Opinion: SBJ adds focus group, afternoon news

In recent months, Features Editor Maria Hoover reminded Publisher Dianne Elizabeth that everything we do begins and ends with the reader. There used to be a mild internal debate about what drives the life cycle of this weekly newspaper. Is it advertising, which sells ads and therefore dictates page counts? Is it circulation, which gets the paper in the hands of subscribers? Or is it editorial, which reports and develops stories of interest?

No, on all counts. It’s the reader. We’ve revived that message and we’re preaching it throughout the office.

To that end, SBJ has added a Focus Group and afternoon news updates at sbj.net.

Focus Group

I am pleased to announce the members of SBJ’s 2006 Focus Group. They are, in alphabetical order:

• Jonathan Groves, journalism instructor, Drury University

• Jennifer McCullough, owner, Jennifer McCullough Marketing & PR, Branson

• Teresa Schwab, agent, Wilhoit Properties

• Mary Lilly Smith, economic development director, City of Springfield

• Steve Vaught, senior vice president, Springfield Trust Co.

• Chris Whitley, corporate communications director, CoxHealth

The group was assembled by invitation. Members were selected because of their roles in the community, their dedication to business and their expertise in their fields. It’s a well-rounded bunch with representatives in economic development, education, entrepreneurship, financial services, health care and real estate. I’m especially pleased to have a Branson representative, McCullough, considering the explosive development a few miles south on Highway 65.

We recently held our first meeting, and it was hugely productive and beneficial. I walked away feeling fresh, energized and more in-the-know, which is precisely what I wanted.

I want to get into these dedicated readers’ heads – and that I did. This group is honest and critical. There I was, scribbling away in my notebook – like a fly on the wall – as four members (Smith and Vaught were on vacation) discussed why and how they read SBJ, what their likes and dislikes are with the paper, and their general thoughts on the content.

My long-term goal is to improve the paper from the reader’s perspective. This meeting provided a short-term solution.

The resounding lesson I learned: SBJ needs to better market itself. And what came out of the meeting is that we are “the authority on business news.”

Wow. We knew that, but to hear affirmation and then to vocalize it really brings the point home. And it’s true: we haven’t done a good job of branding SBJ as such.

That’s about to change. The new slogan: The Business Authority.

We’ll carry that through to our Joplin publication, Joplin Tri-State Business, which makes this enterprise the authority on business news throughout southwest Missouri.

Look for more on this campaign.

Afternoon news now online

As another reader service, SBJ has quietly launched an afternoon news element to our award-winning Web site. Online Reporter Dee Dee Nilsen posts new stories to the site after sending the Daily Update by noon.

Inaugural postings were:

• “Governor’s chief of staff takes MSU job”

• “Hammons premieres Arkansas meeting center”

• “Softball tournament to draw thousands”

Sbj.net already delivers breaking news to registered users’ e-mail boxes, but this added feature gives the homepage a fresh splash of news as it happens. This way, Web readers can know what the 5 o’clock news will report before they get home.

It’s all about the reader.

Eric Olson is SBJ editor.[[In-content Ad]]