If you’re pitching Chicago-area business news, watch for BusinessWeek Chicago to debut in November.
About 60,000 of BusinessWeek’s local subscribers and other Chicago-area businesses will receive the free-distribution magazine.
Michael Arndt, a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek’s local bureau, will be the editor. The magazine, he says, will focus on long, analytical articles. Each issue is expected to be about 36 pages.
“I don’t think our readers would stop reading Crain’s or (the Chicago Tribune) to read what happened last week, but they’d look to us for what it means and what’s important and to provide a deeper analysis and richer writing.”
That probably means you shouldn’t bother pitching routine business stories.
If history is any barometer, the new magazine will have a difficult time getting a foothold in the competitive Chicago news market. That’s because new magazines have a high failure rate. And sending a free publication to people who have not asked to receive it means potential advertisers are suspicious of exactly how many people are reading it.
I also find it odd that the magazine is debuting without a dedicated website “in order to focus its resources on the print edition.” Many of the magazine’s stories, however, will appear on BusinessWeek’s website.