US News rolls out digital weekly

U.S. News & World Report, the number 3 newsweekly in the U.S. has struggled recently, reducing its frequency to monthly and moving steadily towards more and more focussed special issues such as health and education.

Now, in what is described as a "soft launch", it has published a paid digital weekly that returns to "news" roots and is very Washington-centric, according to a column by Jeff Bercovici in Portfolio. It is probably not coincidental that this is happening as the Obama administration is shaking the U.S. capitol by the scruff of the neck.

"We're creating a tailored product for readers that does what the old newsweeklies did, which was to stop time for people and say 'What the heck happened over the last week?' and make sense of it," says editor Brian Kelly.

The digital edition is in pdf format, laid out like a magazine, with a cover and contents page. Since there is not expected to be a lot of advertising support, it cost non-US News subscribers $19.95 a year; subscribers can download it for free. "I don't think the newsweekly concept's outdated," says Kelly.

"I think it's the delivery method that's outdated. To produce a great report, close the magazine on Thursday night and then readers don't get it until Monday -- that's insane."