Washington state business journal is closing

The Bellingham Business Journal in Washington state will be publishing its last edition on April.

A Lynden Tribune story states, “‘Significantly decreased advertising revenue, directly resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, has forced us to make the incredibly difficult decision to discontinue publishing The Bellingham Business Journal,’ the business posted March 27.

“The monthly tabloid acutely felt the impacts of the spreading coronavirus pandemic, along with the rest of the local business community, said Josh O’Connor, publisher/president of Sound Publishing Inc.

“‘It’s no secret that journalism faces the same economic pressures because we too are a local business that relies on local retail revenue from thriving businesses on main street,’ he wrote.

“The Bellingham Business Journal, founded by Al Raines in 1992, has chronicled business in Whatcom County for more than 27 years. The newspaper changed hands two more times until Sound Publishing purchased it in 2007.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.