Barbara Trent

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English 111

November 25, 2001

Comparative Essay: Two Magazines That May Be Helpful With Business

Two business magazines that will be very helpful in the field of business are BusinessWeek and Inc. Both magazines focus on the life of business and everything involved around business. These magazines give you get a clear understanding of the business field, with articles about what is going on with business today and in particular businesses. Some topics discussed in the magazines are economic analysis, government, hands on advise, case studies, and the over all of the state of small businesses.

The BusinessWeek magazine has a large variety of topics you can explore. Their goal is to help you get an understanding of what is going on today in the world of business. It is a publication of the McGraw-Hill Companies, which also produce many textbooks used in schools. If you subscribe to the magazine, you will receive 51 issues at an annual fee of  $39.95; if you are a student, you can subscribe for a fee of $37.95. The magazine contains in-depth stories, and also advertising. Most advertising deals with high tech equipment or companies and very high-class cars, such as the Lincoln. You can also access the magazine online at www.businessweek.com.

Some of BusinessWeek's features are "Up Front," "Readers Report," "Books," and "Development To Watch." The articles that they contain are well written and give an in-depth look into their topic. The articles range from being very short, like a paragraph, to multi pages, with graphs, and charts to help explain their topic.

One article in BusinessWeek called "The Center Must Hold," featured in their magazines in the week of October 22, 2001, describes what New York is going through or will go through economically due to the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.  The attacks cost them a lot of money, such as $34 billion in property damage and destroyed almost $11 billion in "human capital," which is "the productive power of those killed"(Coy, 102). Not only will money be lost but about 100,000 jobs will also be lost due to downsizing, and due to lose of work about $90 billion on output will be lost in the next three years. With all the job losses, the worst that could happen is for costs to rise, which in this case they are, with the quality of life getting worse at the same time. To try and counter all this "Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has frozen hiring and is asking many city agencies to trim as much as 15% from their spending to close a gap in a budget that until recently was expected to be in surplus"(Coy, 106). Giuliani and NY Governor George Pataki are asking Washington for $54 billion in incentives, tax breaks and subsidies, which is a lot more then the $17.5 billion that they were granted. "In the end, the September 11 attack probably did tip the balance in New York toward dispersion and away from agglomeration"(Coy, 108). But the fate of New York's economy lies in the hands of the ones who spend money, make money, and can over come such an idea of a possible depression.

The Inc. magazine target market is a future entrepreneur. Their goal is to give the reader hands on advice, case studies, and an overview of a small business in the United States. You can receive the magazine for $14 dollars a year for 18 issues, but they also have special promotion deals and discounts for companies. This magazine can also looked up at on the web at www.inc.com.

Most of the articles in Inc. deal with businesses that are already out there in the business word, new ideas that are springing up, problems that many business face, and help on getting started yourself in the business field.

One article that deals with new things popping up is one called "Lick My Biceps" by Kate O'Sullivan. The title may sound a little weird but the story that the article tells is a little weirder. The article is about a chocolate company that is making temporary tattoos out of chocolate, and games like "Strip Chocolate," which is a combination of Monopoly, strip poker, and body frosting. That just exemplifies how anything can become a profit.

Another article, found on the website, tells which cities are the best to starting up a business. The article is called "Cities that Have Soared or Sunk as a Place to Start a Business" by Emily Barker and Mary Kwak. This article gives an overview of some major cities that have moved up and those that have moved down in the business world in chart form, and then describes certain cities, and what their rank is. This magazine is good if you are planning to try and go on your own and be your own boss.

In all both BusinessWeek and Inc. are great magazines for people in the business world or are looking to get into the business field. Both will keep you up to date with all the changes that happen, and with that will help keep you afloat.

Work Cited

Barker, Emily and Mary Kwak. "Cities that Have Soared or Sunk as a Place to Start a Business." Inc. 1 Dec. 2000. 1 Nov. 2001. http://www2.inc.com/search/21919.html

Coy, Peter. "The Center Must Hold."  BusinessWeek 22 October 2001:100-108.

O'Sullivan, Kate. "Lick My Biceps." Inc. 15 November 2001. 1 November              2001.http://www2.inc.com/search/23513.html