US News: Goes Monthly; Prepares For Oblivion 5.0

U.S. News & World Report won’t be doing any news reporting now: it has gone monthly, about five months after announcing it would become a bi-weekly. Trying to fight the writing on the wall, the once-weekly newsmagazine has been struggling this year, and in June, cut its frequency to every other week and now this. The mag, owned by the real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman, doesn’t have the luxury of being part of a big media company, unlike Time and Newsweek.

The mag has been moving away from news, and focusing on its forte of online product ratings of colleges, hospitals and other institutions, and consumer reviews. In August, the company mentioned it is getting seven figure revenues from its online college rankings, and recently formed a new U.S. News Media Group, in an effort to develop more franchises beyond the weekly under it.

According to a memo sent internally, “we are organizing our efforts around five key vertical content channels that will operate as self-contained editorial and business units with their own goals for development and growth, and their own dedicated teams

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