Tales from the early days of a business newspaper

Kevin Renner, one of the original reporters at the Portland Business Journal in 1984, writes about its early days.

Renner writes, “On March 4, 1984 we launched the fourth newspaper in the American City Business Journals chain. A framed front page of the first issue, signed by Publisher Tom Higgins, still hangs on my office wall.

“We were relentless in our coverage. We wanted to crack open the business community like a thoracic surgeon opening a chest. We were a renegade editorial team. Greg Zachary, who went on to the Wall Street Journal, was a tenacious reporter. The rest of us had a take-no-prisoners attitude.

“When the founder in Kansas City heard rumblings about the editorial crew in Portland, he sent out a lawyer buddy who was angling for a job. He sat in our offices like a Russian tank in Crimea. He wondered aloud why we weren’t doing more to cover fisheries and forestry.

“His briefcase disappeared one day. It was found later that week, washed ashore on the bank of the Willamette River. No one ever confessed to the heist. We still wonder who did it.”

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