BusinessWeek Staffers Used Ning To Communicate During Acquisition

Former BusinessWeek Community Editor Shirley Brady spoke last night about internal communications at the publication as news came out it would be sold. It was eventually acquired by Bloomberg in mid-October. Bradey was a panelist at mediabistro.com’s “Social Media and the Customer: Focus on Community Management” event.

She said long time BusinessWeek reporter Steve Baker, “set up a private Ning network to keep people in the loop of what’s happening with the sale.” The network has been helpful, as BusinessWeek alumni have joined and it has stayed active even after the sale, she said.

Baker tells PRNewser the group has several hundred members and it’s now functioning “largely as an alumni network.” In terms of attracting people to the network, Baker said, “it’s much easier to attract people to a community they already belong to [i.e. BusinessWeek] than to create a new one.”

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