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.

U.S. News & World Report is America's oldest and best-known ranker of academic institutions,[10] and covers the fields of business, law, medicine, engineering, education, social sciences and public affairs, in addition to many other areas.

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.

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.

[15] The new version of the opinion page included daily new op-ed content as well as the new Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

[8] 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.

[23] 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 Best Countries rankings are derived from a survey involving close to 17,000 participants from 36 nations, encompassing business executives, educated individuals, and the general populace.

David Reibstein, a professor of marketing, remarked that the Best Countries report underscores the significance of a positive international reputation for nations, as it affects commerce, travel, and economic power.

He emphasized that the perceptions of countries shape their economies via tourism, investment, and trade, which are essential for gross domestic product (GDP).

[40] 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.

Money award winners are derived by combining vehicle price and five-year cost of ownership with the opinion of the automotive press,[44] 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.

[45] 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.

[46] In 2018, the eight categories were: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability, and quality of life.