Making BusinessWeek less American

Minonline has a review of the redesigned BusinessWeek and says that it makes the business weekly look less “American.”

The web site wrote, “New logo blends in with Horton’s layouts, but another reason for the change, says Fox, is the elimination of the blue rule under BusinessWeek. ‘Our readers are increasingly international, and with red, white, and blue in the logo, there were many in our research who thought of us as ‘too American.’ I know that is subtle for Americans, but that is a fact overseas.” (Even in France, we presume, in spite of the bleu, blanc, et rouge tricolor.)

“Internationalization continues in the news well, where domestic and foreign stories are no longer separated. More significant and noticeable is the front-of-the-book placement and expansion of what was the two-page The BusinessWeek synopsis. ‘This is a key reference to articles that may be in our issue, past issues, BW.COM, or in other publications,’ says Adler, who began developing the new look 18 months ago. ‘We believe that is an important component to readers who can use The BusinessWeek as the stepping stone to in-depth reporting. In today’s busy world, we keep readers with limited free time thoroughly informed.’ The often offbeat copy that highlighted the former Up Front lead department is being shifted to What’s Next.

“‘Exiled’ to the back-of-the-book, with other Opinion columnists (except the now-weekly Maria Bartiromo‘s ‘Newsmaker’ interview in The BusinessWeek), is MediaCentric‘s Jon Fine. The Advertising Age alumnus tells min that he is getting a fair deal, ‘because, at times, I will have more than one page.’ Jack and Suzy Welch’s Dear Abby-like business advice remains on the back page.”