wbjournal.com | October 14, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special
issues in May, September, October, and December by New
England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester,
MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA.
Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please
send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal,
PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for
$54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@
cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at
845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478
Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark
Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860.
Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for
unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does
not return them to the sender.
Worcester Business Journal
172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604
508-755-8004 tel.
• 508-755-8860 fax
www.wbjournal.com
A division of:
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
Knowledge +
Experience +
Trusted Advice.
It all adds up.
Large enough to serve the
needs of most businesses
and individuals; small
enough to offer the
personal attention you
expect and deserve.
Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli, PC
Certified Public Accountants
306 Main Street, Suite 400 • Worcester, MA 01608
508.791.0901 • www.grkb.com
NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
10 Focus on Information technology
16 The List: Top IT service providers
17 Know How
18 Movers & Shakers
20 Photo Finish
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Sherri Pitcher,
Fidelity Bank
14 The new wave of cyber
attacks
Businesses must now guard against
phishing, identity theft and data
ransom schemes.
17 10 Things I Know about …
Running a successful fundraiser
Advice columnist Julie Bowditch offers
ways for organizations to maximize their
profits from fundraising events.
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education, health care)
Staff Writer
Zachary Comeau,
zcomeau@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon,
Sarah Connell
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Art Director, Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
Distribution and Database Coordinator
A Guide to STUFF, a publication
of New England Business Media
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
T
ypically, the stories inside the
WBJ print edition are planned
well ahead of time. With two
weeks between issues, we have
plenty of runway to conceive,
report, photograph and display stories.
While the content will shi somewhat, I
generally know what stories will appear in
each issue 4-6 weeks beforehand and know
specifically two weeks in advance.
at was not the case with this edition.
e story we planned to appear as our
main cover story – about businesses recov-
ering from disaster – had to be put on hold
when the main subjects were unavailable.
Another story, pitched months ago by a
major Central Massachusetts corporation
about its sustainability initiatives, fell
through when schedules didn't align. A
third proposed article about the technolo-
gy requirements in the Massachusetts legal
marijuana industry had to be modified
greatly when Staff Writer Zachary Comeau
ran out of time to report the story before
he resigned from WBJ on Oct. 4 to go
work for another media organization.
In fact, the only story in this edition that
came together as planned is News Editor
Grant Welker's story about the Shine
Initiative's new app (Page 12).
e feature stories appearing in the
middle of each WBJ edition create the
foundation on which all our other content
stands, by providing insight, context,
background and subject matter expertise
on the issues impacting the Central Mas-
sachusetts business community. Having
75% of those stories change over at the last
minute isn't quite a cause for panic, but it
certainly made our workflow less orderly.
ankfully, WBJ has great professional
journalists and rallied out strong content.
Comeau pivoted in his article (Page 10)
to focus mostly on one specific marijuana
tech company, a great sendoff for a report-
er whose favorite topics were breweries
and cannabis. Welker got the latest on cy-
ber crimes committed against businesses
(Page 14) for our information-technology
section. And, thanks to a timely release
from the U.S. Census Bureau and Welker's
innate ability to analyze data, we got an
insightful cover story (Page 8) about how
Worcester's population growth is mostly
I N T H I S I S S U E
coming from a coveted demographic.
I don't love it when a plan doesn't come
together, but sometimes we do our best
work on the fly.
- Brad Kane, editor
W
Not every plan comes together
