BusinessWeek's Longest Day

It didn't rain on BusinessWeek's picnic.

In fact, Sunday was a perfect day for the employees of McGraw-Hill's embattled weekly to gather in Brooklyn's Prospect Park for a late summer get-together. To judge from the TwitPics posted by Businessweek.com community editor Shirley Brady, it was a lovely afternoon to be out in the park with ones' colleagues.

If only there wasn't so much to worry about in the coming week.

Tomorrow marks the deadline for interested parties to put in their bids for the 80-year-old magazine. Back in July, the Financial Times speculated that BusinessWeek—which has lost $20 million in 2008 according to some reports—could sell for $1.

In the last two months, possible bidders like OpenGate Capital, Mansueto Ventures (owners of Inc. and Fast Company), New York magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein, and Bloomberg, LP have emerged, but no one knows who will end up owning the magazine. BW's Jon Fine, who has been tracking his own magazine's sale with laser-like focus, offered a rundown of where the sale is in the form of a "Handy Primer on the BusinessWeek Sale Process" today, and the New York Times' Stephanie Clifford offered "BusinessWeek, on the Block and Ailing," in which she notes, "this year is not a good time to sell news media outlets."

But what's it like on the inside, watching the fate of your own publication speculated upon daily and knowing that your job—and those of your colleagues—is an open question?

"We're all just sitting wondering what the hell is going on," one BusinessWeek staffer told Portfolio.com last week. "People talk about it a lot but no one knows." (This person, as well as several others, asked to have their names kept out of any stories about BusinessWeek.)

"Everybody's nervous," said another BusinessWeek employee.

On Thursday, Bloomberg, LP emerged as the possible frontrunner in the race to buy the magazine via reports by the New York Post's Keith Kelly and BW's Fine. No figures were discussed, but Bloomberg certainly has the capital: A 2008 report valued the company at $25 billion. But Bloomberg is a notoriously grueling operation: Some are concerned about the possible pace and relentlessness of coverage under Bloomberg. "We don't want to be shackled to our desks," one person said.

"Everybody knows the kind of Bloomberg borg-like atmosphere," another said. "But they have money and he's smart and they're growing… Being bought by Bloomberg is a lot better than being shut down."

Some also wonder what Bloomberg would want besides the magazine's name. The company already has thousands of business reporters.

Last week, Stephen Baker, a BusinessWeek senior writer, wrote a blog post for his personal site, The Numerati, headlined "Why Bloomberg spells trouble for BusinessWeek," in which he said, "Conceivably, he could buy the brand and the subscribers, hold onto a handful of staffers and get his own employees to do the rest of the work. But who knows? Politics might help. Axing loads of Midtown journalism jobs would be an embarrassment for the New York mayor, one he might choose to avoid."

It's too soon to tell if Bloomberg will be the highest bid. There's still a chance for another name to emerge—Fine suggests in his primer that there may be at least one non-U.S. firm whose name has yet to be released. Until bids are in, the new owner is anyone's guess. As one person notes, "The idea that Bloomberg is a game changer is silly."

With a new owner on the horizon—whoever it may be—is there any cause for hope at the magazine?

If there is, don't ask staffers.

"We're all journalists—whiners, complainers," one person told Portfolio.com. "We're looking for the dark cloud around every silver lining."

Well, at least the picnic was nice.

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Matt Haber is the media blogger for Portfolio.com.