San Francisco  - Business news magazine BusinessWeek has been put up for sale by its owner McGraw- Hill after suffering a 30-per- cent drop in second quarter ad sales, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

The magazine, which has 4.8 million readers in 140 countries, was founded in 1929 and has some 190 editorial employees. The report said that the company had hired investment bank Evercore Partners to handle the sale.

In addition to Business Week, McGraw Hill owns an educational publisher, the financial ratings firm Standard & Poor's, the consumer ratings agency JD Power & Associates, and a stable of other magazines. (dpa)