SBJ keeps pulse on Springfield business

“I’m a forward-thinking person,” she said. “I’m not one to look back. I think about the work and plans we have before us now and in the future.”

While there are many exciting things to come, the journey that hardworking Elizabeth and SBJ’s staff have taken to its silver anniversary contains many highs and lows. It was Elizabeth’s diligence and her commitment to the readers and advertisers that always won out.

“I wish I could just say I had a vision, but it wasn’t all that way,” Elizabeth said.

After moving here in 1979 with her husband and her children from a previous marriage, Bart and Jennifer Sak, she couldn’t find her niche. She had taught school and was working on her master’s degree.

“I was in an unhappy marriage, trying to make ends meet,” she said. She and her husband divorced in 1985.

Inspired to look elsewhere for work, she remembered a publication in Tulsa, called Guffey’s Executive Journal that covered business news. After learning there were no local executive journals, she approached her friend, Ken Willoughby, a stockbroker who had newspaper experience, and his wife, Jeanne. With a $2,000 investment each, Elizabeth and Willoughby released the first issue of Top’s Executive Journal in July 1980. Top’s stood for The Ozarks’ Pulse. The first office was at 1428 1/2 E. Sunshine, now the home of Kaleidoscope.

“We were real-estate oriented, with listings of building permits, new businesses and front-page news on new projects in town,” Elizabeth said.

The business partners had little previous knowledge about business journals, largely because there were few in existence. They soon discovered they were on the brink of something big.

“In the ensuing years, many opened across the country,” Elizabeth said. “We were one of the first.”

The first advertisers were Ron and Dona Elkins with EDCO.

“I saw the publication and recognized the value,” Dona Elkins said.

EDCO continues to advertise its document retrieval and digital conversion services.

“It has absolutely been a benefit for us to advertise,” she added. “They have been doing business in Springfield all these years, and they have educated readers. They understand the audience they are targeting.”

In 1985, the newspaper moved to 209 E. Walnut, now Bijan’s restaurant. Developer Jim Shirato offered to lease the building for a bargain – $700 a month. By then, it was called Springfield Business Journal, adopting a name change in 1983 to better reflect the publication’s purpose. Elizabeth had also bought Willoughby’s interest.

Her children pitched in to help, type setting, working in the dark room, delivering papers and stuffing envelopes.

By 1988, Elizabeth had taken on another business partner, Jim Sterling, a publisher who also printed SBJ. “I sold 49 percent of the stock to raise capital to grow,” she said.

In 1990, Elizabeth bought the shares back, borrowing from her family. “Since that time I’ve paid my family back with interest,” she said. “My mom and dad believed in me and the business, and I thank them for that. I got the right help at the right time.”

Another supporter is Springfield businessman Joe Jenkins, who twice helped SBJ move. “I’ve watched that paper grow from its first tentative steps into one of the best in the country,” Jenkins said. “I’ve seen others in my travels, and it’s one of the best. I’m proud of them and the progress they have made over the years.”

In 1996, SBJ moved to 313 Park Central West, investing $450,000 to buy and renovate a three-story historic building with help from the city’s first façade loan.

Springfield is one of the smallest markets in the United States that supports its own weekly business journal. “That says a lot for the vitality of this growing marketplace and the persistence of the staff and its publisher. We’re survivors,” Elizabeth said.

Through the years, SBJ has added special sections, special events and the Book of Lists. “We plan to expand our publishing reach geographically and to relaunch our Web site during this anniversary year,” Elizabeth said.

Daily e-mails linked to the site are among the plans.

With 6,100 weekly circulation and 4,800 subscribers, SBJ exceeded $2 million in sales for the first time in 2004. Recognition events like the recent 40 Under 40 celebration and Economic Impact Awards also have spurred growth, Elizabeth said.

“We believe it’s not in how many readers we have but who they are. They are the most well-educated, most affluent and articulate business and professional people, who create the wealth in our area,” Elizabeth said.

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