Business Journals Rising

By Henry Dubroff

When America’s steel industry collapsed in the 1980s, thousands of workers lost their jobs and landmark names faded into the sunset. But in the giants’ shadow, a new market opportunity was created.

Mini-mills, smaller, energy-efficient niche producers thrived, paving the way for a reborn steel industry to flourish. One of them, Nucor, remains a model for specialized steelmaking around the world.

Similarly, the decline of the department store has led to a host of new entrants—many of them smaller and focused competitors. Think Forever 21.

Could the same thing be happening to the newspaper business? Could the decline of daily newspapers lead to the creation of successful niche publications, both in print and online?

I believe the answer is an unequivocal “yes”—particularly when it comes to local business and financial news.

It is quite possible that the demise of stand-alone business sections in many cities, and the resulting staff reductions on the financial desk, will enhance the opportunity for smaller, better-targeted and more nimble competitors.

The most likely beneficiaries are local business journals. There are about 100 of them in the U.S. and most of them publish weekly. Most have witnessed steady revenue growth in recent years and they have an attractive mix of print publications, events and electronic distribution.

Quietly, they have become a powerful force in the employment of business journalists. Today, business journals employ perhaps as many as 1,000 professionals in newsrooms across the country. They exist in markets as small as Grand Junction, Colo. and as large as Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and New York.

The best business journals strive to be seen as The Wall Street Journal for their local community. Their weekly print publication is a robust report covering a wide range of industries and topics, with particularly strong coverage of small business, commercial real state and local economic development issues. Enterprise, not wire stories, dominate.

But business journals face some big handicaps in seeking to occupy the niche being vacated by their daily competitors.

Many are not used to covering news events outside their core competencies. Their special reports include some soft feature sections that could push a traditional daily newspaper editor’s comfort level.

Often they have been viewed as the farm system for the local daily, and as such, they have been seen by young journalists as a stepping stone, not as a place that attracts top talent.

The local business journal has a lot of clout, but sometimes, those running the show don’t really know how to use it.

But over the past decade, the role of the business journal editor has become elevated in many communities. And a strong editor, working with a publisher who enjoys a community leadership role, can forge a powerful partnership to elevate the profile of the entire enterprise.

One of the things that surprised me when I left The Denver Post to become editor of the Denver Business Journal in 1995 was the willingness of a number of corporate bigwigs to return my phone calls or speak directly with me. They felt that in my previous job, there were too many newsroom agendas to feel comfortable with a one-to-one relationship.

A few other points to note about business journals:

• A weekly business journal is a different sort of news animal—it involves putting forth a lot of content at a fixed point in time. That means more preparation and plenty of templates to smooth the production process.
• Behind every successful weekly business journal there is a well thought out Editorial Calendar of special reports and, of course, a Top 25 Book of Lists. These are the engines that drive a big part of the business journal’s advertising sales effort--and drive the editor crazy at times.
• The culture of a business journal is more like a small business than a traditional newspaper. Other departments are close at hand, not on another floor. A mix of high standards and cooperation are keys to success.
• Although management can be quirky at a small shop, there’s no question that business journals have not faced the plunge in classified, auto and real estate advertising that’s devastated dailies. They may be more stable places to work in turbulent times.
• Business journals are ahead of the curve on capital costs. Since their inception in the post-World War II era, they have outsourced printing instead of owning presses and the vast majority of them are delivered via the U.S. Postal Service. We are able to drop our newspaper in the mail on Thursday and fully expect our subscribers to get the newspaper on Friday.
• Whether it is online or via events or in print, business journals are very good at creating communities of local business content users. Where the dailies have given away content online and lost core readership, business journals have been cleverer about creating an affinity between the print publication, live events and online services such as e-mail bulletins delivered to subscribers on multiple platforms.

At a recent symposium at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, the editor of Newsweek asked how many people in the audience read his magazine. Few hands went up. But a sea of arms greeted him when he asked about The Economist.

Not every weekly business journal can be as finely edited as The Economist or as lively as The Wall Street Journal Weekend edition. But interest in business journalism and business news has never been higher and the business journal, by luck and default, may become the vehicle of choice for delivering local business news in many communities.

In future columns we’ll look more closely at the culture of the business journal world and the opportunities for financial journalists pondering life after the daily newspaper.

Henry Dubroff is founder, editor and majority owner of Pacific Coast Business Times, the weekly business journal for Santa Barbara and surrounding counties in California. He also is the co-author of “Battling Big Box” a forthcoming book about the habits of successful niche companies.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism