Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports is an American magazine published by Consumers Union, a non-profit organization founded in 1936 by Arthur Kallet, Colston Warne, and others who felt that the established Consumers Research organization was not aggressive enough. According to the magazine's website, it has approximately 4 million subscribers (Consumer Reports website, "Our Mission", 2005), and an annual testing budget of approximately $21 million U.S. (Consumer Reports website, "Consumers Union Shopping and Testing", 2005).

Related Topics:
American - Magazine - Consumers Union - Non-profit organization - 1936 - Arthur Kallet - Colston Warne - Consumers Research

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Consumer Reports is known for publishing accurate reviews and comparisons of consumer products based on results from its in-house testing laboratory. Consumer Reports does not accept advertising nor permit the use of its reviews for selling products. Further, all tested products are purchased at retail by Consumer Reports staff. No free samples are accepted from manufacturers. Consumer Reports tests and ratings of automobiles are highly respected in the automotive industry.

Related Topics:
Laboratory - Automobile

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Consumers Union also publishes ConsumerReports.org. With millions of readers, it has more paid subscribers than any other publication-based Web site. While most of its information comes at a small fee, in 2005, Consumers Union launched Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs which takes publicly available (but hard to digest) studies on pharmaceutical effectiveness and combining it with pricing information in an easy to read format, allowing consumers to at least start with the drug that works on most people and costs the least.

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Consumer Reports should not be confused with Consumers Digest, a for-profit publication which does accept advertisements and allows companies to use its reviews for marketing purposes.

Related Topics:
Consumers Digest - Marketing

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