Why business news weeklies get into holding events

In an ideal world, a business would only have to do one thing very well to ensure a steady source of revenue.

The news business doesn’t work that way.

At Richmond BizSense, a daily business news website I started six years ago, we have built a stable business supported by digital advertising.

But where we see the biggest growth – which we use to invest in our newsroom – is in selling sponsorships to events. We use our news instincts to dream up topics we know will hook our audience. Then we tell the story live on stage.

The revenue comes in the form of sponsorships, but only when the topic is one that businesses want to be associated with.

We learned that lesson the hard way. In 2011, we put on an event called “The Business of Booze.” We sold out all our tickets and packed the panel with the local brewers and distillers. What we didn’t take into account that local service businesses (think lawyers and accountants) would shy away from the topic.

Lesson learned.

For 2013, we thought up a simple happy hour to promote the fastest growing businesses in town. We picked up several new clients that had never advertised with us, including Wells Fargo and UPS. Both are eager to promote entrepreneurship.

We expect to bring in enough revenue from events this year to support one full-time reporter in our newsroom.

Of course, knowing how to dig up juicy stories and write them in a clear and lively manner is not a trait on the same gene as, say, choosing between pigs in a blanket and Swedish meatballs for the menu.

So we have an event planner who takes our idea and makes sure the food is hot and the room is property set up. And one huge advantage for a news operation in the event business is that we have a direct line of communication with 12,000 subscribers, so we can market the heck out of our offerings.

Our 2013 event lineup includes three events:

• Breakfast of Champions: The Big Business of the NCAA;
• The RVA 25: A happy hour with the fastest growing companies in Richmond;
• Kitchen Confidential: Richmond’s top restaurateurs share their recipes for success.

To be sure, none of this is novel. Regional business journals have relied heavily on events for decades. It’s just new for us. And surprisingly lucrative.

Aaron Kremer is the founder of Richmond BizSense, a daily business news website in Richmond, Va.