Biz magazines race for online readers

Diego Vasquez of Media Life Magazine writes that the decision to name a new managing editor at Fortune magazine was in part spurred by growing competition among the biz glossies to attract readers to their online offerings.

Vasquez wrote, “Both Business Week and Fortune were far slower than Forbes in developing their web presences, cutting back during the ad recession when Forbes was building up Forbes.com, and that has left both playing a game of catchup, and a late one at that.

“Stephen J. Adler was hired two years ago as editor of Business Week, lured away from The Wall Street Journal, and his mandate was to beef up that magazine’s online presence. But it’s been a slow go. The magazine continues to be in turmoil following a string of staff cuts.

“Back in January, CNNMoney.com was relaunched as a super site for Time Warner business news, including Fortune, Money, Fortune Small Business and Business 2.0, and as of June that site ranked No. 4 among top business news sites, ahead of Forbes.com at No. 7 and No. 10. But Fortune’s share of CNNMoney.com traffic is presumably a fraction of the total, leaving it still well behind Forbes.com.

“The arrival of Portfolio will make the race of online readers all that more intense. While Conde Nast is saying little about the title, it is expected to offer a strong online component and an emphasis on news under Joanne Lippman, also a former top Wall Street Journal editor.”

Read more here.