What I Read (And How I Like to Read It)

I'm guessing maybe 20 years or so ago I had the chance to sit in on a two-day communications workshop delivered by a former University of Vermont computer science professor. During the workshop I asked him what he likes to read to keep up to date. His answer - Wired and Businessweek magazines. He was pretty sharp, impressive (wish I could remember his name) and when I got home I ended up ordering subscriptions to both.

I've kept those two subscriptions over the years with Wired keeping me up to date and entertained with new and emerging technologies and Businessweek keeping me posted on where business is going.  If I'm on the road you can bet the latest issues of each are in my bag.

Which of the two do I prefer? I've always believed business drives technology so Businessweek has been incredibly valuable to me. Some will argue it is the other way around but I've seen enough technically superior products that have flopped because the market was just not ready for them.

Last year Bloomberg purchased Businessweek from McGraw Hill and now the magazine is called Bloomberg Businessweek.  It's changed some since the purchase - there is a little more fun stuff (a la Wired) - but the business content is still really good.

Just last week Bloomberg launched a very nice iPad app called Bloomberg Businessweek+. Since I subscribe to the print version of the magazine, I get app version issues for free. Non-subscribers pay $2.99 a month - not bad since the print version is $4.99 on the newsstands. New editions come out on Thursday evenings at 10 PM and are approximately 30 megabytes each (relatively small for fast download). The app itself is the best "magazine" app I've seen so far - you can search for content across issues, clip articles and post to Twitter and Facebook. Even the "media-rich" ads are interesting to take a look at.

Will I keep my print subscription to Businessweek?  Yes - for now.

If you have an iPad, be sure to check out the Businessweek+ app.