BusinessWeek shakeup is admission that new direction is needed

Forbes.com columnist Gary Weiss, a former top writer for BusinessWeek, writes Monday on his blog that the naming of a new executive editor at BW is an admission that the magazine needs new direction.

Weiss wrote, “In the past I’ve expressed concern about some of the changes at the magazine, such as the near-disappearance of investigative reporting, the hiring of ‘celebrity’ columnists like Jack Welch and the firing of its longtime labor editor.

“As I’ve noted before (such as here), BW has always tended to approach controversial subjects with a caution that has sometimes resembled timidity, and that seems to have gotten worse under the new regime, or so I hear.

“It’s also interesting that this change happened at all.

“In the past, top editors were rarely replaced, no matter how ill-suited to their jobs. Of course, the downside is that, under Steve Adler there are simply more top editors — a swollen bureaucracy that seems out of place in a magazine with a shrunken staff and news hole.”

Read more here.