Bloomberg Businessweek

Bloomberg Businessweek

January 10, 2011 cover of Bloomberg Businessweek
Editor	Joel Weber
Categories	Business
Frequency	Weekly
Total circulation (2018)	325,000[1]
First issue	September 1929; 89 years ago (1929-09)
Company	Bloomberg L.P.
Country	United States
Based in	New York, NY
Language	English
Website	www.bloomberg.com/businessweek
ISSN	0007-7135

Bloomberg Businessweek is an American weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. Businessweek was founded in 1929. The magazine was created to provide information and interpretation about what was happening in the business world.^[2] It is headquartered in New York City. Megan Murphy was appointed editor of the magazine in November 2016.^[3] She stepped down from the role in January 2018 and Joel Weber was appointed in her place. The magazine is published 47 times a year.

History[edit]

Businessweek was first published in September 1929, weeks before the stock market crash of 1929. The magazine provided information and opinions on what was happening in the business world at the time. Early sections of the magazine included marketing, labor, finance, management and Washington Outlook, which made Businessweek one of the first publications to cover national political issues that directly impacted the business world.^[4]

Businessweek was originally published to be a resource for business managers. However, in the 1970s, the magazine shifted its strategy and added consumers outside the business world.^[2] As of 1975, the magazine was carrying more advertising pages annually than any other magazine in the United States.^[5] Businessweek began publishing its annual rankings of United States business school MBA programs in 1988.^[6]

Stephen B. Shepard served as editor-in-chief from 1984 until 2005 when he was chosen to be the founding dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Under Shepard, Businessweek's readership grew to more than six million in the late 1980s.^[7] He was succeeded by Stephen J. Adler of The Wall Street Journal.^[8] In 2006, Businessweek started publishing annual rankings of undergraduate business programs in addition to its MBA program listing.^[9]

Recession and Bloomberg LP acquisition[edit]

Businessweek suffered a decline in circulation during the late-2000s recession as advertising revenues fell one-third by the start of 2009 and the magazine's circulation fell to 936,000. In July 2009, it was reported that McGraw-Hill was trying to sell Businessweek and had hired Evercore Partners to conduct the sale. Because of the magazine's liabilities, it was suggested that it might change hands for the nominal price of $1 to an investor who was willing to incur losses turning the magazine around.^[10]

In late 2009, Bloomberg L.P. bought the magazine—reportedly for between $2 million to $5 million plus assumption of liabilities—and renamed it Bloomberg BusinessWeek.^[11][12] It is now believed McGraw-Hill received the high end of the speculated price, at $5 million, along with the assumption of debt.

2010 - 2018[edit]

In early 2010, the magazine title was restyled Bloomberg Businessweek (with a lowercase "w") as part of a redesign.^[13] As of 2014, the magazine was losing $30 million per year, about half of the $60 million it was reported losing in 2009.^[14] Adler resigned as editor-in-chief and was replaced by Josh Tyrangiel, who had been deputy managing editor of Time magazine.^[15] In 2016 Bloomberg announced changes to Businessweek, which was losing between $20 and $30 million. Nearly 30 Bloomberg News journalists were let go across the U.S. Europe and Asia and it was announced that a new version of Bloomberg Businessweek would launch the following year. In addition, editor in chief Ellen Pollock stepped down from her position and Washington Bureau Chief Megan Murphy was named as the next editor in chief.^[3]

Additional versions[edit]

International editions of Businessweek were available on newsstands in Europe and Asia until 2005 when publication of regional editions was suspended to help increase foreign readership of customized European and Asian versions of Businessweek's website.^[16] However, the same year the Russian edition was launched in collaboration with Rodionov Publishing House.^[17]

At the same time, Businessweek partnered with InfoPro Management, a publishing and market research company based in Beirut, Lebanon, to produce the Arabic version of the magazine in 22 Arab countries.^[18]

In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek continued the magazine's international expansion and announced plans to introduce a Polish-language edition called Bloomberg Businessweek Polska, as well as a Chinese edition which was relaunched in November 2011.^[19][20][21]

Bloomberg Businessweek launched an iPad version of the magazine using Apple's subscription billing service in 2011.^[22][23] The iPad edition was the first to use this subscription method, which allows one to subscribe via an iTunes account.^[24] There are over 100,000 subscribers to the iPad edition of Businessweek.^[25]

Criticism and controversies[edit]

On October 4, 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek published a report (by Jordan Roberson and Michael Riley) claiming that China had hacked dozens of technology corporations including Amazon and Apple by placing an extra integrated circuit on a Supermicro server motherboard during manufacturing. The claim has been heavily questioned. The report was refuted by Amazon, Apple and Supermicro. The United States security department DHS and UK's GCHQ put out statements that they saw no reason to question those refutations.^[26] NSA claims to have no knowledge of the attack. FBI, who was named by Bloomberg to be investigating the alleged attack, is prevented from commenting on it, but notes that it would have an obligation to inform US companies of attacks like these, should they occur. Experts describe the attack as implausible and in technical details impossible.^[27] One source quoted in the Bloomberg text claims that several details of the attack as described by Bloomberg are identical to hypothetical scenarios that he presented to Bloomberg. No other media organization has, by the end of October, corroborated the story. None of the 30 companies that Bloomberg claims were hit by the infiltration have confirmed this. Apple's CEO and Amazon's CTO have demanded that Bloomberg retract the story.

Honors and awards[edit]

In the year 2011, Adweek named Bloomberg Businessweek as the top business magazine in the country.^[28] In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek won the general excellence award for general-interest magazines at the National Magazine Awards.^[29] Also in 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel was named magazine editor of the year by Ad Age.^[30] In 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best in Business award for magazines, general excellence.^[31]

Name and spelling history[edit]

• The Business Week (name at founding)
• Business Week and later BusinessWeek (names under McGraw-Hill Education ownership)
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek (initial name under Bloomberg ownership)
• Bloomberg Businessweek (current name, used since 2010)

See also[edit]

• Bloomberg Markets
• Bloomberg News
• International Design Excellence Awards
• List of United States magazines

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bloomberg Businessweek.

• Official website