Media Link-ed - The Sale of Business Week: Yesterday's News? - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBlogger

In all the coverage of the decision to put Business Week up for sale a good deal of the focus has been on who Bloomberg ThompsonReuters if anyone will buy the 80 yearold weekly chronicle of business activity in the US and around the globe Interestingly many say that Business Week is the latest victim of the digital era I asked Media LinkIndustry Category Specialist Karl Spangenberg who worked at various magazine companies in general management and advertising sales roles including US News ampamp World Report Time Magazine Business Week and Datamation Magazine what he thinks He told me quotDon39t blame it on the InternetquotKarl continued quotIt took some time to think the unthinkable that McGrawHill would ever consider selling Business Week at all let alone as a distressed property This prospect made for some very unsettling days for me and my peers who grew up in the warm embrace of big brand newsweekly magazine icons like Business Week Time US News and Newsweek Throughout our college and early careers these editors writers and photographers kept us current made us feel smart and gave us confidence As I have reflected over the past few days on the 39unthinkable39 and have moved past denial I recollect the voices of discontent around the newsweekly field 20 years ago newsweeklies are irrelevant at best and headed for oblivion But wait that prediction came during the preInternet daysquotBlaming the demise of Business Week on the Internet with its trillions of ad impressions millions of web sites and creeping ranks of citizen journalism is obvious and convenient Who needs an editor39s point of view when I can give you mine on national health care or value investing But by 1990 the potential yet not impending death of newsweeklies like Business Week was becoming welldefined and was perhaps even inevitable long before the Internet became the news medium of choice for nearly everyone under the age of 30quotThe newsweeklies began to unravel years ago from the same forces that the Internet exponentially liberated an explosion of media options for getting news information and entertainment starting with cable and special interest publishing and expanding to community newspapers and more radio stations For years now the editors at Business Week Time and other weeklies were constantly under attack for not being able to keep up with national broadcast cable and local TV news Their reply and a good one was that the newsweeklies could be relied upon to provide quotinsight and analysisquot that a minutebyminute reportage cycle including newspapers could not deliver In short the newsweeklies provided the quotfirst draft of historyquot on key topics of the day however the other news media were taking note and they began to add analysis to their daily reporting that made the newsweekly claim debatable if not spuriousquotNonetheless the expansion of consumer choice in getting the news even if the Internet had not come along to explode choice even further has been a real threat to Business Week for a long time Throw into this combustible mix a Folio report from the fall of 2008 that the median age of magazine readers has reached 451 meaning essentially that they have failed to capture the imagination of younger readers and top it off with a worldwide recession that has caused an advertising industry depression as well as the Internet and you have some very sick newsweeklies including the revered Business Week And we cannot forget about the punishing economics of print publishing with the ever rising costs of postage paper labor and ink for many yearsquotAt the end of the day newsweekly magazines do not have to die in a digital world Paper and ink do not define editorial excellence or the relationship that exists with readers that advertisers can enjoy through adjacent commercial messaging The magic comes from the journalistic quality insight and guidance that helps consumers stay informed make smart decisions and feel confident Brands like Business Week do have a life in the brave new digital world but it requires a reset on the quothowquot something that few magazine brands have figured out yetquotBusiness Week39s own Sarah Lacy writes 39There39s an obvious option for these magazines Ruthlessly collapse the print and online staffs run everything online as soon as they write it except one or two coverlength longform glossy pieces Those will anchor the print issue rounded out by the best stories from online Then cut the money spent on trying to court new subscribers shifting the entire marketing budget to promote the Web or reallife conferences and branded events You could even use reader comments to flesh the online pieces out more for the print edition driving more engagement in both the print and online versions Voila One publication not two pretending to be one And guess what One publication is a hell of a lot cheaper even if it39s printed on dead trees39quotBusiness Week may not get that chance under McGrawHill ownership and that may be a good thing Consumer magazines do not have a strategic fit with McGrawHill today with its legacy text book division b2b publishing and financial services like Standard ampamp Poor39s In fact McGrawHill probably should have divested itself of Business Week when the going was good Today it is not however it still makes strategic sense cutting the brand loose hopefully to a nextgen publisher that can figure out how to make the editorial voice resonate with an audience that advertisers will value Just like it used to be Just don39t blame the Internet for the Business Week fall Let39s hope that McGrawHill can turn it into a graceful dive by letting a consumerfocused digital publisher take it from herequotMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of Media Link LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Michael Kassan MediaBizBlogger

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Media Link-ed - The Sale of Business Week: Yesterday's News? - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBlogger

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