By Scott M. Brown
President, Advertiser Co. Inc.

Central Alabama Business Journal makes its debut in July of 2003. The product publishes monthly on the third Friday and is mailed to nearly 8,000 businesses and leaders across the region. The online component is CABJ.biz.

Central Alabama Business Journal is geared to a business audience. We want CABJ to be informative and helpful to either the small retailer or a CEO. This audience is a significant niche target for many business-to-business advertisers.

Who owns Central Alabama Business Journal? Who runs it? What is its mission? How do I receive it?

Ownership and Management
The Advertiser Co. Inc. publishes this product through its Custom Publication Design division. Custom Publication Design recently published the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce directory and Imagine Montgomery magazine. David Zaslawsky of Prattville, a newspaper veteran with stops including Palm Springs, CA and Hattiesburg, MS, is the editorial coordinator.

The Advertiser Co., Inc. is the parent of Montgomery Advertiser, montgomeryadvertiser.com, Bulletin Board, thebulletinboard.com, Prattville Progress, prattvilleprogress.com, Maxwell-Gunter Dispatch, maxwellgunterdispatch.com, The Bayonet at Fort Benning, GA, thebayonet.com, Careerbuilder Job Source of Central Alabama, alabamajobsource.com, and News Record editions published weekly in Autauga/Elmore and Montgomery counties.

Simply put, The Advertiser Co. Inc. is an information company.

Central Alabama Business Journal is not a product of the Montgomery Advertiser. In fact, the newsroom actually competes with this product. That is a benefit to readers because that competition will make both products better.

As both president of The Advertiser Co., Inc and president and publisher of the Montgomery Advertiser -- I am the common link. But other than this inaugural column, I’ll be giving my keyboard a rest. The content is left to David Zaslawsky and his bullpen of writers. He’s attempting to utilize freelancers from around the region who know the most about your communities.

Mission
The mission of Central Alabama Business Journal is to provide a wider variety of information targeted to the business community. The newspaper does report on business activity and profiles businesses, but it also reports on aspects of business and personal finance and the impact not just on business, but how it impacts employees and John Q. Public.
Central Alabama Business Journal will gear its focus toward business. We want our stories to show the impact on business. Perspectives of those stories should represent interests of CEOs, general managers, managers/owners and key executives.

It is important because of the market it serves that the newspaper maintain an impartiality toward business. As noted earlier, the newspaper appeals to virtually all demographics. In contrast, Central Alabama Business Journal appeals to a narrow niche market – the CEO, business owner, entrepreneur and executive. While CABJ won’t be spouting out advertorial information to any business, CABJ can afford to be a product that is pro-business. Stories and content in CABJ will look at how events, legislation and taxes impact business.

We have formed alliances with each of the chamber organizations in our distribution area. Through these alliances we want to promote Chambers of Commerce and serve as a vehicle to communicate what’s happening in those markets from economic development announcements to ribbon cuttings or from workshops to successful professionals, industries or businesses.

One benefit of a business product like Central Alabama Business Journal is that a successful product can become the voice for business in its market area. That’s our goal for Central Alabama Business Journal.


How do I receive it?
For chamber members as of June 1, the product is free for a minimum of six months. We’re utilizing membership lists from Montgomery, Prattville, Wetumpka, Millbrook, Tallassee, Auburn, Opelika, Troy, Greenville, Selma and Tuskegee. In collaboration with these chambers, we’ve taken the most accurate member lists available and created a database—some provided disks, others provided labels or lists.

We’ve also made an attempt to include legislators, Gov. Bob Riley and his cabinet and key officials in the Central Alabama communities noted above.
If you fail to receive a copy of CABJ but are a chamber member in one of these communities, please re-confirm via e-mail with the chamber that you are a member and copy us on that e-mail at cabj@cabj.biz and reference “Subscription.” We’ll add it to the list.

For non-chamber members, subscriptions are available for $24 in the Central Alabama communities noted above and $36 elsewhere.