Categories: OLD Media Moves

Why no scoops in BusinessWeek?

Former BusinessWeek staff writer Gary Weiss has problems with a statement by a Bloomberg executive in Monday’s New York Times that says that all breaking news will appear on the Bloomberg wire first, not in the weekly magazine it recently acquired.

Weiss writes, “As far back as the 1990s, BW used to run certain time-sensitive, competitive articles online — not on the Internet but on America Online, which used to carry BW exclusively back then — a few hours before they ran in the magazine. However, this was done sparingly, for the simple reason that it eroded BW’s franchise as a news magazine.

“Indeed, one of the ‘ten commandments’ of the former BW editor Steve Shepard was that BW breaks news. This was essential, for it was believed that otherwise BW would not be worth reading.

“If a scoop runs in Bloomberg first, it is no different from any BW competitor getting to a story first.

“I have no idea if there are any exceptions to the no-scoop rule, such as major investigations by the BW staff. What I do know is that a weekly news magazine that doesn’t consistently break news is not going to be of much value to either readers or advertisers, no matter how many pages are run or how pretty it may be.”

Read more here.

Recent Posts

Dynamo hires former Business Insider executive editor Harrington

Former Business Insider executive editor Rebecca Harrington has been hired by Dynamo to be its…

17 hours ago

Bloomberg TV hires Kerubo as desk producer

Bloomberg Television has hired Brenda Kerubo as a desk producer in London. She will be covering Europe's…

17 hours ago

Jittery CNBC staff reassured by new boss

In a meeting at CNBC headquarters Thursday afternoon, incoming boss Mark Lazarus presented a bullish…

17 hours ago

Making business news accessible to a wider audience

Ritika Gupta, the BBC's North American business correspondent, was interviewed by Global Woman magazine about…

17 hours ago

Rest of World hires Lo as China reporter

Rest of World has hired Kinling Lo as a China reporter. Lo was previously a…

18 hours ago

Bloomberg rises to No. 7 biz news website

Bloomberg News saw strong unique visitor growth to its website in October, passing Fox Business…

18 hours ago