Happy New Year to Our Readers and to Our Sixteen Chambers of Commerce
Jeffrey H. Bryden
Editor John Schaffner Publisher
As you may have noted at the top of the page, we’re beginning our 23rd year of publication and, as a local executive once described us, we’re “…all about plane landings, not plane crashes.” We’ll remain true to that mission in the new year by reporting all the good business news in our five-county area.
The new year is always a good time, personally and professionally, to reflect on the past and to make plans and resolutions for the future. As we look back at last year, each month the NCBJ “editorially visited” and focused on every major city in our five-county coverage. And, as we moved about these five counties, there was one thing that stood out on a consistent basis – the leadership and dynamics of the local chambers of commerce.
In virtually every city we featured, the local Chamber served as our editorial “home base,” providing us insight and introductions into the community’s infrastructure and, in some cases, helping our editorial planning with information on local business, education, government and healthcare.
It was interesting and rewarding to see not only how enthusiastic these Chamber executives were about their city’s history and its economic opportunities (both retail and industrial,) but also how knowledgeable they were about “who to see,” or “who’s the expert,” for information on any particular question tossed at them.
As in previous years, for this January issue, we asked the leadership in our five-county circulation area to share their thoughts about last year and the year ahead. You will find interesting contributions from sixteen of them (a new record!) in the pages that follow.
We know that the North Coast Business Journal’s membership in local Chambers is one of the key reasons for our continued success – it fosters our ability to gather and deliver the news of businesses, business people and economic development in our area.
In fact, if you received this issue of the NCBJ in the mail, it’s because of your membership in your local Chamber. We mail copies free of charge each month only to Chamber members — It’s yet another benefit you get from your Chamber membership.
And, if you choose to advertise in our paper, and you’re a Chamber member, you’ll receive a 15% discount from our open rates. You may find that the discount on your ad will more than offset the cost of your Chamber dues!
As we look forward, we will again take the North Coast Business Journal on the five- county road – with city-by- city focused editorial each month. If you have a story about yourself or your business that would be of interest to other business readers, let us know. If the news is closely linked to your specific community, and you can wait a bit, you may opt to tie it in to your city’s local focus issue. Here is the lineup for the year: February – Bellevue; March – Fostoria; April – Sandusky County; May – Huron & Vermilion; June – Marblehead and the Islands; July – Milan & Willard; August – Norwalk; September – Port Clinton; October – Sandusky and Erie County; November – Tiffin; December – Western Ottawa County: Elmore, Genoa and Oak Harbor.
But since we cover news of all five counties each month, send me your story whenever it’s “newsy.” Please make sure it’s news, though — not an “ad-in- disguise.” If you do need it to be very self-promoting, let us show you how to convert it into an ad — our Sales Account Executive, Kristina Willoughby, will be glad to work with you!
We sure hope 2018 will be a great year for our country, our state, our region, our Chambers and for you, our reader. We’ll do our part in trying to make it so. And thanks for your continued support!
