Ordinary Gweilo

I love this type of self-delusional nonsense.  Business Week is closing down its Asian and European editions, and has made 60 staff in Singapore redundant (SCMP via Asia Media).  They say that they are getting increased traffic on their website, so there’s no need for a different regional editions of the printed magazine. 

The truth is obviously that there is not enough advertising to support the Asian edition, but the company seem to feel that they must try to present this as if it were good news:

In order to most effectively meet current business and customer needs and to strengthen the franchise for future growth, BusinessWeek announced today that it will reposition its approach to global markets. A greater emphasis will be placed on providing online news, analysis and information and on developing local language publications while maintaining a single flagship print product.

As a result of this strategic change, BusinessWeek will cease to publish its Asian edition and its European edition. As an international subscriber, you will receive Jan 9/16, 2006 as the last issue. We are offering an option of receiving a full refund for any unmailed issues on your subscription or applying that refund to a subscription to the global edition of BusinessWeek magazine. The global edition can be delivered to you by email in a digital format or by post at your postal address.

It’s a strategic decision, and nothing to do with the Asian and European editions losing money.  Er, right…