comm audit tampa bay business journal

8/13/2019 Comm Audit Tampa Bay Business Journal

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Emily Miseroy

Jordan Smith

Danielle Wipf

Barbara Oguntola

Kirsty Churchill

Briana Sellers

Maria Lopez Fernandez

PUR 4401

2/29/2012

Communication Audit:The Tampa Bay Business Journal


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The Tampa Bay Business Journal

Company Overview: History, Mission, and Strategy

The Tampa Bay Business Journal (TBBJ) is a

publication that has been dedicated to business news and

business-to-business market intelligence in the seven-

county Tampa Bay region since 1981. The mission of the

TBBJ is to be the consumers first choice for l ocal,

breaking, business news.

According to its Facebook page, the TBBJ has asimple strategy: To provide the most comprehensive,

exclusive coverage of local business in each market it

serves. To do this, theyre committed to providing top -

quality journalism and unparalleled service to readers and advertisers, as well as maintaining an

active involvement in the local business community.

The TBBJ has assembled an award-winning team of journalists that cover more than 20

different business beats featuring local people and decision makers who are leaders in their

business communities. The journal is online daily, in print every Friday, and each week a special

report takes an in-depth look at a specific topic or industry.

The marketing/public relations team regularly organizes and hosts large events that are

sponsored by the TBBJ such as, Best Places to Work, Business Woman of the Year and Non-

Profit of the Year. This team also ensures a high-quality publication for advertisers and

marketing partnerships that are specifically tailored to the readers needs and interests.


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Tampa Bay Business Journal Public Relations Team

Events manager: Alyssa Rhoads.

o Responsible for all aspects of the TBBJ events and programs. Events include

awards programs, expos, networking events, and moderated panel discussions.

o Growing and maintaining the database of attendees.

o Negotiates all contracts.

Audience Development Director: Sara Leutzinger.

o Responsible for growing circulation sales.

o Branding of the TBBJ.


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Tampa Bay Business Journal and Its Audiences

The TBBJ has a variety of publics that it interacts with on a daily basis. According to

Alyssa Rhoads, the audience of the TBBJ is the entire business community in Tampa Bay and

the seven surrounding counties. Almost every up and coming or already established company in

the area looks to the TBBJ for news, latest trends and advice.

The TBBJ has established themselves in the business community by being on top of the

local market, reaching out to individual companies and their leaders, holding large events to help

the business community mingle with one another, and releasing their top lists concerning

different aspects of the business community.

The TBBJ is one-of-a-kind in Tampa Bay. According to

Leutzinger, it is the only paid publication in the Tampa Bay

Area that focuses solely on the business community. Both

Rhoads and Leutzinger admit that this is a huge factor of what

puts them on top of any competition. However, they also know

that this does not mean they can slack off and not do their very

best work. They must keep up this top dog reputation with

their audiences.Whats so great is that we always push ourselves to be

the best here, said Rhoads, And so we never kind of just throw in the towel and say were the

best, and were good and we dont need to worry about anything.

One way the TBBJ public relations team keeps their name known in the business

community is by reaching out to every demographic. This includes CEOs of well established

companies, anyone currently seeking a job in the community and especially entrepreneurs

branching out on their own. One way the TBBJ reaches out to all these different people is by

writing feature articles about them or by publishing a small paragraph about them in the Hot

Leads section of the paper dedicated to any new company, expansion, relocation, or new

products or services offered, according to Rhoads. The TBBJ has a small team of writers

dedicated to the task of watching for any of these things within the business community and

including them in that section of the paper.


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If they see that this story will impact people in the business

community to help their business grow, then theyll write about it, said

Leutzinger. Thats what were here to do.

They know the TBBJ must increase interaction with their audience

and create ways for members of their audience to interact with each other

in order to maintain the favorable reputation. As Events Manager of the

TBBJ, Rhoads is responsible for planning and coordinating all of the

companys events every year that do just that. The TBBJ also frequently

releases lists of the top 25 people or companies in the business industry

that fall under various categories.

The publication is very well known for these lists and it is considered an honor to bementioned on one. For every list released, an event is held to award and celebrate those who

made the cut. Rhoads also plans a variety of events solely for the purpose of helping those in the

business community interact with each other as well as the TBBJ, and to help grow their already

large audience. Some of the events have up to 600 people in attendance.

