Business Week gives up on Asian edition

The news that Business Week is shuttering its separate Asian (and European) editions will come as no surprise to many. We have written here and in other publications about the challenges of English language regional print media. With Asiaweek and the Far Eastern Economic Review gone as news publications, there are very few left.

Local language editions in the bigger markets seem to work and the reports say that the Chinese and Indonesian editions of Business Week will survive. Presumably McGraw Hill will want to push forward with its plans for an Indian edition as well.

One interesting detail not mentioned in the IHT story linked above has been picked up by Crain's B2B when it says that the print editions will be replaced "with special European and Asian online editions". This confirms a trend that we have been spotting for a while. While digital and online editions of print titles have been slow starters in domestic markets, particularly in the US, they appear to be an effective way of reaching small but influential international readerships.