Archive for October, 2009
By Kyle Austin
As I alluded to yesterday, Bloomberg L.P. and McGraw-Hill have come to an agreement on the acquisition of BusinessWeek.
In a likely sign of things to come, the deal was broken on the Bloomberg wire yesterday evening, with an in-depth report following on BusinessWeek.com. As of now, it looks like BusinessWeek and BW.com will remain their own brands, with layoffs not occurring until the deal closes in December.
Here’s the full memo to BusinessWeek staff from the magazine’s publisher, Keith Fox:
All,
Moments ago, McGraw-Hill announced that Bloomberg L.P. has agreed to acquire BusinessWeek. This is exciting news on many levels. Joining forces with another of the world’s leading news organizations enhances BusinessWeek’s ability to further serve our global audience and our valued customers. And Bloomberg will gain a powerful brand with a history of editorial excellence and strong reach among business professionals.
While the ink is barely dry and the long-term plans are being worked out, we do know that Bloomberg is committed to and values our brand, our editorial integrity, and our ability to drive advertising, circulation, and new digital revenue.
BusinessWeek will strengthen Bloomberg’s online, television and mobile products and creates an opportunity for Bloomberg News to reach decision makers in the c-suite. Online, BusinessWeek.com and Bloomberg.com will have more unique visitors than any non-portal business and financial site. In addition, Bloomberg expects to build television content around the powerful BusinessWeek brand and our world-class journalists.
I am tremendously proud of the work all of you have done in the past few months. Despite the uncertainty, we have continued to produce first-class products for our readers and advertisers, and I want to thank you deeply for your efforts. I also want to thank Steve Adler, Jessica Sibley, Tania Secor, Roger Neal, and Linda Brennan, for their extraordinary ability to personify the best of BusinessWeek during the deal process while leading their respective organizations.
I know that while this announcement answers some of the questions you’ve been asking over the past few months, it raises others. The sale is expected to close by the end of the year and we will be working on transition plans in the coming weeks. I can tell you that all BusinessWeek staffers will remain employees of The McGraw-Hill Companies until the transaction closes, and that it will be business as usual–producing the magazine and the website, and serving our advertisers–through the close. We will give you more details when we can.
We’ll be holding a town hall meeting later today at 5:45 EST, after which a Q&A will be provided to all employees; you will receive more details shortly. A call for the Asia teams will be scheduled shortly.
Again, I want to thank you all for your professionalism and dedication during a challenging time. I look forward to working with you on the promising next chapter in BusinessWeek’s history.
Keith
October 14th, 2009
By Molly Galler
Last week, publishing giant Condé Nast announced it would be closing four of its magazines – Cookie, Elegant Bride, Modern Bride and the iconic food publication, Gourmet. While the foodies are still wearing all black and mourning the loss of Gourmet, Condé Nast has been hard at work on its next venture – an online dating website.
No, you did not misread that. In the wake of budget cuts, Condé Nast is seeking a new stream of revenue and is courting a new industry. Is Condé Nast off its rocker, or just paying attention?
Despite the dramatic effects of the recession across all types of businesses, online dating has continued to boom, even websites that require a paid subscription. Both eHarmony and Match.com have reported increased registration in 2009.
While publishing houses cope with the reality that consumers would rather read content online, on their mobile phones and/or their e-readers, perhaps it makes sense for Condé Nast to explore a business venture that lends itself to the new, technology savvy consumer.
With that in mind, TrulyMadlyDating.com was launched under the Condé Nast umbrella. According to Melissa Noble of YourTango.com, “TrulyMadlyDating.com is Condé Nast’s official online dating site and what separates it from, say, Match.com, eHarmony or OkCupid? Everyone is just mah-valously dressed, dahling.”
The site brands itself as recommended by GQ and Glamour, two of Condé Nast’s leading publications. Will this endorsement help keep the magazines afloat?