We do about 30 to 35 events a year. Those consist of a ward events, award programs

such as CFO of the Year, Business Woman of the Year, Best Places to Work, Health Care

Heroes, said Alyssa. We also do networking events, we do moderated panel discussions, and

then some other kinds of sponsored events that tak e place throughout the year.

These huge, extravagant affairs are another factor in keeping the TBBJ at the top of their

market and highly esteemed by their vast audience. Overall, the business community looks at the

TBBJ as not just a publication but the organization to go to with business related questions or for

advice. The TBBJ is a well respected establishment in the Tampa Bay business community.


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Community Relations Programs

Organizations like the TBBJ can exist and make profit as long as the public supportsthem and allows them to exist. The TBBJ strives to create solid partnerships with subscribers;

Leutzinger, feels that community relations are about getting people to subscribe to their product,

and then getting them to become familiar with the benefits.

According to Rhoads, the community relations practices target the entire business

community. She explains that the TBBJ reaches out to every industry and every executive level

from that industry. Rhoads and Leutzinger feel that their best efforts for community relations are

shown in their BizMix event, since it teaches attendees about the business journal and offers

locals who attend free drinks, free parking and free food. This specific event has been a success

and has allowed the Business Journal to expand their database, while giving back to the

community with a free net-working event.

As mentioned earlier, the TBBJ collaborates with various groups to host seminars and

workshops. The workshops are designed to draw subscribers to the journal and offer valuable

help to the business community.

A majority of the workshops highlighted are designed to help business owners expand and

manage their business: Unleash the Power Within: Strategies to help people understand what it takes to create

success in their personal and professional lives. Collaborated with The Centre Club and

the Anthony Robbins Companies.

Grow Business Development Workshop: Learn

how to tap into sales leads, develop stronger

business relationships and grow your personal

circle of influence. Partnered with New Urban

Suites and Business Club.

Get Your Register Ringing: Learn strategies to

grow your business, key areas that impact your

bottom line and various networking strategies.


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Partnered with the Centre Club and Action Coach Business Coaching.

Get em all buzz -buzz- buzzin: Create leads that multiply, learn how to get the

community buzzing about your business. Partnered with The Tampa Club and Action

Coach Business Coaching.

One of the largest events that the TBBJ hosts each year is the Business Growth Expo that

will be on May 17th of this year. The TBBJ advertises booths to business owners for two

different prices: a $600 package and a $1000 package. This specific expo is sponsored by TD

Bank and offers businesses a way to gain exposure.


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Organization/ materials on online newsroom

The TBBJ is trying to boost digital sales and get the business community entrenched ineverything that they do, including their digital edition. In the online version of the TBBJ, there

are updates throughout the day with breaking business news and some of the popular stories

from their print edition.

The website explains how to become a TBBJ subscriber or advertiser and there is an

option to sign up to receive email updates as well. The y want to be a part of their subscribers

lives and they have a very strong digital focus because, as according to Rhoads, digital is the

future.

Personally, I always want to have a newspaper in front of me that I can read, Rhoads

said. I dont like reading off a computer but some people do and its important that were on the

forefront of that.

Also, TBBJ can track who is clicking on what ads within their website so they know how

interested different people are in different aspects of their website. According to Rhoads, this

ability to track digital movement is critical to online advertisers:

Our advertisers want to know how many hits, how many clicks people are getting.

Thats important for them. And that is how we stay above the competition. And so througheverything we do we try to draw people to our website for that reason. The more people click on

our website, the more value our advertisers are seeing.


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Conclusion

We believe that the Tampa Bay Business Journal to be very proactive in its public

relations practices. The TBBJ has established itself as a top dog in the Tampa Bay business

community by hosting various events aimed at the community such as the Business Growth

Expo, BizMix and various workshops. Because the magazine is available online daily, it offers

readers the latest information on topics ranging from growth strategies to events in the Tampa

area.

The TBBJ effectively uses social media to receive feedback from its various audiences

and is proactive in its postings on both Facebook and Twitter. By using Twitter as an editorial

platform, the TBBJ is able to provide audiences with breaking news, making it a source of

fresh information for the masses.


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Transcript of Interview with the Tampa Bay Business Journal

Date: February 10 th 2012

Time: 11:00am

Location:

Danielle : Ill start with you Alyssa. What is your job title and job description with the Tampa

Bay Business Journal?

