BusinessWeek loses its identity

Former BusinessWeek writer Gary Weiss writes Tuesday that the magazine, recently acquired by Bloomberg, has lost its identity as a separate voice in the world of business journalism due to the staff cuts.

Weiss writes, “A more interesting indicator can be found by looking at the number of New York-based writers employed by the magazine.

“In 2004 there were about 35 of us, with titles ranging from ‘senior writer’ to ‘department editor,’ writing about subjects ranging from finance to economics to the Internet and science. Most of us also edited from time to time, but writing articles was part of the job.

“Today there are three New York-based writers at the magazine. Now, not all the vanished are out on the street. Most of my colleagues at the Finance department, for instance, now write for the wire.

“What this means is that BW’s institutional memory is fading past, its corporate culture has been totally up-ended, and it independent identity is pretty much gone.”

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