WASHINGTON: Financial news agency Bloomberg is considering a bid for BusinessWeek magazine, The Wall Street Journal has said.

The newspaper, citing "people familiar with the matter," said on Friday other potential bidders include Bruce Wasserstein, chief executive of investment bank Lazard Ltd., and private equity firms OpenGate Capital and Platinum Equity.

The Journal said bids for the magazine, owned by US publisher McGraw-Hill, are due next week.

McGraw-Hill said in that July it was "exploring strategic options for BusinessWeek," which has a US circulation of 936,000 and was founded in 1929.

The Journal said Bloomberg's interest in BusinessWeek reflects its interest in expanding beyond its core business of providing financial data, analytics and news to professionals.

Like other US magazines and newspapers, BusinessWeek has been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

According to its website, it has 155 editorial employees at its New York headquarters, 19 correspondents in nine US news bureaus and 14 international correspondents in 10 bureaus.

Besides Businessweek, McGraw-Hill owns the Standard and Poor's credit rating agency, McGraw-Hill Education and the market research company J.D. Power and Associates. McGraw-Hill had sales of 6.4 billion dollars in 2008.