Will the Columbia-Stanford Announcement Start a Bi-coastal Trend?

Today’s announcement that editor and author Helen Gurley Brown is spending $30 million to establish a Media Innovation Institute linking Stanford Engineering with Columbia Journalism is interesting in several ways
   

1. Stanford and Columbia each lost out to Cornell, which teamed with an Israeli school, in the recent contest to build a high caliber engineering campus in New York City.  Should Stanford and Columbia have teamed in an effort to outbid Cornell? 
2. In the announcement, Helen Gurley Brown says, “It’s time for two great American institutions on the East and West Coasts to build a bridge.” How much bi-coastal cooperation now exists among major universities?  Will that be a future trend?
3. Both Helen and David were publishing types, with David being a Columbia J-School grad.  What and/or who stimulated the Brown’s interest in journalism about engineering?  Or is this more about the engineering of journalism?  

For more about the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, see the joint Columbia-Stanford announcement.

-- Jeff Bogart

Are "Emerging-Market Households" Replacing America's "Baby Boomers" ?

Marketers and other social scientists may soon be spending as much time analyzing the habits of a new group of consumers as they did America's baby boomers.  The new group is the consumers of emerging nations--huge in size, huge in its potential expenditures on goods and services, and huge in its potential influence on societal values.  This group will take on increasing importance as the American baby boomers decline in numbers, the subsequent generations decline in wealth, and the American economy matures and wanes in relative importance.

That proposition results from my having read an interesting recent article in the McKinsey Quarterly on "How the role of equities may shrink."  It is subtitled "A powerful new class of investors in emerging markets prefers other kinds of assets."  The article, reporting on a new McKinsey Global Institute study, says:

As emerging-market households attain a level of income that enables them to purchase financial assets, they are becoming a powerful new investor class, whose choices will help determine global demand for different asset classes. The actions of these new investors will, in turn, shape how businesses obtain the capital they need to grow, how other investors around the world fare, and how stable and resilient economies will be.

The same approach apparently used in this study-identifying and analyzing a spending category-seems applicable to facets other than the investment preferences of consumers in emerging markets.  Although there would seem to be no single, monolithic "emerging market household," it will be interesting to see whether and how observers come up with overarching similarities and then differentiate among various national economies and social groups when it comes to spending and psychographic categories. 

-- Jeff Bogart

About Photography

Charlie, a professional photographer I play tennis with, tells me that these days it costs as much as $10 to have an 8x10 inch black and white print made from film by a custom lab, whereas it costs only about $3 for a color print.  Wow!  What a reversal.  I remember when it used to cost $3 for an 8x10 black and white print at places like Modern Age and Image in New York City, whereas it cost about $10 for a color print from Kodak.  But, maybe black and white should always have been more expensive.  After all, a black and white photo, carefully composed and with equisite tonalities, has greater expressive power than does a color photo.  Right?

-- Jeff Bogart

Remembering Al

On a weekend visit to the Berkshires last month, I learned that Al Schwartz had died in September.  I hadn’t seen him in years, but I was saddened by the news.  His legacy, as recounted in local tributes, was to have revived the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington as a performing stage.  But I knew Al in the 1970s when he first came to the Berkshires, a University of Hawaii grad who had exited early from a business career in New York’s garment district.  He rented 10-acres on Route 22 in Hillsdale, N.Y., and tried to make a go of it as a tenant farmer.  In summers he rented out shares in the two-story farmhouse, which is how I met him and Tyler, his Weimaraner dog, aka affectionately by Al as  “the hound.”  Al’s farming included, among other things, rabbits, sheep, purple beans, and grapes (from which he produced home-made wine that made you appreciate the real thing). 

 

Al introduced me to the Berkshires, including places like Morandi’s Restaurant and smokehouse in Hillsdale where you could get such delicacies as center cut pork chops, corn relish and smoked cheese.  We would also hit several singles bars, including one on Route 23 near Catamount and one on Railroad Street in Great Barrington before the street’s transformation into shops and eating places.  And there was also the Great Barrington Fair, where you could get ears of local corn plucked from large vats of boiling water, look at local livestock brought for judging, and lean against a white railing and watch as horses raced by.  I introduced him to Aston Magna when the early music festival and school first got going, located at that time in a magnificent home on a hill overlooking the surrounding countryside.  

