Talking Biz News

Information about business
journalism from the
Carolina Business News Initiative.

Here are some more decisions made at BusinessWeek about its future staff once it is acquired by Bloomberg LP next month.

The previous list had gotten too long, according to some, to track.

1. Cliff Edwards, a correspondent in the Silicon Valley bureau, where he covers Intel, the semiconductor industry, handheld- and consumer-electronics companies, has been offered a job.

2. Reena Jana, the innovation department editor, is leaving the magazine. Prior to this position, she was a staff writer at BusinessWeek.com, covering innovation and design.

3. Tom Giles is going back to Bloomberg. Giles is editor of BusinessWeek.com’s Technology & Science channel, based in Silicon Valley. Before joining BusinessWeek.com in August 2005, he was deputy technology team leader at Bloomberg News, where he spent more than eight years.

4. Roben Farzad is staying with the magazine. He is a senior writer who covers finance and Wall Street who previously worked at Goldman Sachs.

Click here for the earlier list, which had information on those staying and going through noon Friday.

Lucia Moses and Andrew McMains of Adweek report Friday that Bloomberg LP has been getting in touch with advertising agencies to help it with a wide-scale branding campaign.

Moses and McMains report, “In a request for information that several big, global ad agencies received, Bloomberg said it was seeking an agency or agencies to help it with ‘corporate identity and design, advertising, media, digital, events and demand generation.’

“Bloomberg said its agency partners would preferably be New York-based and with capabilities in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

“The search comes five months after Bloomberg hired its first chief marketing officer, Maureen McGuire, a marketing vet of Sears Holdings and IBM. She declined to comment for this story.

“Although Bloomberg is a giant in financial and market data through the eponymous terminals that it leases to trading professionals, its terminal revenue has been slowing. While Bloomberg employs more than 1,500 news staffers, it also has lacked a mass outlet for its news content.”

Read more here.

Former BusinessWeek staff member Gary Weiss blogs Friday about what the magazine will look like once its sale to Bloomberg is complete, in the wake of the layoffs at the publication in the last two days.

Weiss writes, “It’s not even clear to what extent the new BW will have its own writing staff. Higher-level editors are being retained for the magazine, but so far I haven’t heard of any BW writers being retained to work exclusively for the magazine. This is crucial to the magazine’s identity, if one cares about such things.

“I’ve heard from multiple sources that the new BW will use the Bloomberg wire’s staff to cover Wall Street and finance, and that the people in my old department who have been retained will be going to the wire, not the magazine. Stock market columnist Gene Marcial is being let go, along with the rest of the magazine’s columnists. He had a substantial following, surviving previous layoffs that had already gutted the staff, but he’s history.

“The impression I get is that BW people are a bit in a state of shock over the extent to which the staff is being gutted. Can’t say I blame them. But it was obvious from the moment BW was put up for sale that this outcome was always in the cards. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in their stars, but in Terry McGraw.”

Read more here.

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

The information services department at BusinessWeek — the library where researchers found information for reporter’s stories — is being closed as part of the magazine’s sale to Bloomberg.

Those losing jobs as of Dec. 1 are director Jamie B. Russell, deputy manager Susann Rutledge, technology manager John Cady and researchers David Polek and Susan Zegel.

In an e-mail to friends that was obtained by Talking Biz News, Russell wrote, “We’ve had a great run, and I think/hope my staff — the best in the business — will land on their feet. But it’s a tough time for all — as if you hadn’t noticed.

“Personally — I’ll be launching my new career as a textile mogul!

“Stay tuned — and thanks for all your support over the years as I’ve whined about this being imminent. If you wait long enough…:-)”

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal also closed its research library.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers will hold a conference call this week for business journalists who want to learn more about covering executive compensation with more depth and meaning.

The call will be held Monday, Nov. 30, at 3 p.m. EST. The moderator will be Floyd Norris, the chief financial correspondent of The New York Times.

The call will discuss the best places to look for executive compensation data and CEO contracts, how and when executive pay rose so high, the role of shareholders in curbing executive compensation, why past government efforts to curb executive pay failed, and how executive compensation negotiations are being changes by the Obama administration clampdown.

Also on the call will be Nell Minow, editor and co-founder of The Corporate Library; Paul Dorf, managing director of Compensation Resources; and Michelle Leder, editor and founder of footnoted.org.

