best Hospitals, Personal Finance and America’s Best Colleges—through content partnerships with hospitals and universities, including the October launch of America’s Best Health Plans, an online health center at usnews.com and the single-topic America’s Best Leaders issue.
The magazine, at 2,000,000 paid circ the smallest of the Newsweek-Time-U.S. News newsweekly continuum, has, like Time and Newsweek, struggled in a post-election year to maintain 2004’s surge in ad pages. Through August, U.S. News (down 5.4 percent), Newsweek (down 13.2 percent) and Time (down 19.3 percent) have all lost ground in ad pages, according to Publishers Information Bureau figures. U.S. News, though, is the only magazine of the three to show a gain in PIB revenue, up slightly at 3.5 percent.
“I think Time and Newsweek are battling it out, trying to be all things to all people; they want to be big, very, very big,” says Holiber. “U.S. News is not for everybody. There’s a large group of people who want their information in a fact-based way, without having to tell stories: ‘Give me the facts, I’ll decide.’”
-- Folio Magazine
“There’s no point as a news magazine to try to compete with that,” says U.S. News president Bill Holiber. “Rather than to try and chase everything down every week, we’re going to be more selective.” [See related Q+A with Holiber.]
As part of the shift, the magazine is consolidating its print and online sales and marketing staffs into one, though it is unclear how many of the company’s 300-plus staffers will be affected. [See related staff changes in this week's People on the Move column.]
Holiber says that there are no current plans to reduce frequency, and that the magazine added two additional issues this year. He says the investment in online will cost "several million" dollars initially.
U.S. News is also seeking to expand its collection of branded franchises—America’s Best Hospitals, Personal Finance and America’s Best Colleges—through content partnerships with hospitals and universities, including the October launch of America’s Best Health Plans, an online health center at usnews.com and the single-topic America’s Best Leaders issue.
The magazine, at 2,000,000 paid circ the smallest of the Newsweek-Time-U.S. News newsweekly continuum, has, like Time and Newsweek, struggled in a post-election year to maintain 2004’s surge in ad pages. Through August, U.S. News (down 5.4 percent), Newsweek (down 13.2 percent) and Time (down 19.3 percent) have all lost ground in ad pages, according to Publishers Information Bureau figures. U.S. News, though, is the only magazine of the three to show a gain in PIB revenue, up slightly at 3.5 percent.
“I think Time and Newsweek are battling it out, trying to be all things to all people; they want to be big, very, very big,” says Holiber. “U.S. News is not for everybody. There’s a large group of people who want their information in a fact-based way, without having to tell stories: ‘Give me the facts, I’ll decide.’”
-- Folio Magazine
posted by Alex Yefetov @ 9/26/2005 12:11:00 PM
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