It was probably in the late 1970s that Al began working as the manager of the Mahaiwe, which was then a worn out movie theater.  He gave me a back-stage tour and described his vision of bringing back live performances.  He noted how difficult it was to get distributors to give him really good films to show but added that he was not going to stop trying. 

 

Photos of Al posted on the web after his death showed that he had put on weight since his farming days, but he still seemed to have the same boyish face and enthusiasm.  If you want to know more about Al, you can find a tribute and photos by clicking here . 

My memories of the Berkshires won’t be the same without him. 

-- Jeff Bogart

 

A Rose in Bloom

The New York Times reported earlier this month that interviewer Charlie Rose, a mainstay of public television, will become an anchor of CBS' "Early" Show.  The story left me wondering, What are the different demands made by hosting an interview show and hosting a morning news show?  Have other people made the transition successfully?  How do people who have tried making the transition, whether successfully or not, describe the difference?  PerhapsThe Times will run a follow-up story. 

-- Jeff Bogart

Where Should IROs Come From?

Here's my response to an item in Inside Investor Relations about a survey finding that "the majority of top IROs [investor relations officers] have a financial background," that "three quarters of leading IROs worked in finance, accountancy or as an analyst before taking up a role in IR" and that "just 10 percent arrived via a position in corporate communications."

The finding that IROs come from finance etc. is not surprising.  It's been the trend for decades, and it makes plenty of sense, given the technical nature of the position.  What CFO wants to have to train a new hire to read financials and to understand securities laws, markets, the structure of the investment community, and the fundamentals of securities analysis?  

In addition, if the IRO position includes establishing rapport with professional investors, a background in the securities industry can be helpful.  The situation is similar to what appears to be developing in social marketing in the high tech industry-techies are being hired instead of marketing or PR types.  The situation is also reminiscent of the problem faced by editors when hiring reporters-should they opt for the candidate with extensive credentials in the subject to be covered, or should they opt instead for the candidate who lacks some or all knowledge of the subject but is a highly experienced researcher and exquisite writer? 

In the case of the IRO position, it would be great, of course,  if the IRO candidate had experience not only in finance and the securities industry but also in marketing or communications.  There probably aren't, however, many of those individuals in the job market.  Also, companies should be on the look-out for IRO candidates who-while lacking formal financial credentials such as an MBA degree, Street experience, etc.-nevertheless have an extensive IR track record.  It is not impossible, after all, for a communicator, attorney or other smart, focused executive to have learned the technical skills needed for the IRO position.  And not every IRO position need be a stepping stone to the CFO  job.

You can find my response posted on the publication's web site:  Inside Investor Relations .

-- Jeff Bogart

Social Media Releases Continue a Long-time Trend

My previous posting noted that the term "news release" is not an apt synonym for "social media release.  Here's another insight about social media releases:  they are a continuation of a long-standing trend in corporate relations-communicating directly with the end audience instead of through a reporter and the reporter's newspaper, broadcast or cable outlet.  Exemplifying the trend is the distribution of financial news releases written for professional investors such as security analysts and fund managers and distributed directly to them rather relying on business journalists to report the news.  In other words, social media releases, although designed for use by journalists, continue the disintermediation of traditional mainstream media that began as early as the mid 1900s.

-- Jeff Bogart

Social Media Releases Aren’t News Releases 

Recently, I’ve been spending time analyzing social media.  My interest is an outgrowth of interviews I conducted for a client with executives of advertising and public relations firms about the impact that digital has had on the marketing services industry.   One insight I’ve gained concerns the use of the phrase “social media release.”  At first I thought the phrase needed tweaking because it omitted the word “news.”  I thought it ought to be altered to become “social media news release.”  But then it dawned on me that “social media release” is a different concept.  It refers to communications directed to an audience much broader, qualitatively and quantitatively, than the news media, and it refers to content that is not just news.  I realized that the term “social media release” signifies content distributed or posted online for receipt directly by the end reader or for use by intermediaries in addition to or other than the traditional news media.  The content of the social release might not traditionally be considered “news.”   The difference between these terms--"social media release" and "news release" may be just a nuance . . . . or it may be a fundamental distinction on which to build.  We’ll see.  