Alyssa : Okay, my name is Alyssa Rhoads and Im the Events Manager here at the Tampa Bay

Business Journal. I am solely responsible for all events that take place that the Business Journal

hosts. We do about 30 to 35 events a year. Those consist of awards events, award programs such

as CFO of the year, Business Woman of the Year, Best Places to Work, Health Care Heroes,

basically almost every single kind of industry we hit I do one of those a month. We also do

networking events, we do moderated panel discussions, and then some other kind of sponsored

events that take place throughout the year, whether its related to a special publication like

executive profiles, well do smaller events like that as well. I also do a very large Expo that takes

place in May so there s just a lot going on. I work very closely with production for all thecreative for all the advertisements that go on any kind of promotional, all the visuals, the

presentations that are involved in the awards; Im involved in all of that. I negotiate cont racts and

seating charts and attendees, registration, all of it.

Danielle : And Sarah? Youre job title and job descriptions?

Sara : My name is Sara Leutzinger. My title is the Audience Development Director here at the

Business Journal. A pretty much brief description of that is the main focus is getting new

subscribers to our print product, which comes with the book of lists and everything. We have a

heavy focus now on the daily updates, which are our afternoon emails of breaking business

news, getting subscribers to that because it is a separate thing from the print option.

Alyssa : You have to opt in.


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Sara : Yeah, and its opt in. Its a free product so youd think its easy to get people but you have

to teach them the value so that they want it. We also have morning call now, which is a morning

email product, which they also have to opt into that so building that up. My reps, you know I

have a sales team so theyre big focus is sales. They also, one of the things they sell for events is

the Expo, the Expo booths. Also, theres subscriptions that are included with some of the event

stuff; so you know helping Alyssa on that side, thats a very small side of that.

Alyssa : I think its important to mention how you guys differ being that you do the seminars.

They really led the way company-wide, it was really noticed.

Sara : We also grow things like if they can find lists, if we join a chamber, so a big focus of ours

is outside sales, so joining chambers, doing trades with chambers for you know for us to be able

to go to events, having an Expo booth, having a presence in that chamber, getting our trial cardsor subscription offers in with those news members and existing members. Chambers are very

business oriented so we need to get in there. So really partnering with the organizations and the

chambers and business community and getting their databases, whether its email or mail so we

can do mail pieces, so we can put them into Exact Target and do Target promotions for

subscribers. Also, like Alyssa said, the smaller circ events like we do. When I say circ I mean

like circulation, so subscribers. Well invite people who are subscribers, who are not subscribers,

have been subscribers before previously, know us, dont know of us, invite them in. Sometimes

we partner with other organizations like Sales Trainers and give them an overview of how the

Business Journal can help them, how it can help them with PR, where to put their press releases

in the paper, where to put their new employees, how to utilize it in contacting other businesses

who have it. So having those seminars, getting the business community familiar, but also at the

end of those we want people to subscribe to our product, we want people to see the value in it, to

use it and show the business community that, so organizing those things. Partnerships on like I

said a smaller event level sometimes people come t o us and say Oh Im really good at social

media. Can we partner and do a workshop for your subscribers? Sometimes I might partner with

those people and say, Okay, target people within our different areas and our database and

depending on where the semin ars going to be and trying to get people to come to that is kind of

a co-branded with the Business Journal and Company XYZ Social Media company to also give

the business community other things.


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Alyssa : And then thats where we have the ability to reach people that we havent before, by

partnering with these different places so it has been great. And just to explain how Exact Target,

cause youve mentioned it now twice, you guys probably dont know what that is. Its our mass

email system that we use. Its called Exact Target and whats great about it is that Sara and I are

really responsible for growing that database and were really proud of the fact that we have over

200,000 emails in it now. That has come from different seminars shes done, its come fro m all

of my event attendees so if you ever attend an event you will see that we try to collect all

business cards because we are focused on getting that information. But whats so great about

Exact Target is that youre able to specifically hit certain lis ts. So if I want to target HR directors

I can have a list for just that. If I have an event that is strictly about healthcare I can go strictly to

my health care heros, you know, different little things. Its really great in that aspect. Nowadays

you really have to be careful with spamming and just hitting people to much because the lastthing you want them to do is unsubscribe to you and your emails so we really try to give value in

every email we send out.

