Biz news is different at American City Business Journals

Beth Hunt became manager of editorial operations for Charlotte-based American City Business Journals last year, leaving her job as editor of the Washington Business Journal, one of the company’s 42 weekly business newspapers.

Hunt, who had been editor of the paper for seven years, is now in charge of developing and implementing new content initiatives and editorial training programs, aid recruitment efforts and work on legal issues for the company.

She recently talked to Talking Biz News about her work and the company. (Disclosure: A number of ACBJ papers have hired my students as interns and reporters in the past four years.) What follows is an edited transcript.

As manager of editorial operations for American City Business Journals, what are your responsibilities?

It’s my job to provide support to our 42 editors and newsrooms across the country, helping with staff training, management training, recruiting, idea-sharing and staff development. I work with editors who are new to our company, and with long-time editors who are looking for a fresh perspective. I serve as a sounding board for editors who are eager to try something new and as a backup when a market needs some help. Truth be told, this job is my dream job.

Since ACBJ has 42 papers across the country, how do you try to address their specific issues on the editorial side?

Each of our papers is a distinct and unique property that serves its market and readership in the way that fits best. A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works in this company, so I take my lead from the publisher, editor and other managers in the  market. They know their staff, readers and market best. My role is to support them as they work to serve all three better.

How do ACBJ papers try to differentiate themselves from daily newspaper business sections?

To be honest, Chris, we don’t really think about things in those terms. Our products, our philosophy and our approach differentiate us from all of our competitors. Our mission is to help our readers make money and get ahead in their careers. To do that, we give them information they haven’t gotten anywhere else, and we get it to them far enough in advance that they can still do something with it. Our mission is to break news long before the press release is written and the CEO is ready to talk. Stories that are being announced — or have been announced — aren’t what we’re after. Our readers want to know about things long before they’re ready to be announced. So our reporters focus on stories at that stage of the game.

Does that mean that they report and write stories differently than their daily counterparts?

Yes. It’s the nature of what we do vs. what they do.

Are the readers different for an ACBJ paper than for a daily business section?

Of course there’s a good deal of crossover. But our research tells us they look to us for different things than they look for in the daily. They know we are deeply connected to their local community — that we have a deep knowledge about the companies and people who are doing business in their own backyard. We don’t cover national stories, we don’t do stock tables, we don’t run wire stories. We focus only on local companies and issues, and put them in perspective for the people who live and work nearby.

Many daily newspapers have been losing readership to the Internet. Have ACBJ papers experienced that same trend?

No. In fact, circulation is growing at a good clip across the company. We find that our Web site, bizjournals.com, serves as a complement to our print publications, and provides us a steady stream of new subscribers throughout the country.

The web sites for the ACBJ papers are updated daily with breaking news. Is that content read by a different audience than the print subscribers?

Research tells us that our print subscribers use our Web site, and the daily emails from each of our publishers, to get a jump on what will be in the daily newspaper’s business section the next morning. We also know that many of the non-subscribers who come to our Web site through search engines find it useful enough to stay long beyond what it takes to read what they came for. The Web is a great tool for us to introduce ourselves to people who don’t know about our print publications.

What’s the biggest challenge facing ACBJ going forward?

We face the same challenge all media does — staying relevant to a fast-paced group of readers who are increasingly running out of time. Fortunately, publications like ours meet a specific need for people who no longer have time to wade through more general publications.

ACBJ is owned by the same company as Conde Nast, which is launching a new business magazine in April. How has ACBJ helped with that launch?

ACBJ and Conde Nast are corporate siblings. Beyond that, we are separate organizations that fill wholly different roles for our readers.

What made you decide to move from editing an ACBJ paper into a corporate position?

Are you kidding? This is the job of a lifetime. After 17 years as a reporter and editor for American City, this is my shot to put everything I’ve learned to good use. Besides, after putting out 884 papers, it was time to give someone else a turn.