TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
The snippy comments between Bloomberg Businessweek and Fortune have not abated.
Time Inc., the parent of Fortune, held a state of the company meeting Friday and leader John Huey — a former Fortune managing editor — gave a talk. According to those who attended, he said that BusinessWeek was like an old couch someone dumped on the side of the road and that Bloomberg took it home with them.
Huey added that Bloomberg will probably lose money on it for years, and said that Time doesn’t engage in uneconomic vanity publishing.
When told of the comments, Businessweek spokesman Carl Fischer responded, “Coming off our successful relaunch, we’re delighted that Mr. Huey is spending so much time talking about Bloomberg Businessweek.”
Bloomberg acquired Businessweek from McGraw-Hill in December and promptly overhauled the weekly, getting rid of a big chunk of its staff and bringing in a new editor, Josh Tyrangiel, who happened to be working for Time. When Businessweek relaunched in April, Tyrangiel told Talking Biz News that he really didn’t see Fortune as competition.
Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer replied at the time that he wasn’t worried about the new Bloomberg Businessweek.
