BW editor Adler focusing magazine on the Internet

Financial Times reporter Aline van Duyn interviewed BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler about what he’s been doing at the paper, and she wrote that Adler got the job last year after working at the Wall Street Journal by emphasizing how the weekly could take advantage of the Internet.

Van Duyn wrote, “As well as appointing a full-time web editor, BusinessWeek journalists were instructed to write more for the web: in terms of word count, so far this year 46 per cent of the content on the website is exclusive to it, versus 33 per cent in 2005.

“With cost cuts high on the agenda at magazines and newspapers, including the owners of BusinessWeek, McGraw Hill, one of Mr Adler’s first moves was to ditch the European and Asian print editions of the magazine. Instead, the on-line versions of BusinessWeek are now customised for these regions.

“A number of high-profile writers have started regular blogs on BusinessWeek.com, which also has video content and interactive features. Adweek, which put Businessweek.com in its ‘website hotlist’, says it has a ‘rich library of well-produced exclusive content, which offers good opportunities for advertisers’.

“Its web presence has certainly grown. In August, BusinessWeek reached more than 7.1m unique users, its highest yet, and page views were nearly 50m. Online advertising at BusinessWeek.com rose 61 per cent year on year.”

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