US News & World Report to drop monthly print mag

[November 06, 2010]  U.S. News & World Report magazine is going to stop sending its monthly print edition to subscribers next year and go mostly online.

Brian Kelly, the magazine's editor, outlined the changes in a memo sent to staff on Friday.

In the memo, Kelly said the December issue will be the last monthly issue sent to subscribers. Monthly print versions will continue to be available at newsstands, and it will continue to publish occasional guides on colleges, history, personal finance and other topics. Its content will continue to be available at USNews.com, which has 9 million visitors a month.

Kelly told The New York Times that the move won't result in more layoffs.

U.S. Media News Group president Bill Holiber said on the magazine's website that the decision "allows us to continue to grow our online business" and take advantage of new distribution platforms.

The company developed a U.S. News Weekly digital magazine last year that it is adapting for Apple Inc.'s iPad and other devices.

Hurt by declining print advertisements and readers' shift to the Web, U.S. News said in June 2008 it would become a biweekly magazine, instead of a weekly; six months later it decided to go monthly.

U.S. News was founded in 1933 and merged with World Report in 1948, and considered itself one of the nation's three major newsweekly magazines alongside Newsweek and Time.

Last month, The Washington Post Co. revealed how much it got for selling Newsweek, a once-prized asset it bought in 1961, to audio equipment magnate Sidney Harman: $1.

[Associated Pressldnauthor

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