The Roanoke Times announced Wednesday that it will cease publication of the Blue Ridge Business Journal, a twice-monthly business news publication, this month and redirect its resources toward enhancing the newspaper’s Sunday Business news section.
“But the publication’s business model, with the rising cost of newsprint and postal rates, has become a challenge to sustain, said Debbie Meade, president and publisher of The Roanoke Times, in a news release. The journal’s final publication date will be Nov. 29. One employee’s job will be eliminated by the decision.
“The Roanoke Times plans to shift more focus to its Sunday Business section, while incorporating some of the journals’ features. The revamped Sunday Business section will launch Jan. 16.”
Read more here.
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Hard to fathom that anyone, particularly a newspaper, actually MAILED a free circulation business magazine in this day and age. Speaking from experience, newspapers don't do a good job with standalone business publications. The biz pubs always play second fiddle, they're a chore for an overworked staff to produce, they cannibalize ad revenue and they tend to exist as a defensive product to ward off competitors from establishing independent business journals.
So it's a sensible decision. Especially good is that the Sunday Business section benefits from the transfer of resources, although savvy readers and advertisers will recognize the loss of an employee and the elimination of a product as a shift of downsized resources, not as an overall gain.
To that end, the Jan. 16 reconfigured Sunday Business section should trumpet itself as the dawning of a better core newspaper product and distance itself altogether from the Blue Ridge demise. Features, if they mine the same material as Blue Ridge did, should be rebranded rather than reflect the old names, images and brands of the Blue Ridge Business Journal days. Good luck.