American City Business Journals examining other markets

Charlotte-based American City Business Journals, which operates 40 business newspapers across the country, is considering expanding into new markets by launching websites in those cities.

The work on the new sites is being done by Bedrock Business Media, a Charlotte-based company co-founded by Tim Bradbury, the former president of new media at ACBJ. It has developed beta websites for Detroit and Hartford, two cities where ACBJ does not have a printed paper.

No final decision has been made on whether to the company, which is owned by the Newhouse family, will actually go into these markets. But in the past few years, ACBJ has added websites that cover business news in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

“It makese sense that we look at extending our footprint,” said ACBJ CEO Whit Shaw in a telephone conversation with Talking Biz News on Wednesday afternoon. “But we have no clue yet whether we can monetize it.”

Shaw said that its exploration of new Web products is natural following of its 2012 purchase of Streetwise Media Inc., which is best known for its website Bostinno.com that covers the growing Boston technology sector and Inthecapital.com, which covers the startup community in Washington, D.C. However, ACBJ owns the business journals in both Boston and Washington.

The move, if undertaken, would put ACBJ in more direct competition with other owners of business newspapers. Crain Communications Inc., for example, operates the weekly business papers in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and New York. The Hartford Business Journal is owned by a company that also has business publications in Worcester, Mass., and Maine.

“I wouldn’t read too much into picking Hartford and Detroit,” said Shaw. “We had to pick two cities.” Rance Crain, the president and editorial director of Crain, declined comment when contacted by Talking Biz News.

Part of the appeal in adding websites in major cities is that it would allow ACBJ to sell national advertising for higher rates.

Other markets that Talking Biz News has heard are being considered by ACBJ are Indianapolis and Richmond, Va. The Richmond market is the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States without a printed weekly business paper, but there is a business news site operating in Richmond called RichmondBizSense.com. The Indianapolis Business Journal is owned by a local businessman.

Greg Morris, the president and publisher of the Indianapolis Business Journal, told Talking Biz News that he is not surprised by ACBJ exploring new markets. He noted that ACBJ stopped representing non-ACBJ owned publications through its advertising network in the past year and that seemed like a pretty clear signal the days of “working together” with other properties was over.

“Everyone on the Internet is competition today,” said Morris in an email to Talking Biz News. “We can’t worry about additional competition. We’ll continue to endeavor to excel at all we do each day and that should win the day.”