Stop the Presses: Year-end schedule allows for SBJ special edition

The staff of the Springfield Business Journal is proud of this issue, our second time to present a year-end, double edition.

The opportunity is just too good to pass up. Readers are less likely to be keeping regular hours at the office during the weeks of Christmas and New Year's Day. If we are at work, we're pushing hard to take care of customers, wrap up the old year (good riddance), and plan and budget for the (better) year ahead. Of course, there is the attendant celebrating and recuperating. There aren't enough hours in these, the last days of the year, to get it all in, especially the rest we need on these long winter nights.

At the same time, page count is lower around the holidays, and the editorial staff needs more room to revisit the most important stories of the year, as well as take a glance into the crystal ball for the year ahead. The whole staff needs planning and the vacation time they put on the back burners all through the year's weekly (and daily at sbj.net) publishing schedule. A double issue gives us the space we need to spread out, saves on the print and postage bills, and gives you your money's worth with some unique content.

At this time last year, the SBJ staff even took time to shovel off our desks, clear out the storeroom and take several car loads of old files to recycling centers.

Furthermore, we repainted the bathrooms for the first time since we moved into our Park Central West office in 1996.

It's a great luxury to be able to take a short break from our publishing schedule. We live by the law of "Publish or Perish." If we don't go to press, we don't get paid! To be clear, SBJ Publishing Inc. is a completely independent organization. Springfield Business Journal and Joplin Tri-State Business, despite the fact that we now publish two titles - three counting sbj.net - are not part of a chain. We are solely dependent on the communities we serve in southwest Missouri, and on each other as an employee group.

And so, the Dec. 22 double issue is good for the customer, staff morale and the bottom line. Thank you, advertisers and readers, for your enthusiasm and support of the second annual double issue. We're looking forward to working with you and beside you for a more prosperous 2009.

Continuing education

Daryl Moen of University of Missouri's journalism department and a specialist in newspaper design visited the SBJ Publishing staff Dec. 5.

This was the fourth consecutive year that Moen spent a day with editorial and creative staff and others from both Springfield and Joplin to improve the look and readability of our publications, both print and online.

Dedicating a day for continuing education is costly for any business, but for SBJ Publishing, it has become profitable in terms of measurable product improvement and immeasurable growth in professional pride.

We are our own toughest critics, so the only relief we can get from this painful condition is to continue to improve.

In the last two years, SBJ has garnered a couple of important prizes from our industry organizations, Alliance of Area Business Publications and Missouri Press Association. In 2006, SBJ took home the Best Web Site award from the international AABP. In 2008, the statewide MPA gave us an award with the same name.

In recent years, we've also won awards for feature and investigative pieces. In the weekly newspaper industry not generally known for its high salaries, the pride in knowing we're good at what we do, and getting better all the time, is reward indeed.

Quality photography and page design is an area that has seen vast improvement since we began working with Moen. We've learned that judges, just like you readers, don't pick up our newspaper or use our Web site if they aren't attracted first by what they see. You'll pay for it, pick it up and read it cover to cover, if we can provide photos and pages that help an arresting topic progress.

The bottom line is that if you spend time with SBJ publications, you make our business better. Your good judgment is what we're really after. It's better than all the industry plaques on the wall.

We're looking forward to beginning our 30th year in business with you.

Dianne Elizabeth Osis is publisher and president of SBJ Publishing Inc. She can be reached at delizabeth@sbj.net.