To sign up for the call, send an e-mail with “yes” in the subject line to sabew@missouri.edu.

Kevin Allocca of TVNewser attended a panel on how cable television covered the financial crisis of the past 18 month at Bloomberg’s New York office and filed this report.

Allocca writes, “Bloomberg TV’s Margaret Brennan facilitated the audience Q&A, but first had an interesting question of her own: what role did financial cable news play in all this?

“NYT’s Andrew Ross Sorkin said he watched ‘countless hours of television to see what people were talking about at the time,’ while doing research for his book ‘Too Big to Fail.’ He said he believes cable news did have a big impact: ‘It was the TV and the actual personalization of it — the actual watching another human being say it — that I think actually changed the resonance for people. I will say it did push the panic…because it was human.’

“Bryan Burrough, author of ‘Barbarians at the Gate,’ criticized some of the reporting on Bear Stearns: ‘The fact is, you guys just had too much time to fill and there were too many places where you can point to irresponsible speculation. Your job — you, a TV journalist — is not to reflect. There may be guys running around the 7th floor opening windows and panicking, you’re job is not to say ‘Gosh Wall Street’s panicking,’ it’s to look at facts.’”

Read more here.

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Bob Moos, a business reporter at the Dallas Morning News, is leaving the paper for a job with a federal government agency. His last day at the paper is Friday.

Business editor Dennis Fulton, in a memo to the staff, wrote, “We are losing a great one.

“After 23 years at The Dallas Morning News and more than five years writing about career challenges facing boomers, Bob Moos is taking some of his own advice. He’s reinventing his career.

“Bob has accepted a position with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as the agency’s public affairs specialist for the Southwest. In other words, he’s moving a few blocks down Young Street and will be calling us with story ideas.

“I don’t have to tell you guys how valuable Bob has been to The News throughout his career, and especially since joining Business in 2004. He pioneered a full-time beat covering boomers and aging demographics. His coverage has been groundbreaking, informative and hugely useful to our readers. Following Bob’s example, many news organizations have created similar beats.

“Before joining Business, Bob worked 18 years in the editorial department, as an editorial writer, columnist, op-ed page editor and assistant editorial page editor.

“Please join me in wishing Bob well. His last day in the office will be next Friday, Nov. 20, before he takes some previously scheduled vacation.

“His first day in the new job is Dec. 7.”

Staci Kramer of PaidContent.org reports that The Wall Street Journal now has 30,000 subscribers from Amazon.com’s Kindle reader.

Kramer writes, “At the current $15 a month, the WSJ Kindle subscriptions represent about $5.4 million annually. But it’s not that easy: the subscription price and the revenue split with Amazon shifted earlier this year; the price increased 50 percent from $10 while Amazon’s share of the take dropped. (The issue with customer relationships, a pet peeve of Rupert Murdoch, didn’t change: Amazon still controls the finances and the names.)

“I’m told that roughly half of the subscribers are still at the previous rate. That would put the current overall revenue at about $4.5 million, with Dow Jones getting less than half that. Incremental, yes, and it will continue to be. But it also should continue to grow.

“The hardest bit to decipher at this point is how many people are giving up print or WSJ.com subscriptions for e-readers and, now, the new mobile subscription.”

Read more here.

Lucia Moses of MediaWeek reports that readership increased in the past year for a number of business publications.

Moses writes, “At a time when it would seem that consumers would be seeking help to navigate the recession, business titles have seen an uptick in readership this past year, Mediamark Research & Intelligence’s fall magazine audience report shows.

“Six business titles — Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Smart Money, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist — had year-over-year increases in total audience, the twice-annual report shows.

“The Journal saw its audience grow 11.6 percent, to 3.4 million; Forbes’ grew 11.5 percent to more than 6 million; Fortune’s rose by 9 percent, to 4.1 million; and The Economist’s audience grew 6 percent, to 2.8 million.

“Yet those gains are hardly reflected in magazines’ advertising results. Take Forbes, which just went through another round of layoffs amid a 35 percent decline in ad pages year to date. Fortune is cutting its frequency in 2010 as its ad pages plummeted more than 32 percent so far this year.”

Read more here.

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Here are more of the staffing decisions made at BusinessWeek as the magazine prepares to be sold to Bloomberg LP early next month.