-- Jeff Bogart

More About the Murdoch Fiasco:

Let's assume, for the moment, that the Murdochs and their top editor for News of the World did not know about the phone-mail hacking fiasco and alleged bribery of police officials by their employees.  Let's also momentarily assume that they did not know of their company's out-of-court settlements-worth millions of dollars-with phone-hacking victims.  (See below from a New York Times story on July 20, 2011).  Then consider these questions: 

Does that not attest to their inability as managers? 

Or does it simply suggest that companies can grow to large for even the ablest of managers? 

Or does it -another possibility-- highlight  a fundamental weakness in how large corporate businesses operate:  conglomerates patched together by investors who may get involved in deal-making and some aspects of policy but not in the nitty-gritty of running the business and so who are surprised when the authorities-and the public-seek to hold them accountable for the questionable conduct and misdeeds of their operating companies.  Absent gross misconduct on their part, our legal system tends not to hold them responsible for acts committed by the employees of the organizations they have set up.  And courts may be reluctant to break up the companies because they distinguish between rogue employees and the corporate entity-if only to save jobs of the many other, unimplicated employees.  All of which means, does it not, that there are really only limited consequences for today's mammoth enterprises and conglomerators. 

If such fundamental weakness does exist, then do we really need these large-scale networks, whether in the media industry or automotive industry?  Isn't there a point at which corporate size exceeds the manager's grasp and at which questionable corporate activities emerge that are attributable to diseconomies of scale?

What would Teddy Roosevelt do?

______________________

Murdochs Deny That They Knew of Illegal Acts
NYT 7/20/11, p. A1 at p. 10

(Also at  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/world/europe/20hacking.html?pagewanted=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/world/europe/index.jsonp  as of 7/20/11)

"While the elder Mr. Murdoch has long had the reputation of being a hands-on manager, pressing for and savoring the scoops scored by the newspapers he had always felt were the soul of his media empire, he said in his testimony that in the case of The News of the World, he had no knowledge of the specifics of what was going on.

"He did not know, for example, that his company had paid confidential out-of-court settlements of £600,000 and £1 million to two victims of phone hacking. Nor, he said, did he know that the company was paying the legal fees of Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator under contract to The News of the World who was convicted in 2007 of hacking into the phones of staff members of the royal family.

"James Murdoch said he had not known about paying Mr. Mulcaire's legal fees either, and was ‘as surprised as you are that some of these arrangements had been made.'"

-0-

"Rupert Murdoch said that as the head of a company with 53,000 employees around the world, he could not have been expected to follow every decision made at The News of the World or even at News International, the News Corporation's British newspaper division.

"He said that he generally called the editor of The News of the World once a month to ask ‘what's doing?'  He tends to call the editor of The Sunday Times ‘nearly every Saturday,' he said, but ‘not to influence what he has to say.'

"He added: ‘If there's an editor I'm most in touch with, it's the editor of The Wall Street Journal, because we're in the same building.'"

-- Jeff Bogart

Too large to manage?  At what point does an organization, especially a fast-growing one, become too large and intricate to manage?  In the Murdoch/News Corporation voice-mail hacking and alleged bribery fiasco, the heads of News International and of Scotland Yard said they were unaware of their subordinates' conduct (see, for example, NYT, 7/18/11, p. 1).  Leaders  of other organizations accused of misdeeds, such as Enron, have made similar statements.  When does size become a governance obstacle?   Should Scotland Yard and News Corp. each be broken into a series of separate enterprises?

-- Jeff Bogart

 

Wasted gesture?  Is the resignation of the top executive at companies accused of wrongdoing an effective public relations strategy for dealing with public concern, or is it a wasted gesture?  Take the resignations of the heads of Scotland Yard and Murdoch's News International in connection with Britain's voice-mail hacking and alleged police bribery fiasco (see, also, NYT, 7/18/11, p. 1).  If News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates did not know of any misconduct, why not just take a leave of absence instead of resigning?  It seems doubtful that their departures are going to derail the ongoing investigations.  Perhaps in other eras, resignations of top officials satisfied the public and put an end to the matter.  These days, a cynical public is more likely to view the resignations as admissions that the officials knew something untoward was going on and perhaps participated in it.  Assuming these officials had no involvement, resigning may have been the wrong move.

