McGraw-Hill could reap just $1 from a sale of Business Week, according to people familiar with the 80-year-old financial magazine’s losses.

The publisher has appointed Evercore, the boutique investment bank, to sell the business after concluding it was non-core, two people familiar with the decision said.

McGraw-Hill, which owns the Standard & Poor’s rating agency and a large educational publisher, would only say it was “exploring strategic options” for Business Week. Evercore did not return calls.

Auctioning a predominantly print business exposed to financial advertisers during a media recession will be challenging.

According to the Publishers’ Information Bureau, Business Week’s advertising revenues fell by a third to $77.8m in the first half of 2009. The magazine says its circulation is 936,000.

Bankers said it was unlikely that Time Inc, publisher of Fortune, or Forbes would bid. Condé Nast closed Portfolio, a business glossy, in April.

Reed Phillips, managing partner of DeSilva & Phillips, the media investment bank, said more likely buyers were OpenGate Capital, which bought TV Guide; Platinum Equity, owner of the San Diego Union Tribune; and Mansueto Ventures, a publisher.

Platinum and OpenGate would not comment. Mansueto did not return calls.

The $1 for which OpenGate bought TV Guide “is probably the kind of deal that would be obtainable for Business Week”, Mr Phillips said. Another banker said: “I think they’ll end up giving it away.”

Peter Appert, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, estimated that McGraw-Hill would receive minimal proceeds from the sale, but would cut annualised losses of ”at least $10m-$20m” this year and remove ”a continuing distraction”.

In April, McGraw-Hill reported a 76.4 per cent drop in first-quarter operating profit from its information and media division – which includes Business Week, JD Power & Associates and Platts – to $2.8m.

Among the few groups investing in print media, Bloomberg would not comment and Bonnier said it had always favoured niche acquisitions. News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, said it was not interested.

The news came as Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced plans for a group of examiners to focus on supervising credit rating agencies such as S&P and Moody’s.