Prediction: BusinessWeek will go under

Jeff Bercovici of Daily Finance has compiled a group of several dozen editors in chief, publishers, producers, developers, executives, consultants and others to get their opinions on media matters, and their prediction is that BusinessWeek will not be sold and will eventually close.

Bercovici writes, “This was the clear consensus favorite, and it should come as no surprise, seeing as it was only two weeks ago that McGraw-Hill announced that it was reviewing ‘strategic options’ for the 80-year-old weekly. Those options don’t look good to my Brain Trustees.

“‘I don’t think anyone will buy it, and McGraw-Hill will not stomach its continued loss,’ says one newspaper executive, speaking for many.”

Bercovici’s experts also had a few other predictions:

Other business magazines. As with weeklies, my Trustees see them as particularly imperiled and less resistant to the flight of ad dollars from print to digital than other types of glossy publications. “This is one area in which the web really will kill magazines,” says one. “You can take your time with food and fashion; business information you need now, and you don’t need slick production values to go with it.”

“Fox Business. It’s losing an insane amount of money, it has no prospects for ever becoming profitable, and Rupert isn’t some kind of squishy owner who’ll happily keep it on at a loss indefinitely. I also have my doubts about WSJ. (Not the WSJ, just the glossy mag.) For much the same reasons, but also because it seems to be incapable of committing journalism.”

Read more here.