-- Jeff Bogart

 McChrystal Without Tears
"We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us"--Pogo

It's hard to know whether to feel sympathy for U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who lost his job heading the nation's Afghanistan war because of remarks attributed to him and his staff in Rolling Stone.  After all, wasn't he trying to be nice to the media-a sort of latter-day John McCain?  Wasn't he trying to give the public via the media insight into how the country's military executives were managing the battlefield?  ("He speaks his mind with a candor rare for a high-ranking official," says the magazine article in characterizing him.)  And wasn't he possibly the victim of a journalist who, McChrystal apologists have suggested, chose not to honor a stipulation that interviews be conducted on background?

Well, perhaps.  But even so, the general and his team obviously forgot some basic tenets.  First, if you don't have something nice to say about person, don't say it.  (Remember the Will Rogers quip, "I never met a man I didn't like.")  Second, if you want to be critical, focus on the issue and not the person (this advice, which supposedly works well in marital arguments, seems apt here).  Third, always assume that your statements-even those uttered in private or marked "confidential"-will ultimately see the light of day (especially in today's world of enhanced discovery and Web postings).  Fourth, make sure that you've established beforehand with a reporter not only that your conversation is "on background" but also that you both clearly understand what "background" means (but still, don't forget tenets 1-3). 

Have I missed any other principles that McChrystal appears to have overlooked?  Probably.  Bottom line, however, is that he and his aides would not have been dismissed if they had remembered and adhered to an old Navy maxim:  "Loose lips sink ships." 

-- Jeff Bogart

Bloomberg Close-Up:
What's Happening at This Major News Provider

I attended a Gorkana/Bloomberg panel and networking event recently to hear Bloomberg editors discuss the company's approach to news. Panelists included Ted Fine, a Bloomberg TV producer responsible for afternoon programming; Laurie Hays, executive editor for Company News and subject-matter areas such as law, science, environment and education; Marty Schenker, executive editor for Top News, a compilation of the day's most important stories; and Karen Toulon, chief of the New York bureau with its "more than 800 reporters, editors, producers, writers, multimedia professionals and support personnel."

Here are some of my takeaways:

• Bloomberg sees itself as a news-gathering operation that feeds content through various mediums/channels/outlets including the Terminal, web, TV, and magazines. (In this way, it's not much different strategically from other media conglomerates).
• Bloomberg TV is seeking to make its afternoon programming more entertaining to appeal to an afternoon audience broader than traders. (Ted Fine);
• Bloomberg’s audience is anyone who has money at stake (Marty Schenker);
• Bloomberg’s audience—and Bloomberg editors--want to know a company CEO’s vision, not whether the company’s stock will go up or down (Karen Toulon);
• Bloomberg.com is undergoing a transition from an audience of traders to a broader audience of professional investors.  The web site’s content used to be pulled from the day’s Top News stories on the Bloomberg terminal.  Re-distributing Bloomberg Terminal stories on the web site has posed a conflict for Bloomberg in the eyes of Terminal subscribers, who do not like the idea that paid Terminal news is being away for free (Schenker);
• A new product—Bloomberg First Word—will soon be launched.  It will be a compilation of  company news and include small-cap companies (Laurie Hays);
• Bloomberg is evolving away from standard earnings stories.  They are now a commodity, and audiences know enough to go directly to a company’s earnings release for the information contained in them.  What readers want from Bloomberg instead of earnings stories is news about how money is raised, social unrest, etc.  (Schenker);
• The actual content of Bloomberg TV is streamed to the Bloomberg web site.  That is unlike the case with some other cable companies’ online versions of their TV programming.  Also, Bloomberg TV plans to have a high definition channel in the “foreseeable” future (Fine).
  

I especially liked Schenker's definition of news: News is what changes people's behavior. It reminded me of how Columbia J-School professor Melvin Mencher once defined news--what helps people make decisions.