Those staying have been offered jobs at the magazine or at Bloomberg News. Those leaving were offered severance:

STAYING

1. Suzanne Woolley: A senior editor who covers personal finance, Woolley is in her second stint at BusinessWeek. She also was a senior writer and a senior editor at Money magazine.

2. David Welch: The Detroit bureau chief will be writing for BusinessWeek going forward and contributing to Bloomberg’s auto coverage. He previously was the auto writer for the Detroit News.

3. Burt Helm: The marketing department editor was previously with BusinessWeek Online. He has also worked at Inc. and Maxim, and is a Yale University graduate.

4. David Rocks: He has been the senior editor for global news, overseeing the foreign correspondents. Prior to taking his current job, Rocks was Asia editor for four years, leading coverage in Asia and writing his own stories about technology, politics, design trends, and more.

5. David Henry: Rocks is a senior writer in the finance section and a former associate editor at the magazine. He joined the magazine in 2001 from USA Today, where he was the Wall Street columnist.

6. Michelle Conlin: Another senior writer, Conlin covers the “working life,” a beat that includes the culture of work, social issues, work-life trends, and the labor market.

7. Peter Elstrom: An assistant managing editor at the magazine, he oversees tech coverage. Elstrom was also once the news director for BusinessWeek.com, and he has been a senior editor, associate editor and senior writer.

8. Spencer Ante: An associate editor who joined the magazine in 2000 from TheStreet.com. Ante has also been computers department editor and is the author of “Creative Capital.”

9. Tara Kalwarski: Kalwarski is department editor of the Numbers section and writes for the Personal Business section too. She was assistant managing editor at Financial Week.

10. Arik Hesseldahl: A technology writer for BusinessWeek.com. In addition, he writes the Byte of the Apple column. Previously, Hesseldahl was a senior editor and technology columnist at Forbes.com.

11. John Carey: A senior correspondent in the Washington bureau who has covered science, technology, medicine, health, and the environment for the magazine since 1989. Carey was an editor for The Scientist and worked at Newsweek.

12. Amy Feldman: An associate editor at the magazine. She is an award-winning writer and journalist with more than 15 years’ experience writing about business.

13. Ben Levisohn: Moving to Bloomberg News operations. He is a staff editor in the finance department covering finance and personal finance. He is a CUNY Graduate School of Journalism alum.

GOING

1. Pete Engardio: A well-regarded senior writer who has been working for the magazine since 1985. In 1996, he moved to New York and was editor of the Asian edition from 1998 to 2001. In 2003, Engardio received George Polk, Loeb, and Sigma Delta Chi awards. He was part of a team that won a 1998 Overseas Press Club Award.

Engardio says he has no firm plans, but he would like to continue writing about the “changing global economy and what it means for business.” He can be reached at pengardio@yahoo.com.

2. Dean Foust: The Atlanta bureau chief for the past 11 years. Previously, he covered the Federal Reserve from the magazine’s Washington bureau and continues to contribute regularly to coverage of economics and finance.

3. Amy Barrett: A senior correspondent with BusinessWeekSmallBiz, Barrett had also been the Philadelphia bureau chief for nine years, covering pharmaceuticals. She has been with the magazine since 1992.

4. Jena McGregor: The management department editor has been with BusinessWeek since 2005. She previously worked for Fast Company and Smart Money.

5. Hardy Green: Green is an associate editor at the magazine, a title he has had since 2003. He previously was books editor and a copy editor with the weekly.

6. James Cooper: Cooper is a senior editor and senior economist and writes the influential Business Outlook column. Cooper joined the magazine in 1980 and was named Business Outlook Editor in 1988, before rising to his present position in 2001.

7. Kathy Moore: A senior photo editor who has been at the magazine for more than 20 years. She was the photo editor for BusinessWeek SmallBiz since it started.

8. Peter Carbonara: A senior writer in the finance department who has been with the magazine for little more than a year. Carbonara says, “I’m a a 48-year-old feature writer and editor with 25 years of experience, including stints at Fortune, Money, The American Lawyer, Spin and public television. I am leaving journalism to make a living as a big band rhythm guitarist.  I’m also available for house painting and yard work.”

Carbonara can be reached at petercarbonara@verizon.net.

See here for earlier coverage of those staying and going.