It’s possible, according to Media Bistro writer Amanda Ernst. In a recent interview she conducted with Caroline Little, the North American CEO of Guaridan News & Media (U.K.), Ernst reports, “We asked what we always ask very powerful media people: can digital advertising replace what we’ve lost in print ads? Little’s response was a resounding no. She said print publications were going to have to look for alternate streams of revenue, and she specifically pointed to a dating service that the Guardian operates in the U.K. called Soulmates. “You could use that in local markets,” Little said of U.S. publications. Looks like Condé Nast is well on its way to taking that advice.”
While recent struggles may have sent Condé Nast into fight or flight mode, it seems the publishing company may have latched onto a promising, new, business opportunity.
What do you think? Can Condé Nast succeed in matching the Glamour girls with the GQ boys? More importantly, can they profit from this new venture, and profit enough to keep their existing print publications on newsstands?
Disclosure: eHarmony is a client of Racepoint Group.
October 14th, 2009
By Kyle Austin
According to several media reports (some of those from BW staffers themselves), McGraw-Hill’s 80 year reign with BusinessWeek will likely come to an end this week.
Tom Lowry, BusinessWeek’s senior media reporter, who is also filling in on Jon Fine’s media blog while he’s on sabbatical (there may not be a magazine for him to come back to), noted yesterday:
“That an announcement regarding the sale of BusinessWeek is expected within the next few days, say executives familiar with the situation.”
Shira Ovide of the Wall Street Journal echoed Lowry today by quoting sources close to the negotiations:
“Bloomberg LP, is likely to emerge as the buyer, according to people with knowledge of the talks.”
Ovide also foreshadowed what could be widespread layoffs for BusinessWeek staffers once a prospective deal is finalized:
“Relatively little money is expected to change hands in any sale. The people said final-stage negotiations have focused less on the purchase price than on whether McGraw-Hill or the new owner would be responsible for paying severance to the BusinessWeek staffers expected to lose their jobs after a sale.”
We’ve heard rumors about plans to cut BusinessWeek staff by 20% for some time and it appears that the sale would make large cuts a reality according to Rafat Ali, who has been following the BusinessWeek bidding closely for PaidContent.org.
“Bloomberg already has the machinery running, ” noted Ali to RaceTalk. “I think maybe they will retain some big name columnists and investigative reporters but the rest will be disposed of.”
Ali, like other media outlets, speculates that most of the cuts will be on the print side of the operation, although he doesn’t believe all Web positions are safe.
“Print for obvious reasons will see most of the layoffs and I expect we’ll see the Web staff – not the Website – merged with Bloomberg.com, so some layoffs there as well,” he added.
However, contrary to some other industry pundits, he doesn’t believe Bloomberg can simply swap in writers from Bloomberg Markets Magazine.
“Some replacements will come from Bloomberg Markets Magazine, although both are different mags. ‘Markets’ is more for financial profession and BusinessWeek is more for the general business reader,” he concluded.
October 13th, 2009
By Kyle Austin
Ayelet Noff put up a very insightful post last week on the top five misconceptions about Social Media, which had a good answer to the “is social media only right for certain companies” question. Her answer: “Social media is right for every brand as long as the brand is able to find its target audience within a certain platform and converse/interact with it in an effective manner,” is what really got me excited about this announcement from Zipcar last week.
Yes, Zipcar is already a really, cool, consumer company. Look no further than the recent cover of Fortune. However, when we talk about finding the right social media channel to reach your customers / target audience, this is still great example.
Last week the Cambridge, MA- based, ‘car-share,’ company made news by officially announcing an iPhone app that allows its users to:
- Find available Zipcars on a map using their current location, favorite location, or any location
- Reserve a Zipcar anytime, anywhere
- Sort cars by time available, car type and model
- View upcoming reservations
- Get directions to their Zipcar
- Easily locate their reserved Zipcar by telling it to honk its horn
- Unlock and lock their Zipcar after scanning their Zipcard at the start of each reservation
- Extend or cancel reservations on the go
Sounds like great value, but what makes it truly great as a business / marketing move is the stat which Scott Griffith, Zipcar’s chairman and CEO, was using in media interviews as well as the press release. In polling their user base, Zipcar uncovered that 25 percent had iPhones. Talk about a marketing / channel sweet spot! In addition, in an interview with Wired, their CTO noted:
“There are currently 15 million people within a block of a Zipcar service station and about 47 million iPhone customers,” he said. “We therefore estimate that our car sharing network could potentially increase to 32 million customers in years to come as a result of our new partnership and expansion into new markets.”