Danielle : Okay. One question I want to hop down to is who are your relevant publics and how

do you reach out and grow your audience?

Alyssa : And by publics you mean audience? Ours is probably the entire business community.

Whats so great about the Business Journal is that we literally hit every single industry and every

single executive level. If you were to come to our Business Growth Expo, which is just an

example, youll notice C level executives there, your CEOs, your CFOs, your CIOs, are all

there but theres also maybe somebody looking for a job. So thats what so great about the

Business Journal; we really do hit every kind of demographic when it comes to that. In regards to

how we grow it, weve already touched on that a little. Through seminars, through our events

that we host. I can go into BisMix if you like. We literally created an event solely for this

purpose called BisMix. Its a free networking happy hour. Its how we describe it. And really our

goal is to move these events from anywhere from downtown Tampa to St. Pete, anywhere.

Clearwater. And really get new people familiar with the Business Journal that really hasnt been

before. Its a free event, you get a free drink, free parking, great food, and its always at a really

nice place. People come and they find that its a really ca sual networking atmosphere with great

people that are there to do business. Through this specific event, weve grown our database


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exponentially. Other markets do this BisMiz event and they charge and they arent seeing the

growth were seeing. Were lookin g at it differently; others may see it as a revenue stream but

were looking at it like we want to grow our database for other things. Now we have your name,

maybe youll subscribe, maybe youll come to a paid event, now you know about our

nominations. Iv e seen through this event a whole new set of companies participating in our

events. When I first started there were some of the same companies involved and now there are

so many more.

Sara : I think too that Tampa itself is such a networking intensive community. And by that I

mean that people are constantly out at the different organizations and chambers. Theres a book

out there with all of the organizations out there within Tampa Bay, and when I say Tampa Bay

Im technically talking about the seven surrou nding counties. All the sales reps, and the

management team and even the editorial are out constantly in all these groups and organizations

so were constantly meeting people. And the buzz of Oh we have BisMiz coming up, Oh we

have a seminar coming up; it just spreads like wildfire because then people know about us and it

isnt as hard to grow our database because we are constantly out there meeting people.

Danielle : Are the BisMix events scheduled the same time every month? When do you know

when, where, what time?

Alyssa : Theyre always on a Thursday. We find that that is the best time, from 6 -8 p.m. People

can leave right after work. Would I love for it to be the first Thursday of every month?

Absolutely. But it is a free event and there are a lot of other things that get in the way. We have

many events that are revenue generating that will come before this. Our schedules are always

kind of all over the place. A lot of it has to do with the venue we decide on, if its the right time

frame. We try to do them bi-monthly. We are doing one, which is a new twist right after our

BisTech event, our big Technology and Awards Summit Expo that were doing at the convention

center on the 13th

of March. Were actually the BisMix after the Expo in efforts to get moreattendance at the Expo. So people will come in early, come to the Expo, and stay and have a free

drink. And I didnt mention that these BisMix events have typically between 600 -800 people

attend. And thats huge.


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Sara : And we rotate them throughout the community. One could be St. Pete Beach, South

Pinellas, one could be North Pinellas. One was done at the museum so there are all these

different pockets of people that will come from different areas too.

Alyssa : And theyre totally different.

Sara : You can go to one and go to another and see a few people but then see all these new

people because they come from all their different areas of work and those people tell their

clients, colleagues, friends, an email gets forwarded on, its just a giant spide r web.

Alyssa : It really goes viral. I think its because theyre free and there is so much value. Im sure

there are a lot of other events that are free but that dont give that value. People leave there

loving the event, loving the business connections that they have made. When we actually started

these events it was not only to grow our database but it was also during the height of the

recession. And one of our publishers goals was to kind of give back and this is kind of our way

of giving back. You might not be able to afford a $70 or $80 ticket for a lunch-in or a $150 ticket

to one of our dinners but you can attend this, this is free and this is for the community.

Danielle : Do you think most of the time people are finding out about these events through the

social media? And how has social media changed your industry?

Sara : I would say for events that Facebook probably helps Alyssa.

Alyssa : Not much though.

Sara : Or that LinkedIn would.

