Tag Archives: BusinessWeek
Taking boring subjects and making them appealing at Businessweek
by Chris Roush
Joe Pompeo of Capital New York writes Friday about how Bloomberg Businessweek has overhauled its look and its content to make what some believe is boring content more interesting.
Pompeo writes, “They set the place up so that art directors would be sitting next to editors would be sitting next to photo editors and so on.
“‘You get this really interesting creative friction, all because Bloomberg believes in cheap office space,’ said Tyrangiel.
“But perhaps the biggest change Tyrangiel made after Bloomberg gave him the keys to Businessweek was an editorial one.
“‘There was a lot management guru bullshit, to be honest,’ he said of the magazine’s previous incarnation under McGraw Hill. “A lot of stuff about finding the best you, and I just thought, that’s insulting.’
“Instead, Tyrangiel took Businessweek in a newsier direction at a time when its core subject matter — money, finance, economics — had become one of the most important threads in the news cycle.
“‘They’d gotten out of the news business,’ he said. ‘They’d really focused on this kind of middle management, how do you get ahead. And this is in the middle of a financial crisis. … The magazine had been so fat and so rich that people believed the audience would read it out of obligation. And nobody reads out of obligation. You have to argue for your right to exist.’”
Read more here.
Biz journalist Greising joins Chicago business advocacy group
by Chris Roush
David Greising, a former business columnist at the Chicago Tribune and reporter for BusinessWeek, is joining Economic Business Chicago, an economic development arm of the city, reports Shia Kapos of Crain’s Chicago Business.
Kapos writes, “Mr. Greising, 52, is known for his ability to make complicated business jargon sound like prose — and for his willingness to write about business in a forthright (some might say critical) manner. He left Tribune in 2009, after joining the newspaper 11 years earlier from BusinessWeek.
“Those characteristics came through in his work at the Chicago News Cooperative, which folded last month, a victim of underfunding. The organization operated as a nonprofit with the goal of one day being profitable.
“Mr. Greising was managing editor and general manager, an unusual role that had him straddling the editorial and business sides of a news operation. Along with writing and editing, he worked to bring in advertising business to the publication’s twice-weekly pages and website.
“It will be interesting to watch how Mr. Greising is able to transfer his skills as a dogged reporter to a consulting role with an organization full of business folks. No doubt his twinkly-eyed grin will get him far.”
Bloomberg Businessweek hires Time journalist
by Chris Roush
Claire Suddath, who was an arts and culture writer for Time magazine, has been hired by Bloomberg Businessweek, a magazine spokeswoman confirmed late Friday night.
Suddath started at the magazine this week.
Suddath, who grew up in Chicago, graduated from Vanderbilt University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Claire had been at Time for three years and 10 months; before then, she worked at an alt-weekly newspaper, the Nashville Scene.
Her move from Time — and covering culture — to Businessweek is not unprecedented. Current Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel was hired in 2009 from Time, where he was deputy managing editor and spent time as the magazine’s music critic. She and Tyrangiel overlapped for about a year.
Bloomberg Businessweek releases special travel issue
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg Businessweek, which last year had a sports business special edition, will release a travel special issue this weekend.
The issue will include articles about the business traveler, how a Lufthansa flight between San Francisco to Bangalore, India, has been sold out for 11 consecutive years, conventions in Las Vegas, preferred customer programs and concierge services.
It also ranks, among others, the best jet lag remedy, airport food court, airport club, in-flight entrée, first-class seat, hotel pool and hotel gym.
The sports business issue was issued in October and included 37 pages of special content in addition to the sports business content.
Bloomberg Businessweek preparing iPhone app
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg is set to launch an iPhone app for Bloomberg Businessweek within the next few weeks as it looks to expand its global reach, reports Lucy Tesseras of New Media Age.
Tesseras writes, “New media age has seen a sneak preview of the new app, which mirrors the look and functionality of the Bloomberg Businessweek iPad app launched in April last year, as well as the newly revamped website, businessweek.com (pictured), unveiled earlier this week.
“Oke Okaro, Bloomberg global head of digital and mobile, highlighted that while 8% of the print magazine’s readership is outside the US, 35% of the iPad audience is, and he expects the global reach on the iPhone to be even greater.
“‘The iPhone launch will absolutely open us up to a larger, broader audience,’ said Okaro (pictured). ‘The iPad has already done that and the iPhone has at least a four times bigger install base. It will enable us to deliver to our audience in a much more convenient way and will also drive greater engagement among existing users because the iPad is more lean back.’
“The iPad app has more than 100,000 subscribers, while the current print circulation is 980,000.
“He also pointed out that the speed at which global markets can be reached through the iPad is much faster than with the print edition because Bloomberg doesn’t have to physically distribute the title to each region.”
Read more here.
Businessweek.com launches redesign
by Chris Roush
Lucia Moses of Adweek writes about the redesign of Bloomberg Businessweek.com, which she says has more dominate photos on the home page, and there are bright color-coded section tabs.
Moses writes, “In terms of the content, there will be more analysis and offbeat stories, like a recent article on an odd new combination tablet-smartphone with the jaunty lede, ‘Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a Padfone.’
“‘Businessweek wants to be the brand for the new breed of business leader, who is much more global-minded, more curious abut the world,’ explained Paul Bascobert, president of Businessweek. ‘This is the Bloomberg Businesweek brand online. The brand essence is about new angles on stories.’
“The revamp of Businessweek.com also gave its execs a chance to differentiate it from Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg bought Businessweek to raise the profile of the company, which is better known for its subscription-based financial services, and it’s not missing the opportunity with Businessweek.com, which will now feature more links to flagship site Bloomberg.com.
