''USA Weekend'' was an American weekend newspaper magazine published from 1953 to 2014. Founded as ''Family Weekly,'' it was purchased in 1985 by the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...

, which turned it into a sister publication to Gannett's flagship newspaper ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' and distributed it in the Sunday editions of participating local newspapers, At its peak, ''USA Weekend'' was the country's second-largest national magazine supplement (behind ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'') and was distributed to more than 800 newspapers nationwide. Gannett ceased publication after the December 28, 2014, issue, citing a decline in print advertising and a company effort to minimize duplicative offerings.

Overview

The publication was incorporated in 1953 as ''Family Weekly'', a weekend magazine intended for distribution with newspapers. By the mid-1980s, it was carried in 362 newspapers nationwide for a total circulation of 12.8 million copies, making it the third-largest weekly magazine in the U.S., ranking behind its main competitor ''Parade'' (owned since 1976 by

Advance Publications Advance Publications, Inc. is a privately held American media company owned by the families of Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the sons of company founder Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. It owns publishing-related companies inc ...

, which would sell it to Athlon Media Group in 2014) and ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

''. The Gannett Company purchased the magazine from CBS, Inc. on February 21, 1985. After the sale was finalized later that spring, Gannett renamed it ''USA Weekend'' and designated 1985 as its founding year for promotional purposes and anniversary observances. Most of the newspapers that Gannett owned soon carried ''USA Weekend'' within their Sunday editions as their default weekend magazine. ''USA Weekend'' focused its articles on social issues, entertainment personalities and

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

, health, food reviews and recipes, and travel. In addition to ''Parade'', ''USA Weekend'' also competed alongside some Sunday magazines published for certain newspapers, such as ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

''. The magazine also provided some newspapers with "Newspaper in Education" classroom guides for use by teachers.

Shutdown

On December 5, 2014, Gannett announced that it would cease publication of ''USA Weekend'' with the December 26–28, 2014, edition and lay off 30 advertising and editorial staffers. The shutdown was reportedly due to mounting distribution costs and a decline in advertising revenue (revenue for Sunday magazines through advertising buys had decreased by 10.9% year-over-year between the first two quarters of 2013 and the first half of 2014. ''USA Weekend'' lost up to $10 million in operating costs during the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years, which in previous years had resulted in the shift from the carrier newspapers paying a licensing fee to Gannett to publishers of these papers receiving a fee from the company for distributing ''USA Weekend'' (a structure that had also affected other syndicated Sunday magazines). As well, the supplement's circulation had declined, shrinking from the mid-2000s high of up to 70 million copies distributed through newsstand sales and home-delivery newspaper subscriptions down to around 18 million in 2014. For its final years of publication, the magazine had relied on writers and columnists from ''USA Today'' to help provide feature content for the magazine, after Gannett laid off several members of ''USA Weekend''s writing staff. The decision to cease publication of the supplement came one year after Gannett began distributing a seven-day-a-week supplement featuring condensed content from ''

'' for syndication to the company's own local newspapers as well as partner newspapers owned by other publishers, with company executives said the supplement's ''Weekend Life'' section provided better content than ''USA Weekend''. The end of ''USA Weekend'' left ''Parade'' as the only weekend newspaper magazine published in the United States. ''Parade'', which had only appeared previously in acquired Gannett newspapers to fulfill contracts with previous owners, has now returned to many Gannett newspapers as a replacement for ''USA Weekend''.

Columns

Columns and contributors featured in ''USA Weekend'' included: * ''CookSmart'' – a recipe column written by Ellie Krieger * ''EatSmart'' – a food column by Jean Carper, focusing on healthy recipes and tips * ''HealthSmart'' – a health information column written by the hosts of '' The Doctors'' * ''MoneySmart'' – a financial advice column written by Sharon Epperson and Walecia Konrad * ''Who's News'' – a column focusing on newsmakers of the past week, written by Lorrie Lynch * ''Wit&Wisdom'' – a feature focusing on humor and insight, written by Terry Stickels Other notable contributors included: *

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...

* Steven V. Roberts * Cokie Roberts *

Tavis Smiley Tavis Smiley (; born September 13, 1964) is an American talk show host and author. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Bunker Hill, Indiana. After attending Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University, he worked durin ...

Make a Difference Day

In 1992, ''USA Weekend''s Make a Difference Day created an annual

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

event, held on the fourth Saturday of October. At the 2013 event, the company gave 14 community groups $10,000 to donate to their local charities.

References

External links

* {{Gannett Lifestyle magazines published in the United States Weekly magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States Former CBS Corporation subsidiaries Gannett publications Magazines established in 1953 Magazines disestablished in 2014 Newspaper supplements Sunday magazines USA Today