Newsweek
Newsweek is a weekly
newsmagazine published in
New York City and distributed throughout the
United States and internationally. It is the second-largest weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed
Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence, although both are much larger than the third of America's prominent weeklies,
U.S. News & World Report.
Originally called
News-Week, it was founded by Thomas J.C. Martyn on
February 17,
1933. That issue featured seven
photographs from the week's news on the cover. In
1937,
Malcolm Muir took over as president and editor-in-chief. Muir changed the name to
Newsweek, emphasized more interpretative stories, introduced signed columns, and international editions. Over time it has developed a full spectrum of news-magazine material, from breaking stories and analysis to reviews and commentary. The magazine was bought by the
Washington Post Company in
1961. Newsweek is generally considered the most liberal of the three major newsweeklies, an assertion supported in a recent
UCLA study on media point of view.
[A Measure of Media Bias]Circulation and branches
As of
2003, worldwide circulation is more than 4 million, including 3.1 million in the U.S. It also publishes editions in
Japanese,
Korean,
Polish,
Russian,
Spanish, and
Arabic, as well as an
English language Newsweek International. There is also a radio program,
Newsweek on Air, jointly produced by Newsweek and the Jones Radio Network (previously with the
Associated Press).
Based in
New York City, it had 17 bureaus
as of 2005: 9 in the U.S. in
New York City,
Los Angeles,
Chicago,
Dallas,
Miami,
Washington, D.C.,
Detroit,
Boston and
San Francisco, as well as overseas in
Beijing,
Cape Town,
Jerusalem,
London,
Mexico City,
Moscow,
Paris and
Tokyo.
Guantánamo Bay allegations
In the
May 9,
2005 issue of
Newsweek, an article by reporter
Michael Isikoff stated that interrogators at
Guantanamo Bay "in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a
Qur'an down a toilet." Detainees had earlier made similar complaints but this was the first time a government source had appeared to confirm the story. The news was reported to be a cause of widespread rioting and massive anti-American protests throughout some parts of the
Islamic world (causing at least 15 deaths in
Afghanistan), even though both Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen.
Richard B. Myers and Afghan President
Hamid Karzai stated they did not think the article was related to the rioting. The magazine later revealed that the anonymous source behind the allegation could not confirm that the book-flushing was actually under investigation, and retracted the story under heavy criticism. Similar desecration by U.S. personnel was reportedly confirmed by the U.S. a month later.
Best High Schools in America
Since 1998,
Newsweek has periodically published a national list of high schools under the title "Best High Schools in America".
[The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools] The ranking of public
secondary schools is based on the
Challenge Index method of ranking, which ranks based on the ratio of
Advanced Placement or
International Baccalaureate exams taken by students to the number of graduating students that year, regardless of the scores earned by students or the difficulty in graduating.
Schools with average
SAT scores of above 1300 or average
ACT scores of above 27 are excluded from the list, categorized instead as "Public Elite" High Schools. In
2006, there were 21 Public Elites.
[Newsweek (2006): List of Public Elites]There has been much controversy over this method of choosing the top schools because it only takes into account AP exam scores. This makes it near impossible for a large public school to be listed.
Notable Newsweek regulars include
Eleanor Clift,
Howard Fineman,
Steven Levy,
Anna Quindlen,
George Will,
Fareed Zakaria,
Jonathan Alter, and
Rafal A. Ziemkiewicz (Polish edition).
*
Creighton Lovelace*
Newsweek website*
Newsweek Distance Learning*
The Washington Post Company*
History and Demographics of Newsweek
