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From our president

Consumer Reports Magazine: January 2012

This monthly letter to subscribers from Consumer Reports President Jim Guest highlights the critical consumer issues behind our current reports. See archived letters.

Home improvements

This new year brings with it a few changes:

Who. The parent organization and publisher of Consumer Reports has been, for 75 years, Consumers Union.

But we’re much better known as Consumer Reports, with more than 80 percent of adults in the U.S. aware of it, so we’ve decided to make the change official; we’ll use that as our organization’s name from now on. We’ll continue our advocacy efforts as Consumers Union, which is widely recognized and respected by policy makers at the federal and state levels.

Where. In May 2007, after we withdrew an article on infant car seats that was based on erroneous crash-test data, we said we’d tell you whenever we use an outside lab. We use other labs for a small portion of tests. Over the past five years, we’ve enhanced our quality control so that oversight of the testing—wherever it is taking place—adheres to our high standards of rigor and accuracy. For that reason, moving forward, we’ll tell you when we use an outside lab only when we believe it gives important context—and save the space for information that is more directly useful to you.

How. Digitally! The Consumer Reports Magazine iPad Edition app on iTunes is now available at no extra cost for Consumer Reports magazine subscribers. Just download the free app and follow the instructions. Anyone else can buy single issues or a discounted subscription. And look for digital editions of our magazines on Barnesandnoble.com, Zinio.com, and soon on Amazon.com. We’ve launched four new product-category apps for Android and iPhone platforms, and Hospital Ratings and Eco-Labels apps for the iPhone. Happy mobile New Year.

Jim Guest

President