Consumer Reports
 |
|
Consumer Reports cover dated
November 2016 |
|
| Editor-in-Chief | Diane Salvatore |
|---|---|
| Categories | Consumer advocacy |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Circulation | 3,800,000 |
| Publisher | Consumer Reports |
| First issue | January 1936 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Website | www |
| ISSN | 0010-7174 |
Consumer Reports is an American magazine published since 1936 by Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization dedicated to unbiased product testing, consumer-oriented research, public education, and advocacy. Consumer Reports publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory and survey research center. The magazine accepts no advertising, pays for all the products it tests, and, as a nonprofit organization has no shareholders. It also publishes general and targeted product/service buying guides. As of April 2016[update] it had approximately 7 million subscribers (3.8 million print and 3.2 million digital) and an annual testing budget of approximately US$25 million.
Consumer Reports is well known for its policies on editorial independence, which it says are to "maintain our independence and impartiality... [so that] CU has no agenda other than the interests of consumers."CR has unusually strict requirements and sometimes has taken extraordinary steps; for example it declined to renew a car dealership's bulk subscription because of "the appearance of an impropriety".
Consumer Reports does not allow outside advertising in the magazine but its website has retailers' advertisements. Consumer Reports states that PriceGrabber places the ads and pays a percentage of referral fees to CR, who has no direct relationship with the retailers.Consumer Reports publishes reviews of its business partner and recommends it in at least one case.CR had a similar relationship with BizRate at one time and has had relationships with other companies including Amazon.com,Yahoo!,The Wall Street Journal; The Washington Post; BillShrink; and Decide.com.CR also accepts grants from other organizations, and at least one high-ranking Consumer Reports employee has gone on to work for a company he evaluated.
CR also forbids the use of its reviews for selling products; for example, it will not allow a manufacturer to advertise a positive review.CR has gone to court to enforce that rule.
...
Wikipedia