The opportunity to enjoy the association and friendship of so many caring and extraordinary people in southwest Missouri is my greatest blessing in 30 years as publisher of the Springfield Business Journal. Their friendship and loyalty has been tested and has proved genuine, again and again through the years. I know that this is, and will continue to be, my personal treasure always.
The pleasure of associating with you was clear to me recently as I joined in a group of Springfieldians breaking ground at the corner of National Avenue and Trafficway for the new Commons at Jordan Valley Park, the area where the gaping old quarry lay for eons. I was so happy to see friendly faces of people that I have worked with throughout my career. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for weeks and months, it was as if we hadn’t missed a single day of passing each other on the streets of our village.
The sky was cloudy, and it was humid, beginning to rain. The ground was all torn up around us. But as we stood in the heat, waiting for the sound system to start working and for the ceremonies to begin, the pleasure of your companionship was palpable. I was happy to be with you, to be together with you to celebrate this new beginning in an old place.
The gratitude that I feel is constant, even though my job as business news publisher is not a consistently an easy job, to be sure. It seems as though someone is always mad at us for something that we’ve printed, or not printed. But the next day, or possibly the next moment, someone else will thank me profusely for SBJ’s existence and praise the efforts of the whole staff. Depending on my last conversation, my moods can vary widely. I might go home either feeling like the weight of the world is on my shoulders or floating above the clouds.
Keeping emotional equilibrium has never been my strong suit, so having the support of a capable and creative group of staff members puts us all in a winning position – readers, advertisers and employees, alike. When any of us needs a sounding board, we are there for each other and the community we serve. I’m proud to work with the small group of committed people here at SBJ Publishing.
In fact, the core of the feeling that I have about being the founding publisher of the Springfield Business Journal is tied to the community that surrounds us. We perceive that community when the telephone rings with a call from a print subscriber or advertiser. We also know that you are there among the throng of responses to the stories appearing in our weekly editions or at sbj.net. We greet the community at the growing list of SBJ events. And you connect with us when the weekly edition arrives in the mail, when our Daily Update lands in your inbox, when our staff members visit, or you come to our office at 313 Park Central West.
You let us into your lives and into your businesses even when we were learning to take our first steps, back in 1980 when we were known by our ungainly previous name, TOP’s Executive Journal – it stood for The Ozarks Pulse – and you didn’t even know me or where I came from. You are our teachers and readers, our vendors and lenders, our best buddies and our best critics. You are our leaders, and we might have voted for you. Your business is our business, and our business is all yours.
In recent years, SBJ’s business has been changing fast. It’s exciting and frightening, all at once. Your encouragement of the SBJ staff’s efforts is more important than ever before in our history. We need you, and we are working hard to make sure that you will continue to depend on us.
Aren’t you glad that you don’t have to go out and fight dragons all by yourself? Aren’t you glad that you can depend on a little help from your friends? Aren’t you grateful for someone who is happy to see you once in awhile? I know that I will always be.
Peace and Gratitude,
Dianne Elizabeth Osis is publisher and president of Springfield Business Journal Inc. She can be reached at delizabeth@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]
