The Christian Science Monitor ended its daily print edition. Now the struggling news magazine US News & World Report, which had pulled back from weekly to bi-monthly, has apparently made the decision to publish on a monthly schedule.
According to Mediaweek:
Newsweeklies have been hard hit, along with many magazines, by the current ad downturn; but separately, the category has long suffered from readers’ ongoing migration to the Web for news. So far this year, ad pages at U.S. News tumbled 30.5 percent, to 960, per the Mediaweek Monitor. (The title published 11 fewer issues so far this year versus the comparable year-ago period.)
U.S. News already scaled back dramatically once this year, whacking its rate base to 1.5 million from 2 million while chopping its frequency to 36 issues from 46 issues. At the same time, it has sought to carve out a niche by increasing its focus on service journalism, building on its “Best Colleges” rankings franchise.
U.S. News isn’t alone in rethinking its business model; Newsweek also cut its guaranteed circ this year, by 16 percent to 2.6 million, and under CEO Tom Ascheim is said to be mulling alternative formats for the 75-year-old title, including scrapping its print edition and publishing online only. A year earlier, Time magazine cut its rate base cut 19 percent, to 3.25 million.
Of the three major US newsweeklies, US News is the weakest. This move is probably a prelude to shuttering the print magazine and going online entirely.
Screenwerk 
November 5, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Paper costs have increased this year over last while newsprint costs specifically have reached a 12 year high.
This cost increase combined with continued audience migration to web based information may be a 1 – 2 knockout punch to publishers who serve general audiences.
November 6, 2008 at 6:40 am
Advertising follows audience… the audience is moving towards getting more information online, and the advertising begins to evaporate. Combined with rising costs, the loss of revenue is a deathblow… more prevalent in the smaller B2B press, and sad to see it moving more into the mainstream.