Tag Archives: Crain’s publications
SABEW members fell 6 percent in 2009
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Membership in the Society of American Business Editors and Writers dropped by 6 percent, or about 200 business journalists, in 2009, according to a report given to its members Saturday.
The organization now has approximately 3,000 members.
However, some large business news organizations increased their SABEW membership. Journalists in the group from Thomson Reuters rose to 475 at the beginning of 2010 from 280 during the same time a year earlier. Thomson Reuters is the largest institutional member.
Bloomberg has the second-largest number of SABEW members, with 394 at the beginning of 2010. That’s up from 383 a year earlier. Dow Jones Newswires is No. 3, with 186 members, equal to its SABEW total from 2009.
SABEW membership from the Associated Press fell to 94 at the beginning of the year from 134 ar the beginning of 2009.
Other business news organizations with large membership in SABEW include USA Today, Marketwatch.com, The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, Crain’s Chicago Business and the Los Angeles Times.
Weekly biz papers becoming more powerful than daily biz sections
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A story in the January/February issue of Columbia Journalism Review notes that in many metro markets across the country, the weekly business newspaper is running more business news content than what readers are getting in the daily newspaper.
Chris Roush writes, “The shift could have broad implications, because weeklies and dailies have traditionally defined their missions in different ways. Dailies have generally paid more attention to the big, public companies in most metro markets. Fewer reporters and a smaller newshole may make them weaker watchdogs—which could mean they’ll miss the next Enron scandal when it occurs. Weeklies, on the other hand, have historically focused more on breaking news about smaller companies.
“Their new prominence could help correct the press’s relative lack of attention to small and privately held companies, which account for 99.7 percent of all businesses and more than 50 percent of the non-farm private sector workforce. Weeklies have also traditionally been more aggressive in coverage of local real estate—in fact, many of them warned earlier this decade about problems in their local housing markets, though their warnings didn’t reach a broad audience.
“But those old mission statements may now be up for review. Whitney Shaw, the CEO of American City Business Journals, says that as dailies cede ground in coverage of transportation, education, technology, and health care, each becomes a ‘ripe area’ for the weeklies to ‘enhance and expand their coverage.’”
Read more here. A subscription is required
Ad Age executive editor leaving
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Advertising Age named Abbey Klaassen as its new executive editor on Thursday, replacing Jonah Bloom, who is leaving Ad Age to become CEO and editor-in-chief of B2B blog network Breaking Media.
An Ad Age story states, “Ms. Klaassen, currently digital editor for Ad Age, joined the publication five years ago, and has developed a number of successful new products for Ad Age, including the annual Digital Issue and companion Ad Age Digital Conference, the Digital Next blog and her twice-weekly newsletter. Her experience at Ad Age before that includes coverage of TV, radio and out-of-home advertising.
“Before joining Ad Age, she was assistant editor in Minneapolis at Mpls-St. Paul Magazine, and wrote for the Twin Cities Business Monthly.
“‘Jonah did a tremendous job for us as editor, and we will definitely miss him,’ said Rance Crain, Ad Age editor-in-chief. ‘But Abbey is a great editor in her own right. We are very happy to see her move into this new role as leader of the Ad Age editorial team.’”
Read more here. Also leaving Ad Age is senior editor Matthew Creamer. He is also going to Breaking Media.
Crain's in dispute with its British publisher
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Crain’s and the publisher of its British newspaper, Crain’s Manchester, are in a tussle that has led the newspaper publisher to file charges against Arthur Porter.
How Do, a British site that follows the media, reports, “Crain’s, which entrusted Porter with the launch of its first city business newspaper outside the US, has accused its publisher of gross misconduct and initiated disciplinary hearings against him.
“Porter, a vocal and avuncular presence on the Manchester media scene, is believed to have appeared at a meeting concerning the issue today.
“It relates to his behaviour at the paper’s Best Places to Work event on 9 June this year, which he hosted.
“How-Do managed to speak to Porter in what we believe to be the aftermath of today’s proceedings, but he would not be drawn on the issue in any way — his only comment being a firm ‘no comment.’”
Read more here.
Crain's New York ed director leaving to run CUNY biz journalism program
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TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Greg David, the editorial director at Crain’s New York and the weekly paper’s former editor, is leaving the paper to oversee the business journalism program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
Sarah Bartlett, a former BusinessWeek editor and New York Times business reporter who had run the business journalism program, will remain at CUNY and run the urban journalism program. Bartlett had been operating both programs, while David had been an adjunct at the school.
“I’m convinced that our business program will be greatly strengthened by Greg’s involvement,” said Bartlett in an e-mail. “He will be at the school every day, focusing on building up the program’s prominence.”
David had been editor of Crain’s New York for much of the paper’s 24-year existence before stepping down in September 2008.
“I love teaching and I have found it almost exactly like being editor, which I always defined as making reporters better,” said David by e-mail. “I love the J-School. Just like Crain’s in the ’90s, it’s an upstart making a name for itself. Sarah has built a great foundation, and I am very lucky to get the chance to build the program.”
In his current position, David writes the paper’s editorial page and a twice-a-month column covering the economy, New York politics and journalism. He also moderates the Crain’s breakfast forums on public policy issues as well as its economic and new media breakfasts.
