Who owns consumer reports magazine

Consumer Reports reached its peak number of subscribers in , when it had nearly 8 million print and digital combined , according to Kelli Halyard, a spokesperson. At present, it has roughly 7 million—3.

This is, by magazine standards, a huge subscription base, but the worrisome news for Consumer Reports is that their demographics skew older: The average print subscriber is 65 years old, and the average digital subscriber is We must right the ship. As for young people, a poll found that Millennials consider online peer reviews to be slightly more trustworthy and memorable than professional ones.

This shift in attitude has taken place despite frequent discoveries of fraud in crowdsourced reviews. The incentive for sellers to cheat is strong. Aware that fraudulent reviews can undermine trust in their platform, companies such as Amazon and Yelp channel resources toward rooting them out. But detection can be difficult, and, at times, Consumer Reports has appeared eager to highlight this weakness. Some popular concepts, such as user-generated reviews, also have been employed successfully and more aggressively by competitors, including, among others, Yelp and Google.

Consumer Reports , owned by nonprofit Consumers Union, has about 7 million subscribers, including 3. Consumer Reports has determined that its charts — listing the scores of various qualities of a product -- were difficult for readers to understand. With social media shares becoming increasingly important, it is simplifying its ratings with easy-to-understand graphics. Starting with the November issue, green will now signify a positive rating instead of red.

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Working for and with You. Founding Consumers Reports. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Consumer Reports is a publication and independent, nonprofit member organization that has evaluated more than 9, consumer products and services since The publication is printed monthly and its buying guides, tests, evaluations, and comparisons are all based on the magazine's own in-house testing.

The organization maintains an office in Washington, D. Consumer Reports tests everything from tech products and automobiles, to food, financial, and health services. The magazine allows no outside advertising, has a strict no-commercial-use policy, and prides itself on being objective. Consumer Reports has a long history dating back to when it was called Consumer's Union Reports. Its first issue had reported on milk, cereal, soap, and stockings. The magazine gave recommendations on which products to buy, and which were not acceptable.

The group, for example, was instrumental in pushing to remove strontium from dairy products in the s that came about from nuclear testing. It also lobbied for the addition of seat belts and other safety items in vehicles. The organization enjoyed growing influence as its circulation and subscription revenue rose for decades until the Internet arrived in the late s. The organization was slow to adapt to the new technology and a period of retrenchment followed.

It wasn't until well into the s when Consumer Reports CR added robust web offerings, though behind a paywall.