BusinessWeek on the Block?

by Glynnis MacNicol | 9:13 am, July 13th, 2009

» 1 comment

current_120x160 After what felt like a short springtime respite from the downward spiral of the media world, the bad news has been picking up again of late. Last week Gannett laid off upwards of 1,400 people, late last month Vibe folded, and the NYT.com has announced it may soon start charging for access. Today Bloomberg is reporting that McGraw-Hill may be putting BusinessWeek up for sale. Taken together all this news gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “summer news slump.” Per Bloomberg:

McGraw-Hill Cos. hired Evercore Partners Inc., the boutique investment bank founded by Roger Altman, to sell BusinessWeek magazine, a person close to the situation said.

The person declined to be identified because the information isn’t public. Spokesmen for McGraw-Hill and Evercore, which are both based in New York, declined to comment.

McGraw-Hill, also the owner of the Standard & Poor’s ratings company, is said to be seeking a buyer for BusinessWeek as the recession and competition from the Internet cut into publishers’ advertising sales.

Read the rest here.

Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, State of Journalism

ChrisNH

There’s a certain juicy irony here. Most media people happily cheered Obama into the White House, where he quickly declared war on capitalism and that dreaded ‘private sector.’ So guess what used to fuel all the lost advertising you’re whining about now? Yep. The private sector. Capitalism. Can Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid run enough advertising to help save your jobs? Uhhh…the answer to that would be ‘No.’