Alyssa : Our exact target base that weve spoken about a lot is h uge for helping with events. And

whats so great about Exact Target also is that were able to track this stuff also. Youre able to

see the click through rate, youre able to see if people are clicking on registering, youre even

able to see if people unsubscribe which is important as well. So you can see what works and

what doesnt. Does Facebook help? Absolutely. We have a Tampa Bay Business Journal Page

where Ill promote nominations, currently accepting nominations for.

Sara : LinkedIn helps me a lot in my department as far as sales goes. Reaching out to the

business community, because you know thats more of a business platform. Its more of our


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book of lists and when that was getting ready to come out during the last week of December and

thats our big product that we have and it comes to the subscribers for free, putting that out on

LinkedIn, sending it out to all of my contacts, that really helped because thats what that social

media is specifically for, is business professionals looking for advice, looking for sales leads,

that kind of thing. So LinkedIn definitely helps my department.

Danielle: Do you have someone then that just handles the Tampa Bay Business Journals

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?

Alyssa : No, our managers all have administrative rights to the Facebook page. Ill put info up

there about events; obviously our editors will do some breaking news stories.

Sara : Our Twitter is mainly an editorial platform. We dont use that for the events or th e sales.

Alyssa : We have done it live from the event announcing The 2011 Business Woman of the

Year is and we put it up and thats breaking news and its fun. But mainly editorial will

handle that so we all kind of have our place and there is no one specifically assigned to that. And

Sara and I are the only ones with access to Exact Target. Rarely is there anything that ever goes

out in those emails that has to do with editorial.

Danielle : What is a typical day like for you? And either one of you can answer this.

Sara : I dont have a typical day. I guess mine would be more like a typical week. Going to

different events and function and meetings within the chambers organizations. And mine to is

leading my team and helping them. But really every day, every week is different, it changes.

Danielle : Thats good though. That is kind of what a lot of college students are looking for and

hoping for. Something that changes day-to-day and is always interesting.

Alyssa : For me, Im constantly multi -tasking. On an given day Im literally juggling five

different events. Our CFO awards are next week, which Im handling, and then a big hype for

promoting our Business Growth Expo, which we have huge, huge sales goals for. I am taking

nominations for best places to work, starting nominations for best non- profit of the year and Im

meeting with business executives to go over the criteria associated with that. Im registering

people throughout the day, Im writing the script. Oh yeah, BisTech is in March. I negotiate


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contr acts. All day there is approving, theres proofing, so much proofing that goes on here,

especially in my department with every promotional material that comes out. Theres just so

much going on, its really being able to multi -task, stay organized and get people excited about

an event thats happening in May. Because thats really my head right now, thinking about an

event in June.

Danielle : I know youve mentioned the type of events that you plan but could you maybe go into

details about a specific event that youre planning right now that you would want people to know

about?

Alyssa : You know, why dont I talk about maybe an award, I could talk about the Expo of

course, and thats an easy one. We do one awards event every single month. Ill talk about CFO

of the year, just because its next week. The process for me, first and foremost is that we have aneditorial meeting throughout the year and we make sure that a special editorial lines up with the

award events. So on February 17 th, the day after the event, there will be a special publication in

our paper outlining all of the winners. We have a meeting to set up all those dates from the get-

go. I then get the venue and negotiate that contract and get all the people were expecting, what

were going to serve, all that stuff. The next step is three months prior to an event well start

nominations. Nominations are promoted through our paper; youll see house ads, Ive given you

examples here. Theyre promoted through Exact Target that we discussed. Our circula tion team

is out and about. Doing grassroots efforts. Our sponsors are a huge help with that. We have

major sponsors that come on board for all these events and I work very closely with them. A lot

of the time theyll nominate their prospects for clients. Its my job then to send out the entry

packets in order for these people that are nominated, they need to complete this entry packet and

send it back to me. Its a very big process. We then have an outside judging panel just so that

there is no bias by the Business Journal and thats important to know because we never want

anyone to think that, Oh, they advertise in our paper, thats why they won. It has absolutely

one hundred percent nothing to do with that. In fact, weve turned away major clients, not

because they just didnt make the cut, it has nothing to do with us. I actually facilitate the judging

so Ill be bringing in three to four business executives in the Bay Area that we find credible and

theyll sit here and actually review all these packets . From there, we select our finalists and

category winners and make a huge announcement, again through those same things we talked


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about, all the social media, our paper, every kind of media outlet we can possibly do within our

paper to possibly promote, w e do that. So well announce our finalists, Ill put registration on our

website. We actually have an event website that I can show you. Theyre called micro -sites so

theres an event micro -site for every event. Its really cool. Youll see pictures, youl l see videos

from our events, youll see our sponsors logos and its important that we give that exposure to

our sponsors. From there Im now promoting the event and the typical event is 400 -600 people.

