Nielsen Won't Deny That Brandweek, Mediaweek May Be Closed

The New York Post and MediaPost both reported a “rumor” that Brandweek and Mediaweek could be closed and wrapped into Adweek (see here and here). Such a move would be a significant climbdown for Nielsen Business Media. Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes declined to deny the rumor. He said:

We’re looking at many models that could be the next step … we haven’t made any decisions.

When asked point blank whether he could deny that Nielsen might shutter Brandweek, he said:

That’s all I can say.

The staff at the three magazines appear to be working normally and haven’t heard any bad news, BNET understands.

Some context: The idea of consolidating the three titles has been discussed internally at the company ever since the late 1990s. So this “rumor” may simply be a rehash of a very old conversation from within the group.

More recently, Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek have suffered like the rest of the news business from a decline in advertising due to the recession, and the transfer of ad dollars from the print magazines (where ad prices are high) to their respective web sites (where ad prices are low). The mags’ problems have been compounded by the dwindling importance of the upfront and of TV generally. Major advertisers across all three books were cable and TV nets touting their ad inventory to media buying agencies.

Traditionally, the magazines had an unusually successful business model. By segmenting their news and targeting it separately at media buyers, ad agency execs and marketing clients, the Adweek group sold three subscriptions where rival Ad Age only sold one.

As ad revenue declines, the three magazines have been forced to lay off staff and share content. That move raises the inevitable question, if the content and the staff are often the same, why are there still three different titles?

Historically, the answer was that the three audiences — media buyers, admen and clients — had differing interests. The clients don’t care how tight the scatter market is; the media buyers don’t care about package redesigns; and the agency people don’t care about client promos or :30 prices.

But the business integrated: Media became more creative with the dawn of the internet; ad agencies became more interested in design and retail promotion, and clients increasingly want their media and advertising to look and feel the same. So the split proposition no longer makes as much sense.

A consolidated Adweek would have some advantages: A larger staff writing more stories for a single title. It could also produce an interesting internal turf war: The group’s major advertisers (TV sales people) are most relevant to Mediaweek’s audience; Brandweek has a larger print circulation than either of the other two titles (or did until recently); but Adweek has by far the strongest brand name.

One thing is for sure: The sensible money will be on Adweek boss Alison Fahey to survive atop the masthead. She has, after all, survived every other corporate re-org at the company.

Disclosure: The author is a former employee of both Adweek and Brandweek and would be sad to see any of the three titles go.