wbjournal.com | January 22, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education)
Staff Writers
Zachary Comeau,
zcomeau@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing)
Emily Micucci,
emicucci@wbjournal.com (Health care)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub
Livia Gershon
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Associate Art Director,
Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Custom Publishing Project Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.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
D
on't get me wrong, President
Donald Trump's attacks on the
news media are inexcusable and
a threat to democracy. Labeling
every piece of journalism he doesn't like as
"fake news" undermines the public's faith
in the media even when it comes to non-
political reporting, such as humanitarian
conditions in North Korea.
But, we also did this to ourselves.
Every news report relies on an unstat-
ed agreement between a media outlet
and its audience the information con-
tained therein is true and free of bias.
Reporters must specify their sources,
which builds a foundation of trust. This
is vital for when a media outlet must ask
its readers to take a leap of faith to report
important news using less conventional
means, such as anonymous sources or
relying on less-than-universally-accepted
perspectives like the lack of diversity in
corporate leadership being bad.
Unfortunately, one of these tactics –
anonymous sources – has become so
institutionalized in mainstream media,
the foundation of trust has eroded. The
industry hit bottom last summer when
ESPN put out an anonymously sourced
story about how NBA star LeBron James
felt about a teammate wanting to leave.
This was very poor journalism because
James easily proved the story wrong by
saying he didn't feel that way (since only
he can truly know how he feels). A few
months later, it's easy to see why people
could cast doubts about ESPN's anony-
mously sourced report about dissention
in the New England Patriots.
In my time at WBJ, we've used anony-
mous sources twice: to report the
impending acquisition of Worcester's
Reliant Medical Group, and to report
Pawtucket Red Sox officials attended a
Worcester Railers hockey game. In retro-
spect, one of those stories was worth it;
the other was not. I have since updated
my policy toward anonymous sources.
In this issue, we aren't asking you to
take any big leaps of faith, just one small
one: In Zachary Comeau's "Burning anx-
ieties" article on Page 10, you'll have to
trust us marijuana businesses declined to
be interviewed over concerns of a federal
I'm asking you to trust us
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 2018. 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:
NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
12 Focus on Economic Development
16 The Lists: Top commercial
sales and leases
24 Know How
25 On the Move
26 Photo Finish
27 Opinion
28 Shop Talk: Mark Federico, Crunch
Fitness
14 Grocery growth
Two of the food industries most iconic
brands – Whole Foods and Market Basket
– are preparing to move into the Worcester
market.
24 Check your web speed
Know How advice columnist Kham
Inthirath says your company's website
traffic could be negatively impacted by
slow speed.
I N T H I S I S S U E
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
crackdown. In future issues, though, you'll
have to trust our reports are true, even if
we are using anonymous sources or less-
than-universally-accepted ideas. By always
being straightforward with you otherwise,
I believe we've earned that trust.
- Brad Kane, editor
W
CORRECTION: The name of advice columnist AiVi Nguyen was
misspelled in the article entitled "10 Things I Know About …
Causing & preventing business litigation" in the Jan. 8 print edition.
