Specialist business website TheBusinessDesk.com looks set to clean up in Manchester after reaching an agreement with Crain’s Manchester Business.

Crain Communications announced last month the weekly business journal had ceased publication.

Now the company has reached a deal with TheBusinessDesk.com to ensure ‘continuity of service’ for its online readership.

Those visiting the Crain’s Manchester Business website are now being directed to sign up to the online news provider to find out about business news affecting the Manchester area.

A statement on its website says: “In the wake of the closure of the highly respected regional business publication Crain’s Manchester Business on June 22, regional online news provider TheBusinessDesk.com is pleased to announce an agreement with Crain Communications Limited, which will ensure continuity of service for its high quality online readership.”

Crain’s Manchester Business was closed when editor-in-chief Chris Crain, also vice-president of Crain Communications Inc, said limited advertising had made the project ‘unsustainable’.

TheBusinessDesk.com has been operating in the North West since September 2008, providing free business news and daily business news alerts.

It already serves more than 40,000 business readers across the North West, Yorkshire and West Midlands.

Comments

The Red Postman (07/07/2010 17:47:49)
Hmmm….I wonder where else this kind of thing could happen?

The Cynic (08/07/2010 09:45:19)
Indeed, this is a tricky one! Businesses get so much free publicity through stories in the business media that there’s little need to actually advertise themselves/their services in the business media. As for jobs – if an accountancy firm has a vacant senior role, they advertise in specialist websites/publications or employ a head-hunter. If they have a lower level role, they normally advertise in the local paper due to its wider reach. It’s difficult to see, therefore, how Crain’s, TheBusinessDesk.com and their ilk will ever survive!!

Hilary (08/07/2010 13:09:30)
The Cynic is absolutely right. I and the team I worked with suffered from the same problem when we tried to produce a business weekly supplement. The potential clients were completely upfront about it, too. The only things they would pay for regularly were sponsored columns, for which they got a full-depth double column space for the price of an 8×2 – and over which the lawyers fought like cats – and perhaps a very good value sponsorship of the whole edition. B to B advertising is very incestuous; Joe the plumber isn’t interested, it’s all lawyers, accountants and management consultants. They want to talk about themselves, but they know that to get new clients they must advertise elsewhere. And absolutely NO-ONE wants to advertise to lawyers, accountants and management consultants…

Nutter (08/07/2010 14:59:02)
The regular readers of Crains will be disappointed if they expect the same journalism from thebusinessdesk.com which any PR will tell you is easier to get a press release into than any regional newspaper or website.

Manc journo (08/07/2010 15:55:12)
Well Nutter, those in the know will tell you one of the reasons Crain’s struggled with advertising (and advertisers) is because of its journalism. Let’s just politely say it bordered on the sensational from time to time. TheBusinessDesk.com makes no secret of the fact that it’s pro-business and its high story count inevitably means there’s going to be a bit of
press release recycling. Hardly a new thing in business journalism (check any local paper’s business pullout) but TBD does
report redundancies, company mergers, fallouts and other such negative news. Read it regularly and you’ll see. That said,
The Cynic does have a point commercially speaking but I hope he/she is proved wrong.