PASSINGS : John H. Sweet; Former Magazine Executive

John H. Sweet, 81, former chairman and president of U.S. News & World Report. He became chairman and the firm’s chief executive in 1973, retired in 1981 but continued as chairman until 1982, the magazine’s 50th anniversary. Sweet first came to Washington in 1946 as circulation manager for World Report, a weekly magazine covering foreign news. When that was merged with its parent publication, U.S. News, in 1948, he became circulation manager of the combined weekly magazine. He rose to publisher in 1951 and became president of the company in 1958. During his tenure with U.S. News & World Report, its circulation increased from 350,000 to more than 2 million while advertising revenues rose from $3.4 million to $70 million annually. In Washington on Sunday of heart failure.