Businessweek toes 'Bloomberg Way' - Hindustan Times
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Businessweek toes 'Bloomberg Way'

None | ByStephanie Clifford, New York
Apr 26, 2010 11:27 PM IST

When Bloomberg L P bought Businessweek in December, a group of the magazine's writers, who were being transferred to the Bloomberg newswire, attended a two-week training session.

When Bloomberg L P bought Businessweek in December, a group of the magazine's writers, who were being transferred to the Bloomberg newswire, attended a two-week training session. They learned that the terminals, costing about $20,000 a year, drove Bloomberg's business; they discovered that the main elevators stop only on the sixth and ninth floors, forcing a manic feeling in the building as employees dash up and down staircases.

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One speaker was the head of Bloomberg's "speed desk", who was especially proud, according to people at the meeting, when the desk published a headline seconds ahead of Reuters, and a young trader had made enough money from that lead alone to buy a Hummer.

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At Bloomberg News, where writers' salaries are tied, among other factors, to how many "market-moving" articles they have produced, Businessweek is fitting in like — well, like an 80-year-old print magazine in a company that is all about terminals.

As well known as Businessweek is — it has an 80-year history and a circulation of about 918,000 — within Bloomberg, it is just a money-losing print product in a company where profitable terminals are in focus.

Bloomberg bought the magazine from McGraw-Hill for $5 million cash, or 0.079 per cent of Bloomberg’s estimated $6.3 billion in revenue. It is a low-risk bet that Bloomberg hopes will help make its brand more well known and put influential coverage on the all-important terminal.

The redesigned magazine, introduced last week, is meant for busy, fact-seeking readers: the sections are colour-coded, and many articles carry "bottom line" takeaways.

"Now that Bloomberg owns it, it is going to open up a lot of avenues to take advantage of not only Businessweek’s assets, but Bloomberg’s assets as well," said Roberta Garfinkle, director of print strategy for TargetCast tcm.

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