More news that the publishing industry is coming into the 21st century. US News & World Report, the number three news magazine behind Time and Newsweek has abandoned its print format and will become a Web-based publication.
This decision comes on the heels of the recent announcement by the 100 year old Christian Science Monitor daily newspaper to end its print edition and become the first national newspaper to become entirely Web-based.
"We're accelerating this transformation in response to our rapid growth online where our audience is now about 7 million a month and growing," said US News president and editor Brian Kelly in a memo that announced this decision. The magazine had reportedly been steadily losing readership and advertising for its print format.
The current plan is for the print edition to become strictly "guide" oriented, as in the Best Colleges, the Best Hospitals, to be published once a month. The web version will be a "multi-platform digital publisher of news you can use and analysis."
No mention of lay-offs so hopefully the reporters who wrote for the print edition will now write for the web. It's just one more indication of how Americans are getting their news these days: online and all the time.
As a features writer, I can't help but mourn the loss of full-length features that often had a shelf life of longer than the weekly editions (think doctor's offices). Those were always the stories that held up even when the rest of the news was out of date. And I just don't think that people like reading thoughtful, longer features on-line.
Chalk another one up for sound-bite journalism.
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