Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
In January 2008, on learning that iconic Australian business magazine The Bulletin would be closing its doors, we offered to buy the title for one dollar. Here’s the post, which generated a long discussion among our passionate and erudite readers.
The subsequent interest in our cause was so great that it prompted us to even release a mock covered edition announcing the fictional launch of ‘The Bullantin’ (right).
This week, we learned that BusinessWeek, often called the “flagship” of McGraw-Hill, has been put on the market.
As a sign of the times, The New York Post reports that BusinessWeek, which ran profits as high as $100 million a year during the Internet boom, lost more than $45 million last year and may lose up to $75 million in 2009.
The latest twist in this tale involves the rumour that BusinessWeek is in such bad shape that McGraw-Hill would be happy to sell the masthead (and its debt) for… yes… you guessed it… one dollar.
At the time of The Bulletin’s demise, our readers evaluated the pros and cons of such an acquisition through their blog comments.
But this time around, the operating environment for a print product is radically different.
Somehow I suspect that even for one dollar, BusinessWeek might be stretched to find a buyer. And this publisher is not alone.
It’s been an interesting year for publishers and, speaking from the coal-face, more changes can be expected. And Anthill is no exception. (Watch this space.)
