Time magazine deputy editor Tyrangiel hired by Bloomberg LP to become editor of BusinessWeek

Bloomberg hires Time deputy to lead BusinessWeek

NEW YORK — Josh Tyrangiel, the deputy managing editor of Time magazine, will become editor of BusinessWeek when Bloomberg LP takes over the magazine next month.

Tyrangiel will step in at a crucial transition for Bloomberg. The news and financial data provider hopes to use BusinessWeek to grow beyond its electronic terminal business and reach a more influential audience in government offices and corporate suites.

One important job will be bolstering the magazine’s Web site, an area where many consumer magazines are struggling to adapt. In announcing the appointment Tuesday, Bloomberg pointed up Tyrangiel’s Web experience, crediting him with boosting Time.com’s page views from 400 million in 2006 to a projected 1.8 billion this year. Tyrangiel is the site’s managing editor.

He also comes to the job as printed magazines face one of the worst advertising slumps in decades. BusinessWeek’s ad pages were down 29 percent year-over-year for the six months that ended in September.

Tyrangiel, 37, will report to Bloomberg’s chief content officer, Norman Pearlstine, who served as Time’s editor for more than a decade before joining a private equity firm in 2006.

In a statement, Pearlstine said Tyrangiel’s “understanding of the ways in which print and online publications can work together will serve Bloomberg well as we expand our consumer media offerings.”

After months of shopping the magazine, McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. agreed last month to sell it to Bloomberg, a private company owned and founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Although neither McGraw-Hill nor Bloomberg disclosed the price, BusinessWeek reported the sale price as between $2 million and $5 million in cash, plus the assumption of costs such as severance for any magazine employees who are laid off.

The magazine’s current top editor, Stephen Adler, plans to step down after holding the job for more than four years. In a memo last month announcing his departure, Adler said “it makes sense for a new owner to move forward with a new editor.”

Adler, who took over at BusinessWeek in April 2005, managed to keep the magazine’s circulation steady at more than 900,000 copies. He launched a sweeping redesign of the magazine in 2006 and 2007, cutting features on fashion and travel and expanding to cover more global business stories.