My Relationship With U.S. News & World Report Comes To An End

This is a sad closing of a chapter in my life.  For approximately the last twenty years, I have been a subscriber and regular reader of U.S. News & World Report.  My history reading the magazine dates back to the 1980s.  Ronald Reagan was President, and I was just getting interested in politics and current events.  My grandfather was a subscriber to U.S. News and through him, I was introduced to the publication.

My grandfather purchased a student subscription for me while I was still in grade school, and I have maintained a subscription to the magazine ever since.  About 10 years ago, my grandfather passed away, and I have missed him since.  Through reading the magazine, I fondly look back on times when he and I would have conversations about hot topics of the day.  Back then it was Republican vs. Democrat priorities on spending, deficits, and defense issues that we discussed most often.  Although times and details have changed, the main issues are still the main issues.

During the last year, the magazine has stopped publishing on a weekly basis, opting instead to publish every two weeks instead.  This has annoyed me, because I purchased a three year subscription, and feel a bit ripped off about not getting the number of issues I thought I would get.  As luck would have it, this is the final year of my subscription.  I have been getting renewal notices in the mail, but have not renewed yet.  After reading what is taking place at the magazine now, I will not be renewing my subscription.

Following the lead of the Christian Science Monitor, U.S. News will cease publication of its magazine as we know it.  Instead, they will focus on their website.  The paper edition will not disappear entirely.  The company intends to issue a paper publication once a month, with an emphasis not on news, but on consumer issues.  You probably have seen their rankings of best colleges, hospitals, etc.  This is the only information that will continue to get published in their magazine format.

Technology and news information dissemination has changed a great deal from the days of my youth.  (I am an ancient 33 years old.)  In my younger days, (listen up whipper-snappers!), we had only 3 major networks for news.  4 if you count CBS.  Newspapers had more than just the AP for their newswires to choose from.  There was no internet, a fax machine was an exotic new machine only businesses could afford, and cell phones were something you saw on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”.  A brand new format came to A.M. radio, with some guy named Rush Limbaugh starting to upset the establishment media.  At this time, less than 5% of Americans had even heard of him.  Popular sizes for satellite dishes were 8 feet across, or if you wanted something more compact: 6 feet across.  My family could afford neither.  Although, we did have 27 channels on our cable system.  There was no remote control, you had to turn a dial on the cable box!

Not only do we now have multiple cable news networks, we have numerous internet websites putting out news as well.  Wireless laptops and phones can access this information at any time, day or night.  In this climate, U.S. News has decided to go electronic.  While I can not blame them for making this decision, it still saddens me.  A regular link to my past with my grandfather is being severed.

See this article for more information: U.S. News & World Report to focus on Web