Zipcar is obviously on the leading edge of integrated marketing. With more than 23,000 fans on Facebook, past use of ‘social experiments’ and a broad understanding of the power of their brand advocates, their use of an iPhone isn’t necessarily surprising. However, their understanding of the new channels available to reach their target audience, and the research that brands / agencies need to put into finding the right channels, should serve as a case study for other brands.
October 5th, 2009
By Ben Haber
Google Wave was officially launched this week, and so far the lucky 100,000 invited users haven’t had many nice things to say about it. While it’s still very early to make any predictions about its future, here is a rundown of what some bloggers have said about Google wave so far.
Robert Scoble: “This service is way over-hyped and as people start to use it they will realize it brings the worst of email and IM together: unproductivity.”
Steven Hodson: “Am I impressed? Not yet. Not in the least. Sure the real time display of all the people in each of the waves you are involved in might be rather neat but I’m honestly not sure how long it will be before it gets old, boring and irritating.”
John Scalzi: “Google Wave basically strikes me as an innovative small business collaboration tool…Google Wave will not replace your e-mail, paint your house, give you a kidney.”
Meanwhile, Computerworld’s Sharon Gaudin says that the hype surrounding Google Wave should not be ignored, and reporters analysts say Google Wave could find its initial success as an alternative to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
Hopefully Google will quickly foll out the Wave to more people before the masses get frustrated .
October 2nd, 2009
By Molly Galler
This morning Peter Shankman, PR guru and founder of Help A Reporter Out, tweeted “Social Media is nothing more than a platform to showcase customer service, whether good or bad. Are your CS priorities accurate?”
Customer service via social media is the top priority for electronics giant Best Buy as it ramps up its ad campaign for the holiday season. According to a piece by Saul Hansell in today’s New York Times, Best Buy is centering their entire holiday advertising campaign around their customer service Twitter handle @Twelpforce (Twitter + Help Force = Twelpforce).
The ads feature customers asking a question to a stadium full of blue shirt wearing Best Buy tech geeks while the Twitter web address is superimposed on the screen. While not all consumers are using Twitter (or even know what it is), Best Buy recognizes that a majority of their customers are gadget addicts who are likely very technologically savvy. With that in mind, Best Buy is reaching their customers where they are – using Twitter on their phones, lap tops and desk top computers.
Barry Judge, Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer commented to the New York Times, “ . . . many people who watch the commercial will have no idea what Twitter is. That’s O.K. The commercials stand on their own, but the Twitter reference adds a little post Web 2.0 sizzle for those in the know.”
The emergence of the Twelpforce in July of this year scored Best Buy a cover story on Tech Crunch. Since then the Twelpforce has earned nearly 13,000 followers and has answered an estimated 20,000 questions from interested consumers.
And Best Buy is not stopping there. The company has revamped their Facebook page to allow for easier feedback on products between users. The company also plans to release videos of 25 Christmas songs with new lyrics that talk about the best tech gifts for this season. The videos will be released online, using the Tiny URL service to shorten the links and make sharing easier on social media platforms. Can you hear it? “Jingle bells, buy a Dell. . .”
Best Buy has fully embraced social media by actively using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to allow consumers to engage with the brand, learn about new products and promotions, and access live customer service. When the company reports its Q4 sales numbers, surely this will have a significant and measurable impact.
To companies who fear the “untamable social media beast” I say, observe the Twelpforce and start taking notes.
October 1st, 2009
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