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January 12, 2024
Thank you for joining us for another year at The Business News.
It’s been a pleasure to share local business news with all of you over the course of the past year, and my team and I look forward to some of the incredible stories that 2024 will bring.
As 2024 begins, we also have some of our own news to share with you.
As of Jan. 1, we have officially acquired two additional Wisconsin editions of The Business News — North Central and West Central.
This extends the reach of The Business News to 37 counties in Wisconsin, spanning across the state from Green Bay all the way to Eau Claire.
We are excited to add these two new — to us — regions of the paper and highlight business news happening in those areas.
First, some history
As some of you know, The Business News itself has been around for more than 20 years, having started in 2003 by Jerry Mader.
This first iteration of the paper only covered Northeast Wisconsin and that paper has grown into the one you are currently reading.
Not long after, Jerry added another paper in North Central Wisconsin, using Wausau as its anchor point and covering 13 additional counties.
About five or six years ago, that paper was purchased by Tom Verboncouer, who grew its reach and added the West Central edition of the paper in 2022.
Verboncouer did a remarkable job of capturing great news content for both areas, and we are already eager to get to work expanding and deepening the wonderful precedent he set. With the purchase of North Central and West Central from Verboncouer, the original editions of the paper are reunited, and we are proud to be able to bring the in-depth storytelling and innovative news content we’ve been providing in Northeast Wisconsin to even more areas of the state.
Three regions, three papers
In order for local news to truly feel local, each edition of the paper will continue to operate independently — we will not be consolidating the editions into one version of The Business News.
Should you be interested in reading business news from those regions — which we hope you are, and we will have subscription options that accommodate multiple publications — you can expect biweekly editions of The Business News in Northeast Wisconsin, monthly editions of The Business News in North Central and West Central and a Book of Lists for each region.
Each edition will cover the business news in their respective regions.
The NEW Business Review will expand to accept contributors across the State of Wisconsin, and the same quarterly publication will now appear in all three editions of the paper — which will also allow us to increase the depth of the pieces we feature and showcase the thought leadership happening across the state.
Looking forward
We are excited to see what 2024 will bring and our team — many who have at one time or the other called parts of the new coverage areas home — is already hard at work creating content for each of those papers for this year.
In addition to our newspapers, we also have topics set for our special publications during the year.
The topics for The NEW Business Review this year are:
Place & Purpose (Q1)Sustainability & Managing Resources (Q2)Building Capacity & Scale (Q3)Harnessing Change (Q4)
We are already collecting proposals for all four quarters, so if you have a topic that would align with one of the issues and you would like to showcase your thought leadership, please send information to megan@thebusinessnews.com.
The first issue — on Place & Purpose — will be released along with the paper in March.
Finally and most importantly, thank you for your continued support — your readership makes it possible for us to grow and share the innovation happening in our area and we cannot do what we do without you.
We encourage you to continue to reach out to us with your updates, your news and your story ideas — we have such a vibrant business community here, and we are always looking to find new and deeper ways to engage directly with you.
If you have ideas for topics to cover or places to do — let us know.
Reach out to us at news@thebusinessnews.com.
Thank you for trusting us with your stories, reading our paper and helping support the business community we all grow and operate within.
All of us at The Business News wish you a wonderful 2024 and can’t wait to see the great news you’ll generate.
