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76 Hartford Business Journal • November 26, 2012 www.HartfordBusiness.com Celebrating 20 Years of Business News 20 Years THE WAY WE WERE REFLECTION Q&A talks with Joe Zwiebel, found- ing publisher of The Hartford Business Journal: Q. Twenty years of the Hartford Business Journal. What's the secret behind the longevity of the publication? What have you done dif- ferently than other publications to keep going? A. Well, the truth is, 20 years isn't that long, although we are very proud of what we have accomplished. It is easy to forget that regional business publications are actually reasonably recent parts of the media land- scape. Until about 30 years ago or so, no one really thought to deliver local business infor- mation for the local business audience, nor was it generally possible for regional market- ers effectively target the regional business- to-business community. When we came on line back in 1992, we were committed to delivering essential news and information that was really useful to business decision makers locally. Even in the Land of Steady Habits, it didn't take long to establish ourselves as a credible "must read," for business leaders and senior managers. That reputation stood us in good stead for many years, I'd say through our first decade and a half, and then things changed…a lot. And as they say, there was good news and… let's say challenging news. The good news for us was that many of the dailies, under the pressure of financial constraints and newly acquired debt, began to pull away from local content, and specifi- cally local business news. That was good for us. National and international news has sort of become commoditized, I think. But local information, that is still quite specialized, and our readers … however they consume it … in print or online … want that. The challenging part was that we were hit by a double whammy … a tough economy, and a dramatically changing industry, where new platforms for content delivery seemed to come flying at us pretty quickly, and we had to figure out whether they were relevant or had staying power, and whether we could cre- ate business models that were sustainable. Ours is a business that thrives on energy, and our staff, starting with Gail Lebert, our publisher, and her senior staff, is very enthu- siastic about what they do, and how they serve the market. Honestly, we are lucky to be in an industry that is so easy to get excited about. It has never been an easy business, but it was certainly more settled 10 years ago. It was as though for our first decade we were on the swan boat ride, sedately riding down the lazy river then, suddenly, we turned a corner and it was a roller coaster, where the speed of change was fast and more than a little har- rowing. Luckily, most of us really love roller coasters! As far as what we have done differently, I think we are privileged to have some really great minds on our staff, and they have been truly engaged in solving problems, and in innovating our way to success. I don't think there is a single individual on our staff that does not care deeply about our success, and who isn't actively and enthusiastically engaged in helping bring it about. I am always amazed at the fearlessness and enthusiasm that is just in the DNA of the Hartford Busi- ness Journal. Q. What's been the biggest change in covering business news over the past 20 years from your perspective? A. No doubt about it, it is the challenge and the opportunity of the Internet and digital delivery. Our editorial and reporting staff is fantastic. The challenge is that we need to deliver to our audience -- wherever they are, and however they wish to consume information. My favorite analogy is to a bakery. I like apple pie. Back 10 years ago or so, all we did was produce a newspaper … that was the sta- ple … that was apple pie to us. Now though, that same staff makes apple pie, apple tarts applesauce and apple fritters. And that takes more effort, and more resources. Most of our audience still reads us in print but some of our consumers like to read us online. So we need to deliver to that audience. Some of our readers want to see our content on a smart phone, so we have to have a strate- gy there, as well. Some of our audience wants to see video along with the story, so we need to deliver to that appetite as well. It's still all apples, but there is a lot more work, and a great deal more skill required to know all those recipes. On top of that, we have to find ways that we can create sustainable businesses that deliver real value to our advertising clients in all of those media. We were a weekly busi- ness newspaper. We are now, by definition, a multimedia company, delivering informa- tion across multiple platforms. And where we were slaves to a weekly production and news cycle, we have to deliver information daily, and up to the minute in the new digital world. It is expected — and for us to continue to play the important role we play, it is critical — that we live up to the expectations of our audiences and our advertisers. Q. Knowing what you do now, would you do it all over again? A. Sometimes, when I tell a person who doesn't know me that I am the founding pub- lisher of the Hartford Business Journal, I can see that they are surprised, and a little disap- pointed that I am not taller and better look- ing! I still get a little giddy being associated From news to apple tarts For 20 years, satisfying audiences has been a winning formula Joe Zwiebel today. P h o t o / S t e v e L a S C h e v e R