Bloomberg "Most Aggressive" Bidder For BusinessWeek
Although BusinessWeek‘s media columnist Jon Fine has already departed for his six-month sabbatical, his publication is still closely tracking its own sale.
Bids for the business magazine were due yesterday to BusinessWeek‘s owner McGraw-Hill, and at least four parties have submitted revised bids, according to Tom Lowry, who has taken over Fine’s “On Media” column:
“Among those submitting revised bids were financial data giant Bloomberg LP, private equity firm Open Gate Capital, and investment firm ZelnickMedia LLC. At least one other bidder, which BusinessWeek was not able to identify, also submitted a bid.”
Although details of the bids are unknown, Lowry said Bloomberg has been “the most aggressive in its pursuit of BusinessWeek.” According to Lowry, Bloomberg’s chief content officer Norm Pearlstine met with various members of the BusinessWeek editorial team last week, including editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, executive editors Ellen Pollock and John Byrne and Ciro Scotti, BusinessWeek‘s managing editor. These meetings discussed topics like the possibility of integrating content from Bloomberg into the magazine and adding more editorial pages to the book, which “suggests Bloomberg might be looking at tinkering with BusinessWeek‘s traditional 60-40 mix of editorial pages to ad pages,” Lowry said.
Right now, it’s all speculation. The sales process is just at the beginning, but we’re bound to learn more as it progresses. But a successful media company like Bloomberg taking over the reins of a struggling pub like BusinessWeek certainly seems promising, even if the editorial mix of the mag may change in the future. If BusinessWeek survives in any form, and jobs are saved, it’s better than the fate suffered by other magazines, like Portfolio.
BusinessWeek Accepts Revised Bids From Potential Buyers —BusinessWeek
Earlier: Getting The Skinny On The BusinessWeek Deal As Bid Deadline Looms
