Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman is a last-minute bidder for BusinessWeek, joining four others who are trying to buy the magazine from the McGraw-Hill Companies.
Zuckerman’s interest was first reported on BusinessWeek’s Web site yesterday and confirmed by The Post.
“We submitted a bid,” Zuckerman told The Post. The other bidders, according to BusinessWeek, are Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s media and info giant, Bloomberg LP; Strauss Zelnick’s Zelnick Media; TV Guide owner Open Gate Capital; and Platinum Equity Partners, a Beverly Hills-based investment firm that owns the San Diego Union-Tribune and has eyed the Boston Globe.
“I am a junkie for journalism,” Zuckerman told The Post, when asked why he’s bidding. “It kind of fascinates me. Obviously, we’d run it differently and financially more efficiently than they do.”
The magazine lost $43 million last year and could lose more than $60 million in 2009, sources estimate. Year-to-date, ad pages are down 35 percent from 2008, to 860 pages through the Sept. 28 issue, according to Media Industry Newsletter.
Bloomberg is considered the front-runner for BW, especially since New York magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein dropped out of the hunt in early September. That’s a view that Zuckerman concurs with: “Bloomberg seems to me the most natural buyer, but until we know what’s going to happen it’s all academic.”
Sources close to the process said McGraw-Hill hopes to bring the second round of bidding to a close, possibly by tomorrow. The magazine has been on the block since July.
Zuckerman is investing $150 million in new presses at the Daily News, which will give it four-color capability throughout the paper. “They will all be online within 60 to 75 days,” Zuckerman said. He also still owns U.S. News & World Report, which has been converted from a weekly to a monthly.
Over the years, he has sold off Fast Company magazine for more than $350 million and Atlantic Monthly, which lost money throughout his ownership.