Founded | 1948 | (merger of United States News [1933] and World Report [1946])
---|---|
Headquarters |
|
Key people | |
Products | |
Owner | U.S. News & World Report, L.P. (Mortimer Zuckerman) |
Website | usnews |
U.S. News & World Report (USNWR, US NEWS) is an American media company publishing news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. The company was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper U.S. News and international-focused weekly magazine World Report. In 1995, the company launched its website, usnews.com and, in 2010, ceased printing its weekly magazine, publishing only its ranking editions in print. [3] [4]
After the closure of United States Daily , which was published between 1926 and 1933, David Lawrence (1888–1973) founded the newspaper United States News in 1933, which was converted to magazine format in 1940.
In 1946, Lawrence founded the magazine World Report. The two magazines covered national and international news separately. In 1948, Lawrence merged them into U.S. News & World Report. [5] He then sold the magazine to his employees. The magazine initially tended to be slightly more conservative than its two primary competitors, Time and Newsweek , focusing more on economic, health, and education stories. It also eschewed sports, entertainment, and celebrity news. [6]
Important milestones in the early history of the magazine include the introduction of the "Washington Whispers" column in 1934, and the "News You Can Use" column in 1952. [7] [8] In 1958, the weekly magazine's circulation passed one million reaching two million by 1973. [7]
Since 1983, U.S. News & World Report has been known primarily for its influential ranking and annual reports of colleges and graduate schools, spanning across most fields and subjects. U.S. News & World Report is America's oldest and best-known ranker of academic institutions, [9] and covers the fields of business, law, medicine, engineering, education, social sciences and public affairs, in addition to many other areas. [10] Its print edition consistently has been included in national bestseller lists, augmented by online subscriptions. Additional rankings published by U.S. News & World Report include hospitals, medical specialties, and automobiles.
In October 1984, New York City-based publisher and real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman purchased U.S. News & World Report. [8] Zuckerman had owned the New York Daily News . In 1993, U.S. News & World Report entered the digital world by providing content to CompuServe and in 1995 the website usnews.com was launched.
In 2001, the website won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. [11] In 2007, U.S. News & World Report published its first list of the nation's best high schools. Its ranking methodology included state test scores and documented the success of poor and minority students on the exams, and schools' performance in Advanced Placement exams.
Beginning in June 2008, the magazine reduced its publication frequency in three steps. In June 2008, citing a decline overall in magazine circulation and advertising, U.S. News & World Report announced that it would become a biweekly publication, starting in January 2009. [12] It hoped advertisers would be attracted to the schedule, which allowed ads to stay on newsstands a week longer. However, five months later the magazine changed its frequency again, becoming monthly. [13]
In August 2008, U.S. News expanded and revamped its online opinion section. [14] The new version of the opinion page included daily new op-ed content as well as the new Thomas Jefferson Street blog. [15] An internal memo was sent to the magazine's staff on November 5, 2010, informing them that the "December issue will be our last print monthly sent to subscribers, whose remaining print and digital replica subscriptions will be filled by other publishers." [16] The memo said that the publication would be moving to a primarily digital format but that special issues such as "the college and grad guides, as well as hospital and personal finance guides" would be printed.
Prior to ending physical publication in 2010, U.S. News was generally the third-ranked general United States-based news magazine after Time and Newsweek. [17] A weekly digital magazine, U.S. News Weekly, introduced in January 2009, [18] continued to offer subscription content until it stopped publication at the end of April 2015. [19]
The company is owned by U.S. News & World Report, L.P., a privately held company with editorial headquarters in Washington, D.C. and its advertising, sales, and corporate offices in New York City and New Jersey. [7] The company's move to the Web made it possible for U.S. News & World Report to expand its service journalism with the introduction of several consumer-facing rankings products.
By the early 2010s, under the leadership of Brian Kelly, the company had returned to profitability, largely through its list model, adopted in 2009, and the ease with which that transferred to online publishing. [20]
The leadership team includes executive chairman Eric Gertler, president and chief executive officer William Holiber, chief financial officer and chief operating officer Neil Maheshwari, and Dafna Linzner, the editorial director. Brian Kelly was the chief content officer from April 2007 to August 2019 and Kim Castro was the chief content officer until 2023. The company is owned by media proprietor Mortimer Zuckerman.
