Biz magazine owner: “Be exceptional at a narrow thing”

Simon Owens interviewed Mitch Bettis, owner of Arkansas Business Publishing about his business strategy and his success.

Founded in 1974, the company operates dozens of local, niche publications that mostly operate in the business-to-business space. The company growing, and it’s managed to expand its print readership over the past decade.

“I couldn’t believe a place like this existed,” said Bettis, who joined the company in 2013 as president. He said the business strategy was, “Let’s be exceptional at a narrow thing rather than so-so at everything.”

Bettis bought the company in 2019 and bought a similar company in Fort Worth, Texas in 2020. His company now publishes more than 30 specialized titles and a custom publishing operation.

About 40 percent of its revenue is business-to-business, but all of it is local. “We want content you can’t get anywhere else,” says Bettis. “You’ll seldom see an Associated Press story in anything we do.”

Arkansas Business covers “CEOs and top decision leaders. And we’re looking at verticals.”

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