-- Jeff Bogart

Politics 101: Bridging the Ethnic Gap

With Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy now running for New York governor as a Republican,  New York City's vote might well split along ethnic lines.  The city's Jewish population would, of course, vote the Republican ticket in large numbers while the city's Italians would tend to vote for Andrew Cuomo, the state's attorney general and a Democratic, who is expected, ultimately, to announce he'll also run for the state's top office. 

So what's the Nassau County executive to do to bridge the ethnic divide and capture the Italian vote?  We suggest he dig, dig, dig way back into the annals of advertising and adopt one of marketing's classic campaign slogans:  You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy.  

-- Jeff Bogart

Can Digital and Mainstream Media Co-exist?

According to Kenneth Li, media correspondent for the Financial Times, they can.  Li said as much at the March meeting of Public Relations Society:New York.  As a seasoned media observer, he ought to know.  Besides covering media for the FT, which he joined in September 2008, he was global media correspondent for Reuters, and he was a co-founder and co-editor of Reuters' MediaFile, a blog that focuses on the juncture of media and technology. 

Li also said that digital is at the "cusp of the next great flexion point with the launch of the iPad," Apple's new tablet computer.  (iPad orders, by the way, are currently reported to be "averaging 10,000 per day," according to a Macsimum News post by Dennis Sellers, citing blogger Daniel Tello.) 

Referring to The New York Times' decision to start charging non subscribers for articles on its web site, Li noted that the Financial Times invented the meter model two years ago.  Under the model, a certain number of items can be accessed free of charge, he said, after which the rest can be viewed for a price.

PRS:NY's next two speakers are Vivian Schiller, CEO of National Public Radio (NPR), in May and Amanda Bennett, executive editor in charge of enterprise stories at Bloomberg News and the former top editor at the Philadelphia Enquirer in April.  This is a good group of experienced PR executives with a good roster of speakers.  I'll be returning.

-- Jeff Bogart

Contacts Update Time:
Who's Leaving The New York Times?

Reporters at The New York Times said to be taking the newspaper's previously announced buyout offer include these well-known bylines:

• Louis Uchitelle, economics
• Geraldine Fabrikant, business
• Stephen Labaton, Washington correspondent covering financial regulatory reform.
• Claiborne Ray - deputy obit desk editor; Q&A science columnist
• Andrew Revkin - environment (described as a "possible")
• Ralph Blumenthal - metro (described as "likely")
• Fred Eliason, real estate
• Saul Hansell,  technology

In October, the paper said it would seek to eliminate 100 newsroom positions through buyouts (Editor & Publisher ) .  It said layoffs would follow if the number of buyouts did not reach the target.  The deadline to accept the buyout offer is today.

Over 30 reporters, editors and photographers are said to be leaving, as well as numerous other staffers from the copy desk, design and other areas.

For an extended compilation (from which the above was taken) go to today's Gawker .

-- Jeff Bogart

Online Petition Sites:  Emerging Tool for Mobilizing Opinion

Recently I've been witnessing the power of free online petition sites to mobilize public opinion and influence a target audience.  The petitions, begun in my home town, target the local school board.  But these sites--and also paid sites--appear ready-made not only for use by public interest and political groups.  They seem applicable for use by businesses and nonprofit organizations as well in support of marketing communications, community relations, investor relations and public affairs programs.

Online petition sites make it easy to start a petition.  Petition signers can either have their name visible to the public or else kept anonymous except to the organizations which petitions are directed.  To eliminate duplicate signatures, the sites require signers to provide their email addresses (which are kept anonymous).  Also, petition signers can leave comments alongside  their signatures, helping convince others to sign, giving insight into their motivation, and adding to the persuasiveness of the action being requested. 

While an online petition may not be legally valid to effect change, the persuasive impact is potentially impressive.  Politicians who disregard the signers will have to face them at the polls.  Businesses who pay no heed to the signers may find their sales slumping.

Creating Community

The petition is a meaningful device not only because of its potential to create change.  It is meaningful also as an organizing device.  It establishes visibility for an issue, for a position or for both.  It gives signers a sense of being part of a community. 

