Around the Net
Multiple Questions Arise With Bloomberg LP's Acquisition of BusinessWeek
- Businessweek and PaidContent, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:45 PM
If and when the deal closes, what are the online implications of Bloomberg LP acquiring BusinessWeek? From challenging Rupert Murdock's monopoly on "premium" business news to his war on free content, they're sure to be profound. Just beginning to digest its broader implications, most industry watchers have yet to put the deal into a digital context.
BusinessWeek, clearly the best source for information at the moment, reports, "It still hasn't been decided whether Bloomberg and BusinessWeek will maintain separate Web sites or be morphed together as one."
Presently, the sites combined attract more than 20 million unique visitors monthly and
log roughly 100 million page views, according to BusinessWeek, which reports that combined revenues of the sites are $60 million.
Also, "The BusinessWeek brand will be
used aggressively to bolster Bloomberg TV, radio and mobile operations," while Andy Lack, former president of NBC News and more recently chairman of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, was recruited last
year to oversee those multimedia businesses.
What's more, "The deal also signals a shift by Bloomberg into more consumer-focused media," according to BusinessWeek. And
not just any consumer. "BusinessWeek ... will give Bloomberg entrée to a much larger business audience of corporate executives and senior government officials, beyond what has been its sweet spot
of catering to Wall Street and the professional investor community."
What about staffing? "It remains to be seen how much of the magazine's 400-plus staff Bloomberg plans to cut, but reports of a planned scorched earth campaign are overblown," according to BusinessWeek, so it's clearly too early to know how digital staff with be affected.
Separately, Norm Pearlstine -- Bloomberg's chief content officer who's expected to become chairman of BusinessWeek post-acquisition - tells PaidContent that there's "very little overlap between the two" operations online. Bloomberg has yet to decide how Bloomberg.com and BusinessWeek.com will work together online, according to Pearlstine. "You have to do a lot more work before you make that decision," he tells PaidContent. "The beauty of the internet is it doesn't necessarily have to be either-or."
