Colorado, Wyoming biz journals rethinking print publications

Chris Wood, the publisher of the Boulder County Business Report, writes about how it and its sister publications, the Northern Colorado Business Report and the Wyoming Business Report, are looking to overhaul their content.

Wood writes, “At our three publications, print revenue is up, though not at the levels of 2006 or 2007. We still see a large majority of readers who value and use the print publication, either supplementing what they get from us online or in place of it. But we also are looking for how our print products can best serve our readers. We are about to undertake not just a redesign but also a ‘rethinking’ of the role of our print publications in this new era.

“As part of that effort, we will be conducting focus groups in the Boulder Valley, Northern Colorado and Wyoming to help determine what our audiences find valuable (and what they don’t). What are we doing well? What are we not doing well, or not doing at all? How should print interact with our constant online offerings of breaking business news?

“We will supplement those focus groups with surveys, social-media conversations and polling. In the end, our editorial staffs will have to take the input, interpret it and come up with ideas for our own ‘next generation of business journals.’

“These efforts also will help us to plan the next generation of our Web, tablet and mobile offerings.”

Read more here.