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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