Keep BusinessWeek For Sale Forever: A Modest Proposal

Surely the central irony of McGraw-Hill's imminent sale of BusinessWeek is that before it was announced that the title was for sale in July, no one in the small, self-referential media world seemed to care about the magazine, much less talk about it constantly. (Another irony, of course, was that Bloomberg was the first organization to report the sale and may end up becoming the magazine's owner.) For whatever reason, the 80-year-old business title didn't have the buzz that inspired Gawker, the New York Post, PoynterOnline's Jim Romenesko or any of the other media hepatoscopists to do their things. BusinessWeek wasn't really on anyone's radar.

No more.

The fate of BusinessWeek is suddenly a hot topic for everyone covering the media beat, where before it seemed to mostly appeal to Paid Content and BW's own Fine on Media blog. The ongoing sales drama—who's bidding? who's falling out? will their be layoffs? will it be shutdown entirely?—has proved an enduring, soap opera-like fascination.

Late last week, Women's Wear Daily's Amy Wicks reported that some staffers are already packing their possession in anticipation of layoffs—regardless of whether Bloomberg, LP or Zelnick Media ends up owning the title.

Yesterday, Barron's Andrew Bary went so far to as to recommend that some investor should actually buy McGraw-Hill lock-stock-and-barrel "at a historically low valuation, when its profit outlook is brightening."

Bary continues, "Shares of the New York company, which also owns a textbook publisher and a group of media assets including four ABC TV stations, some profitable trade publications and the ailing BusinessWeek magazine, now for sale, fetch 12 times projected 2009 profits of $2.25 a share, and 11 times estimated 2010 earnings of $2.55 a share."

Such is the power of this "BusinessWeek for sale" buzz! Which brings me to a modest proposal: Whoever buys BW (the Wall Street Journal's Shira Ovide thinks that Bloomberg is looking more and more likely), should keep it for sale for as long as possible. Bloomberg should take over the title and then, as real estate agents during the housing boom used to say, "flip it." Even if no one wants to buy it—it's doubtful Zelnick Media, Mansueto Ventures, OpenGate Capital, Mort Zuckerman, or Bruce Wasserstein (who's currently in the hospital for an irregular heartbeat) would want it—surely someone will.

Keeping BusinessWeek perpetually for sale will keep Gawker, the Post, Romenesko et. al. riveted. Heck, even without a real buyer lined up, the drama of being on sale forever would keep media observers on tenterhooks indefinitely. You can't buy—or sell!—that kind of attention.

We'll know this week who winds up with the magazine. If they're smart, they'll put it up for sale again early next week. At least that would give bloggers (cough) something to write about.