“‘We have two pretty good Web sites that serve different functions,’ said Josh Tyrangiel, the editor of Businessweek and Businessweek.com. ‘Bloomberg.com has hundreds and hundreds of stories a day covering [news] in real-time. [Businessweek.com] will have fewer stories. But the brand is a bit more colloquial and analytical. They can, and will be, more distinct and point back and forth.’”
Read more here.
Inside the design process at Bloomberg Businessweek
by Chris Roush
Adam Clark Estes of The Atlantic talked to Bloomberg Businessweek creative director Richard Turley about how the magazine’s cover is designed each week.
Here is an excerpt:
Let’s be honest. Bloomberg Businessweek‘s gotten suprisingly edgy lately. What’s up with that?
It’s funny because I don’t think we are. Everyone takes covers, interprets covers in a slightly different way. When you’re privy to the process, it demystifies it a bit. When you’re part of the process it loses the surprise value. So, I don’t see this one as particularly surprising. I think it’s fun. But, yah, it’s nice that everyone thinks that.
Tell us more about that process.
Generally speaking it’s just me and Josh Tyrangiel, the editor. We’re generally very informal. I don’t know if you know the geography of the office but we sit literally opposite each other and that enables us to talk and not to have meetings. The cover conversations happen quite quickly. Sometimes that’s a product of our proximity. Sometimes we just email a bit and say something and come up with an idea. Josh comes up with a lot of the cover ideas. It was Josh who said, “How about planes having sex for the cover?” And I was like “YES.” Sometimes I get a bit too much of the credit. We have a good relationship. We have a good partnership. We disagree occasionally. But we know when we have a good idea and don’t try to get in the way of it.
How much was Josh involved in the redesign process a couple of years ago?
He was there from day one. Norm Pearlstine recruited Josh and me. I think Josh started two or three weeks before me. It was from Josh’s original sketch. Josh wrote quite the detailed essay to get the job here when he was applying — what the magazine was, what we should be doing, and what the magazine should be. I took on the magazine’s redesign very much on the back of that. From the orignal brief it evolved and changed. He was completely instrumental. He was there all the time. It would’ve been this time of year two years ago that I came to Bloomberg in New York for the first time.
Read more here.
Jack and Suzy Welch to write column for Reuters, Fortune
by Chris Roush
Jack and Suzy Welch, who previously wrote a management column for BusinessWeek, will now write a column for Reuters.
Jack Welch is the former CEO of General Electric, and Suzy Welch is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review.
At Reuters, they will be reunited with editor in chief Stephen Adler, who ran BusinessWeek when they wrote their column for the glossy weekly.
In a news release posted earlier Monday on JimRomenesko.com, it states, “The couple’s column will focus on management lessons derived from the week’s news events and deliver insight into business challenges across corporate and this election year’s political landscapes.
“‘We’re thrilled to welcome Jack and Suzy to our high-profile team of columnists, and bring the perspective of these great business minds to our growing audience,’ said Stephen J. Adler, Reuters editor-in-chief.
“The Welch column will be featured across Reuters digital platforms, including Reuters.com and its mobile companion NewsPro, and distributed to Reuters media clients globally, including videos with the Welches to accompany selected columns. The column will also run, with Reuters branding, in Fortune magazine and on Fortune.com.”
Read more here.
Reuters hires Grover from Bloomberg Businessweek
by Chris Roush
TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Ronald Grover, the longtime Los Angeles media reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek, has resigned to accept a position with Reuters.
Grover will become the Los Angeles bureau chief for Reuters. The change will be announced as soon as later Friday.
While Reuters has been hiring a number of big-name business journalists in the past year, this move is an important hire in that Reuters now has a deal for much of its Hollywood business coverage with The Wrap. Grover’s hiring means that the news service would become more aggressive in covering that beat.
Grover covers the media and entertainment industry for Bloomberg Businessweek in Los Angeles. Grover joined BusinessWeek’s Washington bureau in 1979, covering energy policy. From 1982 to 1986 he was BusinessWeek’s congressional correspondent.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1986 as a correspondent, covering entertainment, politics, and other business news.
Grover has appeared on numerous national television and radio programs including CNBC’s “Kudlow and Cramer,” “America Now,” and “Squawk Box,” as well as PBS’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.” Most recently, he appeared on CNBC’s “Kudlow and Cramer” discussing the “Hollywood Heist” cover story.
Grover holds an MBA from George Washington University and a master’s from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of “The Disney Touch.”
Is the latest Businessweek cover smart of sophomoric?
by Chris Roush
Former BusinessWeek chief of correspondents Joe Weber, now a University of Nebraska journalism professor, writes about the latest cover of Bloomberg Businessweek, which features two airplanes apparently fornicating, by asking his students what they thought about it.
“Many found it funny. ‘It’s fun. I like the design. It’s a mature joke,’ she said.
“Of course, opinion wasn’t unanimous. A solid minority, including some who found the image entertaining, thought it ‘inappropriate’ for a national business magazine. Some even worried about kids seeing it on the dining-room table or newsstand. Two found it ‘distasteful.’ While saying she found it ‘slightly inappropriate,’ one hurried to add that she was not offended.
“And some were just perplexed. ‘It’s just a couple airplanes,’ said one. ‘Airplanes can’t have sex.’ Another said he couldn’t get the image at first, since it looked like a couple planes colliding or flying in tandem. And one, blushing, said the word that came to mind was ‘sexual,’ and she added that the idea was ‘disconnected.’ She asked, ‘why refer to two plane companies as sexual?’”
Read more here.