Why BusinessWeek might be a smart acquisition

Rory Maher writes for The Business Insider about why BusinessWeek magazine, currently for sale by McGraw-Hill, might be a good purchase for someone.

Maher writes, “The BusinessWeek.com site currently attracts almost 5 million U.S. uniques per month while still focusing mostly on its print publication. A good management team focused on the site could likely double this traffic over time. Assuming 10 page views per visitor per month and $35 CPM per page across all the ads, the online business could generate about $40 million in U.S. revenue if the right sales force is deployed. (Any modest revenue from overseas traffic would be a bonus.)Â

“That’s a third of the $125 million the WSJ says that BusinessWeek currently makes in revenue a year. But, with print/distribution costs being a quarter of what they once were, and half the payroll costs gone, it’s realistic for this to be a business that generates 20% to 30% profit margins.

“In addition, Forbes.com reaches about 11 million monthly uniques. So if BusinessWeek’s online moves were to gain traction and it catches Forbes over a very reasonable four years, that would represent 28% annual growth.

“Not bad for the likely $30 million the buyer would pay after the first year’s operating losses and severance payments.”

Read more here.