Bloomberg's bigger strategy
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Matthew Flamm of Crain’s New York Business writes about how Bloomberg‘s pursuit of BusinessWeek magazine signifies the company’s aggressive growth strategy of its media business.
Flamm writes, “The pursuit of BusinessWeek is part of what’s known as Plan B—a strategy announced by Bloomberg in July 2008 to grow company revenue to $10 billion by 2013, partly by adding a focus on consumer media. The privately held company had sales of about $6.1 billion last year, says Douglas Taylor of Burton-Taylor International Consulting. He expects revenue to be up slightly in 2009, driven by growth in emerging markets.
“In addition to Mr. Pearlstine, Bloomberg also brought in former NBC News chief Andy Lack last October. His task is to revamp Bloomberg TV—an also-ran in television business news—as well as its radio and Web operations.
“The company’s core business remains its terminals, ubiquitous in trading rooms around the world. Today Bloomberg has around 275,000 subscribers, down about 4% from last year, according to Mr. Taylor.
“Rented for $1,590 to $1,900 per month, the terminals provide cutting-edge software and analytics, as well as an endless bounty of news drawn from the Web and from the company’s 2,300-strong news and multimedia staff.
“Thanks to the terminals business, the company is pretty much the only major news organization in the country that is hiring rather than firing. Still, some insiders are leery of Bloomberg’s decision to devote more energy to its consumer media offerings. They fear that the shift could cannibalize some of the terminals business while adding little revenue. Their concerns extend to the potential acquisition of BusinessWeek. The 80-year-old title lost $43 million in 2008.”
Read more here.
Former Financial Week staffers behind new CFOZone.com
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TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Three former editorial staff members of the defunct Crain’s publication Financial Week are prepping to launch a new site called CFOZone.com next month that hopes to combine professional social networking with editorial content.
Ronald Fink, the editor of CFOZone.com and former executive editor of Financial Week, told Talking Biz News Tuesday that he hopes the new site will go live in two weeks.
“The way I’m looking at it, it’s kind of a cross between Financial Week and CIOZone,” said Fink. “It’s news, analysis, commentary, community and tools for CFOs and other corporate finance leaders.”
The other two former Financial Week staff members involved in the launch are managing editor John Goff, who was the Web editor at Financial Week, and senior editor Matthew Quinn, who was assistant managing editor at Financial Week. Crain Communication closed the print version of Financial Week in December and the online version in March.
CFOZone.com will be a sister site to CIOZone.com, which was launched 18 months ago. The parent company is PSN Inc.
“Financial Week was more of a news site,” said Fink, also the former deputy editor of CFO Magazine. “Here, the vision is to create a professional social network in this space.”
The site, however, will have a Reuters news feed, and an editorial staff that will produce original news and analysis. CFOZone.com plans to use freelancers as well, said Fink.
The site wants to attract CFOs, treasurers, accountants, controllers and others involved in company finance as members, getting them to post blogs, comments and forum threads on topics that are dearest to their hearts.
“The emphasis is on generating a lot of repeat visits among a select audience as opposed to getting millions of visitors,” said Fink. He added that there are CIOZone.com advertisers who are interested in the new site.
“It’s like a new lease of life. We were very into FinancialWeek.com. We were knocked for a loop when they pulled the plug, not that it was a complete surprise. It wasn’t given a long enough leash. We’re ecstatic to have this opportunity.”
Reach Fink at rfink@cfozone.com. Goff is at jgoff@cfozone.com, while Quinn is at mquinn@cfozone.com.
Biz publications winners named
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Sean Callahan of BtoB Magazine has some of the winners in the annual Alliance of Area Business Publications contest.
Callahan writes, “The best magazine award went to Twin Cities Business. The Los Angeles Business Journal was named best large tabloid newspaper. The best small tabloid newspaper award went to Central Penn Business Journal.
“Crain’s Cleveland Business received the award for best newspaper front page. The best Web site award went to Crain’s Chicago Business. Crain’s New York Business was honored for best daily e-mail. All three Crain titles are published by Crain Communications Inc., which also publishes BtoB.
“The best industry specific e-newsletter award went to The Daily Transcript.”
Read more here.
Crain's New York to cut issues
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Keith Kelly of the New York Post reports that Crain’s New York Business will cut some printed issued later this year.
Kelly writes, “Crain’s New York Business said it is going to chop five more issues from its publishing schedule this year and do six ‘double issues’ in total, bringing to 46 the number of issues the paper will publish this year.
“Last year, the weekly skipped only one week, and that was at the end of the year.
“This year, Crain’s New York will pub lish double issues around July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and at the end of year. It will also publish just three issues in August.
“‘We have a vibrant online product and felt we needed to find some efficiencies,’ said Crain’s New York Publisher Jill Kaplan.”
Read more here.
More to Detroit biz news than cars
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Keith Crain, editor in chief of Crain’s Detroit Business, writes on the 25th anniversary of the paper’s founding that its focus hasn’t changed — it still wants to report on the business news in Detroit that others ignore.
“That’s all we covered then and that’s what we do today.
“We started covering all sorts of local businesses that were never reported on before.
“Retail, real estate, health care, education and, yes, government, were surprised that we were interested 25 years ago. They aren’t surprised any longer.”
Read more here.