We have a really great showing. CFO of the year is probably going to have 450-500 people,

which is really amazing. And that has grown every single year so its exciting to see that. My job

is to write the script for my MC who is our publisher. I do bios in it, I do the seating chart. And

afterwards we focus on some reprint sales. And what else? I know Im missing something.

Sara : And when we say reprint sales it means plaque sales.

Alyssa : Were able to sell pictures. Its called Smug Mug and we sell pictures from the event. So

were always trying to create different marketing opportunities for people to always see. Do we

want people to walk into an office and see a Business Journal plaque? Absolutely. Thats

marketing for us, thats branding for us and we didnt even do anything. Its also a revenue

stream.

Sara : They can also use the logos. Like lets say theyre CFO of the year, they come put that in

their sig in their email or their promotional materials.

Alyssa : We see people doing that all the time which is really, really cool. Again, thats free

marketing for us. We do that.

Danielle : Right. So every event is meant to gain readership, hopefully. When people are coming

to these events and they realize that the Tampa Bay Business Journal is putting it on.

Alyssa : And you know, right now we also have a very strong digital focus because thats the

future. Personally I always want to have a newspaper in front of me that I can read, I dont like

reading off a computer.

Sara : I dont either.


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Alyssa : But some people do. And its important that were on th e forefront of that. And so that is

why were trying to boost those digital sales.

Sara : And we really want to get the business community entrenched in everything we do. The

weekly paid subscription, the daily updates, the morning call, the weekend call, the digitaledition, data downloads.

Alyssa : Its important for advertisers.

Sara : Yeah, advertising. In everything that we do we want them, we dont just want people

going to the events and not getting the daily update. We want them in our community.

Danielle : Whether its popping right up on their phone.

Alyssa : We want to be a part of their lives. And one thing that I just think is important to

understand with the digital stuff is that our advertisers want to know how many hits, how many

clicks people a re getting. Thats important for them. And that is how we stay above the

competition. And so through everything we do we try to draw people to our website for that

reason. The more people click on our website the more value our advertisers are seeing. And I

can get into that more if youd like. Do you want me to?

Danielle : One question that I wanted to ask you was who your biggest competitor is because you

just mentioned what gives you a leg-up on the competition.

Alyssa : Well, I want to say Florida Trend maybe?

Sara : But heres the thing is theyre

Alyssa : Theyre monthly.

Sara : Yeah. Theyre monthly, theyre glossy, and theyre a magazine. At the risk of sounding

cocky, were a weekly print business publication. We are very much like a community Wall

Street Journal. You have to pay for a subscription. There are no free subscriptions. Thats due to

our ABC Auditing rules. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have the daily updates and

everything. Not to say that there isnt other business publications o ut there that compete with us


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for dollars, on an advertising level I guess, but there is no other Tampa Bay business to business

paid publication.

Danielle : So in this area, you guys are one of a kind.

Alyssa : Probably. I think whats important to mention is that we know were on top right now

and whats so great about this company is that we know how important it is to stay on top. We

know that there are people whove tried to literally do our exact same even ts.

Danielle : Well theres always going to be imitators.

Alyssa : Exactly. They will do the exact same event at the exact same location and they dont do

them as good at all but theyre trying, and we know theyre out there. So whats so great is that

we always push ourselves to be the best here. And we have a really great team that kind of pridesourselves on that. And so we never kind of just throw in the towel and say were the best, and

were good and we dont need to worry about anything.

Sara : Yeah, and theres other monthly publications that are business focused.

Alyssa : But shes asking specifically. Theres Florida Trend, theres 83 Degrees or 86

Sara : They used to be monthly and now theyre just an online business publication. Theres a

technolog y one but thats just technology focused.

Alyssa : There is like The Trib but theyre more of a consumer publication. We definitely

compete for maybe advertising dollars.

Sara : Theres the Gulf Coast Business Review but that really is down more in the Napl es,

Sarasota area, which we cover Sarasota so theres some overlap there but they dont come all the

way.

