I had lunch on Monday with the Steve Cohn (EIC of min), and the editor, publisher, and president of a very big, very well-known, and very old gentleman’s magazine at a restaurant in the McGraw-Hill building. Of course, we talked about their magazine, the Giants game, and consumer-side gossip. But one topic of conversation that kept on coming up was the state of trade publishing in 2008. We talked first about BusinessWeek and the plight of the weekly in general. Then we talked about M&A in the B2B space, and then, finally, the topic of whether trade advertising would be strong in 2008.

Alan Greenspan famously said while chairman of the Federal Reserve that he need only look at the price of scrap metal to determine where the economy was headed. The scrap metal business is a commodity based on several commodities: essentially, the profit that scrap outfits make is dependent on the price of various metals around the world as well as the price of oil, electricity, and various other commodities. Therefore, price of scrap can be a good indicator for the economy as a whole–scrap goes up, economy doing well, scrap goes down, who knows. (I got this from The New Yorker…see John Seabrook’s article “American Scrap” (abstract) in the 1/14 issue for more. You should also read Ken Auletta’s “The Search Party” (complete article) in the same issue–it’s about Google’s lobbying efforts in Washington.)

Like scrap, trade publishing can be a good indicator of how the economy as a whole is doing. When I look at our exclusive min’s b2b Boxscores and see that the building and construction category is down as a whole about 10%, well, that indicates something to me. Just for fun, I’ll give you a quick run down of how all of our categories are doing (change is in ad pages year-to-date through November 2007, Source: IMS/The Auditor, except Business/Horizontal, which is provided by min):

Advertising & Marketing: +1.66% (A strong year in advertising has bolstered some of the big books in this category)

Automotive: -2.32% (More on this category in this week’s min’s b2b)

Banking & Finance: -.60% (Something tells me that some books in this category will be hit hard in 2008)

For the roundup of the rest of our categories, click below….

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Last night I was at the “What’s Next” BusinessWeek party that unveiled the relaunch of the hallowed business pub with a new design and new editorial organization.  The buzz at the party–from BW advertisers, editors, readers, and business luminaries like Michael Eisner and Bruce Wasserstein–was largely positive.

The buzz around the office is more neutral.  Most people thought the new cover design looks like something from the 1970s.  I personally don’t think it’s very striking, but neither was their old design, and that’s not what BW is about, anyway.  The magazine is about content, and not flash.

This is why we were surprised to see BW have such a shi-shi event to celebrate the new design.  It was held at Guastavino’s, was heavily liquored, and involved tap-dancing and live music.  We’ll give you the full details on Monday in the min team write-up.  To see what else we’ve been up to this week, click this.

It was a beautiful day at The Country Club of New Canaan in New Canaan, CT, on Monday, 8/13. After a barbecue lunch and iced-tea on the patio, spirits were high for what would be a spirited day of golf, tennis, and, in the end, charity. Personally, there was little more I could ask for. I’m proud of the 70 or so people that gave up one day of the work week to support the BPEF internships. That might sound cynical, but I’m being completely serious: it’s hard to give up a work day sometimes, especially for the people at the tournament. Many CEOs/top executives were present, including Ted Bahr (BZ Media), Andy Goodenough (Highline Media/SBM), Bob Carrigan (IDG), Steve Palm (NewBay), and several others. I haven’t talked with ABM about the final numbers, but I’m anticipating an impressive haul.

Despite the success of the day, I left the Country Club in an extremely sour mood. One of the agenda items that has been on ABM’s list for many years is to encourage women and minorities to join business media companies and to participate at ABM. I’m not a proponent of diversity for diversity’s sake, but I did not see one non-white face in the field on Monday, and it left me feeling a tad uncomfortable. It’s these kinds of events, the ones where rivals bond over links and drinks–and not the almost mandatory conferences and committee meetings–that forge real connections, and foster real inclusiveness.

I think the solution is a change in venue, and a broader invitation list. I am not accusing the country club of racism or anything like it. I will tell you, though, that I felt extremely uncomfortable there. I’m not sure why this supposedly classy place was dismissive of me at every turn, but I suspect it had something to do with my youth and the fact that I’m “not from around there.” For me, the definition of class would be making people around you feel comfortable; by that definition, the Country Club of New Canaan has little.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I was also embarrassed by the way some members of our party treated the staff at the Country Club. I realize that they were there to serve us, and, after all, it’s a job for which they get paid. But they are also people, and deserve to be acknowledged as such, and not just service drones. To me, this includes (but is not limited to) saying thank you after you bark orders at someone, and, perhaps making eye contact once in a while. But maybe I just don’t know how to behave at a fancy club.

(ABM is an organization that I’m very glad to be involved with. They do some fantastic work, and, under the leadership of Gordon Hughes, I believe that the heart of the organization is in the right place. That’s why it hurts me to see things like this go on behind relatively closed doors. That’s why I’m acting holier-than-thou in this posting. After all, if journalists aren’t holier-than-thou about things like this, who would be?)