And once the petition is established, viral marketing and standard publicity techniques can be used to publicize the petition and increase the number of signatures.

Here are several ways that come quickly to mind for using these sites to advance public relations (in the broadest sense) objectives:

• a company stimulates a user group or PAC to petition the government in support of passing a new law
• a company initiates a petition as part of cause-related marketing
• a company stimulates shareholders of an acquisition target to petition the target's board of directors to change its bylaws, back a proposed slate of directors, or improve transparency.

An example of a free petition site is PetitionOnLine.com, which bills itself as providing "free hosting of public petitions for responsible public advocacy.  We welcome petitions on almost any subject, for almost any audience."  Go to the site's FAQ for a good overview of how these sites work. For  reviews of this and four other popular sites, check out "Top Five Online Petition Sites."

Examples of Business Petitions

It's easy to envision businesses as being on the receiving end of petitions.  A user group, for example, petitions a company to change a product feature or a business practice; a shareholder group petitions a public company to stop doing business in a country with a repressive regime.   But are businesses really initiating or joining in online petition efforts?  Here are five instances-- involving, among others, KFC and Microsoft--that I've come up with after a quick search of the Internet.

First, here are the headline and lead of a business news release about an online petition.  The petition appears to be an example of cause-related marketing.  The headline announces "Local Business Drafts Olympic Softball Petition" and the lead elaborates:

A Florida business, recently featured in Florida Today & revered for their dedication in helping Softball teams throughout the country, has begun a Petition to Reinstate Softball in the 2016 Olympic games, and all future Olympics as well.

Small Publishers Association

Second, here is an excerpt from a 2008 posting about an online petition begun by the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) in connection with the class action antitrust lawsuit, BookLocker.com, Inc. vs. Amazon.com, Inc.:

What can you do to help?

Here are five steps that will let Amazon know that publishers
and writers want a change:

1. Sign the Petition  We have initiated an online petition
individuals and organizations can sign indicating they
support the lawsuit. The petition will be sent to Jeff Bezos
and the Amazon Board.

You can sign the petition by clicking here:
www.spannet.org/amazonantitrust-petition.htm

Kansas City

Third, here is the start of a news release by the Kansas City Bid Committee about an online petition drive in support of attracting the 2018/2020 World Cup to that city:

Kansas City Bid Committee launches online petition drive

Sign petition at goUSAbid.com/kc to support efforts to be part of World Cup bid

Kansas City Wizards Media Relations                             11/09/2009 4:03 PM

KANSAS CITY, MO -- The Kansas City / USA Host City Bid Committee announced Monday that an electronic petition drive has begun to boost the city's chances of hosting FIFA World Cup^TM matches in 2018 or 2022 should FIFA choose the United States as a host nation. . . . To support the effort, Kansas Citians are asked to sign the petition at www.goUSAbid.com/kc and pass the petition along to their friends and family.

KFC

Fourth, here is the beginning of a news release by KFC Corporation announcing an online petition drive to Congress "urging Congress to make Mother's Day an officially recognized holiday in the United States."

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 30 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- George Washington, Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King, Jr. all had at least two things in common: federal holidays named in their honor and mothers who gave them life and kept them fed. To honor all moms, whether they're famous around the world or just around the house, KFC has created an online petition to urge Congress to elevate May 11 from a mere "observance" to an official "federal holiday."

Microsoft

Fifth, here is a portion of Microsoft's wording of its online petition in 2007 seeking international approval of its Office Open XML file format: 

Sign the Petition Supporting ISO/IEC Standardization of Open XML

To National Standards Bodies Voting on ISO Standardization of Open XML: 

We, the undersigned, wish to communicate our support for the approval of Ecma 376 - Office Open XML File Formats ("Open XML") as an ISO/IEC standard. We request our national standards body cast their vote in favor of this standard.

As the above five examples suggest, petitions have the potential to help crystallize public opinion in ways that benefit business, not just undercut it.  In an era of social media, we may see more businesses increasingly adopt this traditional technique, using online petition sites to build community and create change in connection with business-related goals and issues.

-- Jeff Bogart

Will Bloomberg’s purchase of BusinessWeek stimulate more business media mergers?