Danielle : Okay. Who are some of your favorite and least favorite clients to work with?

Alyssa : For me, in the event portion of it are I just want to say people that get it. That understand

that, for me theres so much that theres so much that goes on in the last few days before an

event. So the clients that understand, that give me their attendee list, that give me the titles and

names of people that need to be on stage, people that kind of get all the details that go into it.


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Those are my favorite types of people. My least favorite people are the people that dont get it.

And also the people that, how do you say it. There are a lot of people with ideas and thats great.

Ideas are amazing but if they arent feasible, and they dont make sense, then its not worth

talking about. Theres a lot of people, like some sponsors for instance, Im certainly not naming

any names that will say, Ive got an idea. L ets put a round moving stage in the middle of the

event space. And Im like, I didnt know we were on a U2 budget. And thats the kind of stuff

where you know I have to respect their ideas because they are our paying sponsors. And thats

kind of tough for me, people that really have no idea of kind of what goes in to it. Thats for me.

Sara : My favorites are so many of our partners in the business community, the chambers. Our

subscribers that love us and will tell everyone in the business community. They re great

ambassadors for us. You know, the people who really really use the paper and give us the

testimonials. Love them. The people that kind of bother me are the ones that come to me and

want to do stuff with the Business Journal, which is great, we love partnering. But they really are

more or less looking to get a free ride out of partnering with us, and us promoting them and their

business. In that sense they try and spin it not from an article in the paper. We dont write the PR

pieces but they in tur n take it and say, How about we do this event? Ill do a seminar for some

of your subscribers. You guys promote it, you email blast it, you do all this and bring all the

people to me. If we did that for every single person in the business community, you know

Alyssa : And we turn down a tone of requests cause it comes at us all the time. In that PR world,

the people that are looking for free press. And not to say this in a bad way, a lot of non-profits

organizations as well. Of course if we could help ever ybody, we would, but we cant help

everybody so.

Sara : But I have some really, really, really good partners out there that we do partner with for

seminars. And its a great cross - promotion in the end. And they understand that theyre going to

send this out to their clients, contacts, colleagues, and were going to do the same and its a50/50 mutual beneficial relationship. Thats what I really like to work with, where we can

partner and help each other, rather than the people that come to me and say, we do nt have

anyone to promote this to so youre going to have to do all the work.


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Alyssa : And we have trade agreements in place that actually need to be approved by corporate.

When we do do trade its considered an expense from the journal. When we donate a quarter

page ad to a non-profit organization, it comes out of our bottom line.

Danielle : Okay. The last question-are there any areas or methods of communication that youwould like to improve upon?

Alyssa : I think right now were working on the daily upd ate email.

Sara : And the new morning call thats out. Making sure that people are aware of that and that

they opt in. Opting in is the big thing.

Alyssa : And were doing that to obviously be top of the mind to people but also for our

advertisers. And we have a whole campaign that we did that we can show you.

Danielle : Okay. Thats all the questions we have.

Alyssa : Should we touch on the Separation of Church and State?

Danielle : Sure, lets add that.

Alyssa : We get asked all the time to write an article about this new company thats coming out.

Absolutely not. Maybe editorial. When our editorial staff writes its something that helps the

business community. If they see that this story will impact people in the business community to

help their business grow, then theyll write about it. Thats what were here to do. Were not just

going to write about something just to write about it.

Sara : And there is a section in the paper and its called Hot Leads. It is solely press release. It

is any new company, expansion, relocation, or new products or services offered, and its a short

little blurb. I tell a lot of people when we do the seminars of how to use our paper to make sure

you read it a couple times, understand the format, submit it to the person it goes to and that goes

in there. And people know that that section is for that purpose.

Alyssa : And theres a specific place for it so when somebody comes to Sara or I or even our

publisher, our publisher will never, ever, ever will never promise anyone any type of editorial

opportunity. Thats a good thing though. It makes us credible.


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Sara : If they want to give us a big scoop on a new company thats coming in that nobody knows

about that could help other businesses with products, services or employment then yeah,

absolutely. Thats a breaking business.

Alyssa : And what we do then is tell our editorial team. Just emphasizes the fact that there is no pay-for-play or anything like that.

Danielle : Okay, I think th ats good.

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