The first U.S. News & World Report's rankings was its "Who Runs America?" surveys. They were published in the spring annually from 1974 to 1986. The magazine cover for each release featured persons selected by the USN & WR as being the ten most powerful persons in the United States. Each edition of the series listed the president of the United States as the most powerful person, but the #2 position included people like Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (1974), [21] Federal Reserve Chairmen Paul Volcker and Arthur Burns (each listed multiple years), and U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (1979). [22] Most of the top ten each year were government officials; occasionally others were included like TV anchormen Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman David Rockefeller, AFL–CIO leader George Meany, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. The only woman to make the top ten list was First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1980. [23]
In addition to these overall top ten persons, the publication also included top persons in each of several fields, including education, business, finance, journalism, and other areas. The survey was discontinued after its 1986 edition.
The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking is an annual set of rankings of colleges and universities in the United States, first published in 1983. It has been described as the most influential institutional ranking in the country.
The Best Colleges Rankings have raised significant controversy, and they have been widely denounced by many higher education experts. [24] Detractors argue that they rely on self-reported, sometimes fraudulent data by the institutions, [25] [26] [27] [28] encourage gamesmanship by institutions looking to improve their rank, [29] imply a false precision by deriving an ordinal ranking from questionable data, [30] contribute to the admissions frenzy by unduly highlighting prestige, [31] and ignore individual fit by comparing institutions with widely diverging missions on the same scale. [32]
Columbia University was lowered from second to eighteenth in the 2022 rankings, [33] following a report by Columbia University mathematics professor Michael Thaddeus, which revealed that the administration had misreported data; the remaining "national universities" were not renumbered. [34]In October 2014, U.S. News & World Report published its inaugural "Best Global Universities" rankings. [35] Inside Higher Ed noted that U.S. News was entering into the international college and university rankings area which was "dominated by three major global university rankings", namely the Times Higher Education World University Rankings , the Academic Ranking of World Universities , and the QS World University Rankings . [36] Robert Morse, "U.S. News's chief data strategist," said that "it's natural for U.S. News to get into this space". [36] He said that U.S. News "will also be the first American publisher to enter the global rankings space". [36]
Since 1990, U.S. News & World Report has compiled Best Hospitals rankings. [37] The rankings are specifically based on a different methodology which looks at difficult (high acuity) cases within 16 specialties including cancer; diabetes and endocrinology; ear, nose, and throat; gastroenterology, geriatrics, gynecology; heart and heart surgery; kidney disorders; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology, orthopedics, psychiatry, pulmonology, rehabilitation, rheumatology, and urology. [38] [39] In addition to rankings for each of these specialties, hospitals that excel in many U.S. News areas are ranked in the Honor Roll. [37]
Since 2007, U.S. News has used an innovative ranking system for new and used automobiles. The rankings span over 30 classes of cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, wagons, and sports cars. Each automobile receives an overall score and a performance, interior, and recommendation score rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent on a 1–10 scale. Scores are based on the consensus opinion of America's trusted automotive experts, as well as reliability and safety data. [40] U.S. News also produces annual "Best Cars for the Money" and "Best Cars for Families" awards across approximately 20 classes of cars, trucks, SUVs, and minivans. Money award winners are derived by combining vehicle price and five-year cost of ownership with the opinion of the automotive press, [41] while family awards are tabulated by combining critics' opinions with the vehicle's availability of family-friendly features and interior space, as well as safety and reliability data. Money and family award winners are announced in February and March of each year, respectively. [42]
In 2017, U.S. News published its first ranking of all 50 U.S. states, incorporating metrics in seven categories: health care, education, crime and corrections, infrastructure, opportunity, economy, and government. The weighting of the individual categories in determining overall rank was informed by surveys on what matters most to residents. Massachusetts occupied the top rank, and Louisiana ranked worst. [43]
In 2018, the eight categories were: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability, and quality of life. Iowa was ranked first, and Louisiana ranked worst. [44] In 2019, natural environment replaced the quality of life category. Washington occupied the top rank, and Louisiana ranked worst. [45]
No ranking was published in 2020. In 2021, Washington, Minnesota, and Utah topped the list; New Mexico, Mississippi, and Louisiana were ranked as the worst. [46]
Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was initially affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been coeducational since the 1971–72 academic year. As of 2019, the university had 5,047 undergraduate students and 1,802 graduate students.