One reason Bloomberg, with its news service and financial terminals, bought the business weekly is to reach business executives instead of investors.  Investors and business executives, Bloomberg Chief Content Officer Norm Pearlstine seems willing to acknowledge, have different news, information and analytical needs.  

PaidContent quotes Pearlstine as saying:  “How it expands our reach is pretty obvious. BusinessWeek has a paid circ of 936,000, it reaches, according to the MRI numbers, 4.8 million readers around the world in its English language edition ... Bloomberg primarily accesses an audience of 300,000 extremely influential subscribers to the Bloomberg terminal but we have always had both a desire and a need to be read in the corporate suite, in areas of government where people are not subscribing to the terminal and that access is important to us in terms of our ability to break news, to provide better coverage for the subscribers of the terminal and BusinessWeek delivers on all of that.” 

In view of Bloomberg's new heft, will the News Corp.’s Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal remain content just to publish Smart Money and Barron’s, or will Rupert Murdoch now also feel the need to reach a more corporate business audience by purchasing Time Warner’s Fortune magazine?  Will Forbes see its future as remaining a niche investment publication, or will it seek also to acquire a business presence, perhaps by hooking up with one of the magazines published by management consultants, such as Booz & Company?

There’s no reason to think that any of these marriages are in the offing or that, if consummated, they would be successful.  But the need for a larger advertising base and editorial efficiencies, coupled with an interest in bringing business intelligence to still more readers might produce these or other hookups. 

In any case, note that Pearlstine says (above) that Bloomberg not only covets corporate readers but also government readers.  Too bad for him that Pearson PLC affiliate The Economist Group has already purchased Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call.  But there are other Washington-based properties that Bloomberg perhaps might like to consider.   Could the purchase of National Journal or The Washington Post be next?

-- Jeff Bogart

First-day news stories about McGraw Hill’s sale of Business Week magazine to Bloomberg focus on the sale and expected changes in the magazine.  So far, I haven’t seen any comment about the deal as a statement by McGraw Hill about how quickly the U.S. economy will emerge from the current recession and about the future of print advertising.  McGraw Hill seems to be saying the economic recovery will be weak and that print advertising will remain chronically ill. 

I also haven’t seen much if any focus on McGraw Hill and the remainder of its publications empire.  With the shedding of BW, can the rest of the publications be far behind?  Perhaps some second-day stories will focus on the health and wealth of McGraw Hill.

The disposition of BW, which began as System, was acquired by McGraw-Hill in 1929 and renamed The Business Week, leads me down memory lane.  I can remember my father, a merchandise manager for Lansburgh’s department store in Washington D.C., reading it in the 1950s.  I recall that in the 1970s, Ted Merrill, the computer editor at the magazine, suggested that the Computer Industry Association (CIA) obtain and distribute IBM’s internal documents that had become available in U.S. v IBM and Telex v IBM.  The suggestion stimulated the launch of a document retrieval  service that I managed for CIA.  It also resulted in a cover BW story by Merrill about IBM’s executive committee minutes, which CIA had begun selling.  

In the late 1970s I spent Thursdays at BW drafting news releases based on galleys of the stories that would appear in the forthcoming issue.  Deciding which stories to turn into releases and analyzing their content and structure gave me insight into the BW approach to story-telling (among other things, end by focusing on the future).  The releases were sent to other media with the objective of stimulating stories that would credit BW and boost newsstand sales.  I recall that one release—about a BW story on convicted Italian financier Michele Sindona –was picked up by The New York Times. 

The sale of BW also leads me to recall some of the weekly and monthly vertical market trade magazines that McGraw Hill used to own, many of them leaders in their fields.  Among them were Modern Plastics and Medical World News; Electrical World and Power; Chemical Week and Chemical Engineering; National Petroleum News, covering petroleum retailing; Electronics, and more. As advertising dried up and as McGraw Hill moved to focus on electronic publishing and newsletters, some were closed; others, sold.    

But back to BW:  There’s probably a good history, based on interviews with old-timers, to be written about the publishing and editing of BW during its McGraw Hill days, if it hasn’t already been.  Like the prototypical BW story, it would end by focusing on the future.

-- Jeff Bogart