Campbell wrote an odd defense of the choice saying that the stories in his magazine are an "analog" for the headlines of tomorrow.

Your guess is as good as mine.

I think it's more of an attempt to make the magazine more acceptable, sort of how Gold took the "science fiction" off of Galaxy for a while, but now it's back. I don't think F&SF was ever hurt much by its lurid name.

Maybe Analog will try to go all slick. Who knows!