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This spring the editorial team at BusinessWeek began producing special reports in a cooperative effort with the business editors of USA Today. Their first joint project,
"Investing for Growth," ran in a BusinessWeek bonus issue along with the "BW50" ranking of top-performing companies. The same content ran simultaneously in a USA Today
supplement.
"There are a lot of similarities between the audiences of the two groups and we thought that if we put our editorial desks together we could come up with some interesting
products," says Joyce Barnathan, assistant managing editor at BusinessWeek.
BusinessWeek draws some 5.5 million readers worldwide, while USA Today claims 9.9 million total readers. USA Today readers skew slightly more male than female, and have an
average household income over $82,000. BusinessWeek reaches a similar demographic.
Content/Contacts
Plans for the joint editorial effort are loose at this point. Barnathan says the special projects could appear once a quarter, depending on reader and advertiser interest
levels. Subject areas likely will include topics such as retirement, business travel and computer buying.
"The problem right now is that we only generally know what areas we want to look at," says Barnathan. The plus: You can get a jump on the flood of pitches that will come in
once plans are finalized.
For retirement, the senior editor of the Investor Section at BusinessWeek is Jeff Lederman. The best route into the joint-venture content is to approach either publication
through those usual access points for a given topic, at least for the time being. Contact all editors at [email protected].
Pitch Tips
"We are always just looking for fresh angles from which to approach subjects that people are interested in," Barnathan says. "Retirement is a rich subject now, especially with
the Baby Boomers entering that period, so any interesting or fresh ways that people are thinking about this issue will likely appeal to us. If there is a trend that is picking up
steam, we are interested in that."
In general, both publications are looking for big-picture stuff. "We get bombarded with things like, 'So-and-so has now changed jobs and is now specializing in retirement. Do
you want to talk to him?' That is not a helpful pitch," says Barnathan.
Barnathan says the BusinessWeek crew is leaning toward email these days. "I don't want to get bombarded with calls, especially when I am on deadline."
Comments
The content for joint special projects between these two publishing powerhouses is not likely to be mere filler-between-the-ads. Rather, Barnathan expects to be producing some
fairly weighty material in the coming months.
"I think if you take two really great publications like this, it should have a lot of heft," she says. "We want to get the best minds from both publications and put out a
product that appeals to an even broader range of readers."
For PR professionals, this means there likely will be a high threshold when it comes to getting story ideas accepted. On the plus side, those that do make the grade can expect
to be presented in top-flight style.
In The Pipeline
Forthcoming topics haven't been formulated yet, but Barnathan expects to be able to give the PR community plenty of lead time once the two editorial teams have decided where
they are headed.
"Once this thing gets more routine, we might know in advance what projects we are working on. Then we can do a little more planning and let people know what the next big topic
will be," she said. "We will be able to give people the time they need to send in relevant ideas: The hope is that we can get together an editorial calendar for this. But it is
all still pretty early."