1929–2008: Businessweek The Business Week was first published based in
New York City in September 1929, weeks before the
stock market crash. 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 it one of the first publications to cover national political issues that directly impacted the business world. The name of the magazine was shortened to
Business Week in 1934. Originally published as a resource for business managers, the magazine shifted its strategy in the 1970s and added consumers outside the business world.
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,
Businessweeks readership grew to more than six million in the late 1980s. He was succeeded by
Stephen J. Adler of
The Wall Street Journal.
Businessweek began publishing its annual rankings of United States
business school MBA programs in 1988. In 2006,
Businessweek started publishing annual rankings of
undergraduate business programs in addition to its MBA program listing.
2009–present: Bloomberg Businessweek Businessweek experienced 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. In late 2009,
Bloomberg L.P. bought the magazine—reportedly for between $2million to $5million plus assumption of liabilities—and renamed it
Bloomberg BusinessWeek. News reports published in 2019 suggest McGraw-Hill received the high end of the speculated price, at $5million, along with the assumption of debt. In early 2010, the magazine title was restyled as
Bloomberg Businessweek (with a lowercase "w") as part of a redesign. During the following years, the bold, eclectic, playful, and memetic face of
Businessweek was cultivated largely by
Businessweek creative director
Richard Turley, then Rob Vargas (from 2014), and Deputy Creative director Tracy Ma (from 2011 through 2016). During her time at
Businessweek, Ma worked on over 200 issues. , the magazine was losing $30million per year, about half of the $60million it was reported losing in 2009. Adler resigned as editor-in-chief and was replaced by
Josh Tyrangiel, who had been deputy managing editor of
Time magazine. 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 editor-in-chief. Megan Murphy served as editor from November 2016;
Brad Stone was appointed editor of the magazine in January 2024, when the magazine switched to publishing biweekly. In June of the same year, the magazine became a monthly. == Controversy ==