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts public university system and has been accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) since 1975. With 1,110 faculty members and over 18,000 students, it is the largest university in the Merrimack Valley and the second-largest public institution in the state. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is a public science and engineering university in Nan'gang, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. It is now affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.
College and university rankings order higher education institutions based on various criteria, with factors differing depending on the specific ranking system. These rankings can be conducted at the national or international level, assessing institutions within a single country, within a specific geographical region, or worldwide. Rankings are typically conducted by magazines, newspapers, websites, governments, or academics.
Baruch College is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates undergraduate and postgraduate programs through the Zicklin School of Business, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.
Quinnipiac University is a private university in Hamden, Connecticut. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. It also hosts the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in the Census-designated place Niagara University, New York, within the Town of Lewiston near Niagara Falls. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has approximately 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Approximately half of the students are residents while the other half commute from the surrounding area. The campus area was listed as a census-designated place in 2020 with a population of 940.
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) is a private research university in Pohang, South Korea.
Syracuse University College of Law (SUCOL) is a Juris Doctor degree-granting law school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. It is one of only four law schools in upstate New York. Syracuse was accredited by the American Bar Association in 1923 and is a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools.
The Paul Merage School of Business is the business school at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). It is one of the university's 14 academic units. The current Dean is Ian O. Williamson. The school confers Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), degrees Master of Accountancy (MPAc) program, Master of Science in Biotechnology Management (MSBTM), Master of Science in Engineering Management (MSEM), and Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration.
The Drexel University College of Computing & Informatics (CCI), formerly the College of Information Science and Technology or iSchool, is one of the primary colleges of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The College of Computing & Informatics has faculty and administrative offices, research laboratories, collaborative learning spaces, and classrooms located at 3675 Market Street Philadelphia, PA. The current dean is Yi Deng.
The Leonard N. Stern School of Business is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. Founded as the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance in 1900, the school received its current name in 1988.
Widener University Delaware Law School is a private law school in Wilmington, Delaware. It is one of two separate ABA-accredited law schools of Widener University. Widener University Law School was founded in 1971 as the Delaware Law School and became affiliated with Widener in 1975. In 1989, it was known as Widener University School of Law when it was combined with the campus in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 2015, the two campuses separated, with the Harrisburg one renamed to Widener University Commonwealth Law School.
Criticism of college and university rankings refers to critiques of various rankings publications among faculty and administrators in institutions of higher education in both the United States and Canada, as well as in media reports.
Education in the US State of Minnesota comes from a number of public and private sources and encompasses pre-Kindergarten to post-secondary levels. Minnesota has a literate and well-educated population; the state ranked 13th on the 2006–07 Morgan Quitno Smartest State Award, and is first in the percentage of residents with at least a high school diploma. But while more than 90% of high school seniors graduated in 2006, about 6% of white, 28% of African American, 30% of Asian American and more than 34% of Hispanic and Native American students dropped out of school. In 2007 Minnesota students earned the highest average score in the nation on the ACT exam. While Minnesota has chosen not to implement school vouchers, it is home to the first charter school, the City Academy High School of Saint Paul.
College and university rankings in the United States order the best U.S. colleges and universities based on factors that vary depending on the ranking. Rankings are typically conducted by magazines, newspapers, websites, governments, or academics. In addition to ranking entire institutions, specific programs, departments, and schools can be ranked. Some rankings consider measures of wealth, excellence in research, selective admissions, and alumni success. There is also much debate about rankings' interpretation, accuracy, and usefulness.
The Virginia Tech College of Engineering is the academic unit that manages engineering research and education at Virginia Tech. The College can trace its origins to 1872, and was formally established in 1903. Today, The College of Engineering is the largest academic unit of Virginia Tech and has 14 departments of study. Its undergraduate program was ranked 4th and its graduate program was ranked 30th among doctoral-granting universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2018. In 2014–15, the College of Engineering consisted of 10,059 students. The current dean is Dr. Julia Ross.
The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking is an annual set of rankings of colleges and universities in the United States, first published in 1983. It has been described as the most influential institutional ranking in the country.
As of 2020, China had the world's second-highest number of top universities in several most cited international rankings including the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities and the Three University Missions Ranking.