A little more than a year since Bloomberg LP bought the money-losing Businessweek, the newsweekly is finally integrating with the rest of its parent company.
Bloomberg LP, the media giant founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced the formation of the Bloomberg Media Group, an umbrella sales organization for its TV, radio, digital and print operations including Bloomberg Businesssweek, as it is now called. Paul Bascobert, Businessweek president, was named head of Business Operations for the new group. Bloomberg Markets, which also had been operating separately, is now part of the new group.
Bascobert, 46, will continue to be president of Businessweek, a post he was hired for after the magazine was sold. He’ll report to Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andy Lack, who was CEO of multimedia. The new title is more of a coordinating role, as the heads of the individual media operations will continue to report to Lack.
Bascobert said the goal of the reorganization is to speed up the cross-platform ad sales process. Businessweek’s ad pages were up only slightly last year, and a name and logo change cost it in newsstand sales. But with the magazine’s financial situation improving—first-quarter ad pages are expected to be up 50 percent year over year, and the title is “well ahead of plan” to become profitable within three years of the purchase—Bascobert said, “We think it’s time to join the rest of the group.”
More change is coming. Bascobert said Businessweek is on track to launch an iPad app in April and make changes to its Web site in the second half of the year when a consumer ad campaign also is set to break. “When we get all our products out there, we’re going to tell our story in a pretty loud way,” he said.
The editorial side is unaffected by today’s news. Bloomberg has already made changes to that aspect of the magazine, putting Josh Tyrangiel in charge, cutting head count, moving employees into the Bloomberg headquarters and teaching Businessweek staffers its style guide, known as “The Bloomberg Way.”
