Stphanie Clifford of the New York Times writes Monday about BusinessWeek, where bids are due to acquire it on Tuesday and the magazine has been making changes to address the new media world.
Clifford writes, “In February, Mr. Adler and Mr. Fox called editorial employees into a meeting to announce a solution. The magazine would focus on what executives needed to know for their jobs, and shed its sports, lifestyle and politics articles. And writers needed to consider a businessperson’s point of view, rather than a consumer’s.
“‘Our mission is to move business forward,’ read the mission statement, handed out at the meeting, and to help readers ‘make smarter decisions in their businesses, careers and investments.’
“Some editorial employees liked the change. ‘We’re trying to serve business readers at a time when business is in disarray,’ said one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because employees are not authorized to speak publicly about the sale. ‘I think we’ve done remarkably well doing that.’
“But other employees saw a different subtext: their role now was to help business leaders make more money. Though the investigative unit has continued its work, other staff members say their harder-hitting stories have been killed, held or edited into submission.”
Read more here. The article states that BusinessWeek was founded in 1926, but the date is actually 1929.
