It’s official. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, Pittsburgh Business Times Editor Howard Burns formally announced that the media outlet now considers itself a daily publication that just so happens to have a weekly print edition.
Burns, several editorial staff members and Publisher Alan Robertson unveiled the reborn Business Times at a Business for Breakfast event, one of the Business Times’ signature marketing events.
Yes, the Pittsburgh Business Times (PBT) has been publishing twice daily digital editions for several years. But the Business Times’ announcement is much more than spin or a creative, witty way to dress up the same old product.
Based on what I heard at the Tuesday event, it’s a vision for remaking the business of
business news born at the top. American City Business Journals (ACBJ) owns the Business Times and 39 other weekly business journals (or, should I say, digital dailies with a weekly print edition) across the country. Its other publications are undergoing the same change.
Rather than breaking news – that is what the morning and afternoon daily digital editions do (available via email and on the web) – the weekly print edition will provide analysis of the week’s stories through tighter, better illustrated copy. No longer will editors and reporters sit on what they believe to be exclusives, crossing their fingers that neither of the competing dailies gets the story before Friday. They’ll now be writing instead about what all this business news means to business people in the region.
In my opinion, that’s what a business weekly should do. Weeklies aren’t for breaking news. Though there were times the PBT broke news, by the law of averages, the dailies had six times as many days in the week to beat the PBT on the news. With the presentation staffers made on Tuesday, the two dailies in this town should definitely sit up and take notice (as should the dailies that compete against sister ACBJ papers in cities from Albany to Wichita). The Business Times has elevated itself and its products. It’s innovating, and it’s reinventing. And perhaps it’s identified – if not the silver bullet – at least what looks to be a viable model in a time of great struggle for the news business.
This Friday, we’ll see for the first time the new-look/new-approach-to-writing-and-reporting Business Times, complete with new features (and missing a few, too).
Surely the model will evolve, just as its stories should. Stories are not a one-and-done memorial – and that’s by no means new or revolutionary. But what the Business Times has going for it is its network of sister publications. More so than ever, ACBJ reporters intend to tap colleagues in key markets where local business operations of companies with a Pittsburgh presence (and vice versa) can affect what’s happening here.
Senior Reporter Patty Tascarella gave a great example about how that scenario works. Citizens Bank may be in play right now, having announced its IPO intentions. The sale of Citizens Bank, which is the second-largest bank in this region, especially to a significant player, could drastically alter the banking scene in Pittsburgh. Citizens headquarters is in Providence, R.I., just outside Boston. It also has a significant presence in Philly. (The Phillies play in Citizens Bank Park.) Reporters in those cities can work with Tascarella here to produce a story that the dailies in this town would be challenged to get.
Equally impressive is the Business Times’ strategy to build audience. It’s a three-pronged approach: the daily morning and afternoon emails, each of which goes to approximately 12,000 people; the weekly print edition, which has approximately 15,000 subscribers; and, its marketing events, things like Business for Breakfast and VisionPittsburgh. As we know, the greater the audience, the more advertisers buy.
Granted, these are not the numbers the Post-Gazette reaches on a daily basis, but this is – or should be – only the beginning for the PBT, which is showing its nimbleness and ability to be entrepreneurial.
In August, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced his $250 million purchase of the Washington Post. In September, he told the Post, “We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. If you replace ‘customer’ with ‘reader,’ that approach, that point of view, can be successful at the Post, too.”
Burns said several times on Tuesday that the Business Times is doing this to give readers content how and when they want it – putting the reader first. It’s an inventive approach. Can ACBJ be patient? I’d suspect yes, as the company is a division of Advance Publications, the deep-pocketed Newhouse conglomerate that owns publications as wide-ranging as Vanity Fair and the daily Newark Star-Ledger. And besides, publishers have few other options in what is a time of uncertainty and crisis for the news business.
I am a cheerleader for the news business. I began my career as a reporter, and today much of what I do is related to the news media. I appreciate what journalists do and believe it is absolutely essential. I am impressed with what ACBJ and the Business Times are doing, I wish them success, and I hope they’ve developed a model that others can follow.
_____
Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications.
