BizWeek brass braces

Bloomberg LP’s top brass met with the staff of BusinessWeek for the first time yesterday, reiterating a pledge that there will be “no mass layoffs” in the wake of its purchase of the weekly from McGraw-Hill.

That hasn’t stopped speculation that most of BusinessWeek’s upper management will soon be looking for jobs.

“I’ve always believed there’s two problems with print journalism today,” Mayor Mike Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of the media and information giant, said at a City Hall press conference. “One is lack of advertising, some parts of which will come back. And two, when nobody’s buying your magazine or newspaper you’re not writing what people want to read.”

That didn’t seem to be a ringing endorsement of BusinessWeek’s leadership, including President Keith Fox and Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler.

Bloomberg didn’t accompany Chief Content Officer Norm Pearlstine, President Dan Doctoroff, multimedia head Andy Lack and Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Matt Winkler to the McGraw-Hill Building yesterday.

BusinessWeek’s Web site said Bloomberg LP is paying $2 million to $5 million in cash for the company, and assuming liabilities and future severance. Subscription liabilities and severance payouts could be in the tens of millions of dollars. BusinessWeek has about 420 staffers, about 200 of them on the editorial side.

The magazine lost $43 million last year and is projected to lose between $60 and $80 million for 2009. The deal is expected to close Dec. 1.