Filling the need for local business intelligence

I found Greater Wilmington Business Journal by dumb luck.

I’d already spent months talking to newspaper brokers, scanning media websites and researching markets where I could potentially start or buy a local business publication — yet nothing clicked.

Then one night I was on the Wall Street Journal website and saw a “Buy a Business” link. I clicked and selected the “Printing/Publishing” category. And there it was — “Niche market publishing company.”

I timed my first visit to Wilmington three years ago this month to coincide with the Chamber’s annual meeting so
I could get a sense of the energy level in the business community.

Everything clicked — it was immediately obvious this was a dynamic, growing region that had a significant need for local business intelligence. Better yet, the Business Journal was already an established name, and I thought it had a lot of room to grow.

I bought the publication at the end of May 2007.

Since then, things have gone well (aside from that pesky Great Recession thing).

We redesigned the paper in late 2007 and added coverage in numerous industries, including health care, technology, hospitality, film, retail, restaurants and more. Our unofficial motto became “intensely local business news.”

In February 2008, we increased the Business Journal’s frequency from monthly to 26 issues a year, coming out every other Friday.

And all of our stories continue to be written by our local reporters and freelancers — we don’t subscribe to any national wire services.

Last year, we introduced the annual Book of Lists publication, launched a new website and began sending out daily email news updates.

Along the way, we also started the quarterly Power Breakfast Series and began hosting the Coastal Entrepreneur Awards with UNCW’s Cameron School of Business as well as the Green Living Conference and Expo with the Cape Fear Green Building Alliance.

Additionally, our office also publishes the monthly Wilma magazine, which itself underwent an extensive redesign in 2008 and launched quarterly Wilma Nights events in 2009.

The key to doing all these things, of course, is great people.

Our staff has doubled to 12 people in the past three years, and the volume and quality of work they produce is simply astounding.

It would take several more columns to detail everything done in editorial, sales, events and administration, but it’s safe to say the final products are so good because of a lot of smart people and hard work.

It is also important to note that there would be no Business Journal or Wilma if it weren’t for the vision and guts of Joy Allen, who started both publications without any of the advantages that I inherited.

So what do we have planned for the next 10 years?

One thing I’ve learned in media these days is don’t plan, certainly not that far out. Things are just changing too fast.
A vision I keep having is that there’s a pack of newspaper publishers traveling the world in search of the power cord for the Internet so they can yank it out and return to the land of local monopolies and 30 percent profit margins.

Given that the Internet is unlikely to disappear, though, I think it is important to remember that we’re not in the dead tree business. We’re in the business of providing quality information and perspective.

How this information is served up will be constantly evolving, but the one constant will be that the Business Journal provides business intelligence for our region.

That is how we will keep clicking with readers — even if we can’t find the Internet’s power cord.

Rob Kaiser is the publisher of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal and Wilma magazine. He can be reached at (910) 343-8600 x204 or rkaiser@wilmingtonbiz.com.