Silicon Valley Biz Journal follows 40-year mission

J. Jennings Moss, the editor in chief of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, writes about how the 40-year-old publication hasn’t strayed from its original mission.

Moss writes, “That ‘radical approach’ had nothing to do with politics, Keough wrote, and everything to do with the methodical way The Business Journal set out to cover business news.

“First, it was intended for a targeted audience. Second, business ‘has our entire attention.’ Third, we would try to fully understand business and the decisions that business owners and executives make. Fourth, ‘we are not hampered by a type of journalistic schizophrenia,’ meaning that we didn’t have to be all things to all readers and we could avoid trying to figure out how the business section fit into a general interest daily newspaper. And finally, we wrote for our business-focused readers, not for other journalists.

“‘The very nature of our publication demands that we make it compelling for our targeted audience to read. The entire success of our enterprise rests on achieving that goal,’ Keough wrote.

“Reading back over that first editor’s letter, I’m struck by how closely today’s publication — now called the Silicon Valley Business Journal — follows that first-day mission. Our very purpose was then and is today to be a trusted resource for local business leaders, whether they own a mom-and-pop small business or lead a giant corporation, to better understand the forces that can affect their companies and impact their employees.”

Read more here.