U.S. News weekly to become biweekly

The traditional newsweeklies have had to adapt or die and have adapted. Maclean's, Time and Newsweek have changed their emphasis to current affairs and analysis and more feature treatments while retaining their weekly frequency.

But according to a story in Media Life, U.S. News and World Report, traditionally the distant no. 3 U.S. newsweekly, is addressing declining revenue and sales by cutting its frequency.

Starting sometime next year, USN&WR will go to a biweekly schedule and leaning more heavily on its college and other kinds of rankings to keep market share.

Over recent years, the magazine has suffered through a series of budget cuts on the print side, but owner Mortimer Zuckerman has been far less willing to invest in the online side than either Time or Newsweek. And as a result the site's growth has not kept up with that of either Time or Newsweek.

In terms of ad pages, the print edition of U.S. News saw a decline of 37.5 percent over the first three months of 2008, according to Publishers Information Bureau.

The move to biweekly had been expected for some time; the magazine had moved in that direction by publishing a number of "double" issues.

Just a few years back, it published just two double issues per year, for a total of 50. That figure crept up to a half-dozen during the last ad recession earlier in the decade. This year the magazine is set to run 16 double issues, for a total of just 36 issues for the year.