Business Journals Change Coverage, Operations to Remain Competitive
Marsha Marengo didn’t have a day of business journalism experience when she started the Orange County Business Journal in 1978. Neither did Paul Marengo, her one-time husband and the business brains behind the publication.
Despite their thin track records, the two Marengos built the paper into an enterprise that was in good enough shape to be sold, for an undisclosed price, to CBJ Inc., publishers of the Los Angeles Business Journal and the San Diego Business Journal.
But several other would-be Orange County business publishers were not so lucky. And as the print-media world becomes more competitive, the odds are getting higher against entrepreneurs making it in the competitive world of business publishing.
Already, the list of local casualties includes the Liberty Street Chronicle, Orange County Business First and Business-to-Business, which was reincarnated this summer under new ownership and name after a one-year hiatus.
The Orange County Business Journal was started as a monthly by Marsha Marengo in 1978, and it went biweekly in 1985. Despite being undercapitalized--the biggest problem that faces most start-up publications--it managed to withstand a strong challenge from the weekly Orange County Business First, which had $1.3 million in debts when it went bankrupt last June. It also survived in a tough market served by strong local coverage by the daily newspapers.
Still, Charles Heschmeyer, the new publisher of the Orange County Business Journal and a veteran of weekly business papers in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Denver, said he was surprised that there wasn’t a better local business publication in Orange County.
“I don’t think this paper knew what it wanted to be--features or hard news,” Heschmeyer said. “We have no identity crisis. We’re hard news. We’re a newspaper. Our mission is to cover business generically, and I think you’ll find we focus more on the thousands of small businesses that employ one to 20 people.”
The paper is converting to weekly publication, hiring a staff which will eventually total about 30 people and moving its offices from Santa Ana to Irvine.
But despite the broad experience of the new owners--CBJ is operated by Don Keough, who has had a hand in founding more than 20 local business papers around the country--some question whether they are sufficiently attuned to the peculiarities of Orange County.
“Orange County is a unique area, and people are very people-oriented. They want to see stories about up-and-comers, about who is doing what,” said Cathy Semar, former editor of the Orange County Business Journal. She questioned whether making the paper a mirror-image of the Los Angeles Business Journal was really a good strategy.
Erik Hamilton, a former reporter at the publication, said the staff was initially excited about the prospect of a well-financed owner coming in and improving upon the “college newspaper” atmosphere that prevailed under Marsha Marengo. But the new owners, he said, “did their best to alienate everyone.”
Keough said, however, that he simply felt it necessary to bring in people who were familiar with his editorial and business approach.
Semar, meanwhile, has taken on the task of revitalizing Orange County Business-to-Business, a monthly “how-to” magazine which features tips on improving small-business performance. Previously, the paper was operated by retailing entrepreneur Ivan Katz.
“If you had $10,000, you had your picture on the cover,” said Semar, editor of the monthly magazine. adding that “$7,500 would buy a two-page profile.”
The sale of editorial coverage is over now, Semar said: “If you merit it, you’re going to be written about, and if you don’t, you’re not. The owners are really committed to turning the publication around.”
The owners, five local businessmen who operate under the name Zebra Publishing, are in the business strictly as a moneymaking opportunity, said Robert Holmes, the group’s president.
Holmes is also president and chief executive officer of Liberty Capital Markets, an Irvine-based brokerage that agreed in July to stop doing business in New Mexico to settle a stock-manipulation complaint by that state’s securities division. The other partners in Zebra Publishing are Michael Niccole, Lawrence De Crona, Richard Dunham and James Barone.
City Business Journals in California San Francisco Business Times: Founded by Scripps-Howard, 1984.
Competitor founded by Keough, 1986.
Scripps-Howard paper sold to American City, then to Keough in 1986 and closed.
Part-interest in Keough’s paper sold to American City, 1988.
Los Angeles Business Journal: Founded by Cordovan Group, 1979.
Sold to Scripps-Howard, 1980 (Heschmeyer, editor).
Sold to American City, 1986.
Sold to CBJ Inc., 1988. (Keough, group publisher).
San Diego Business Journal Founded by Scripps-Howard, 1980.
Sold to American City, 1986.
Sold to CBJ Inc., 1988.
Founded by Gary Dunham, 1982.
Bought by American City, 1984 (Keough, editor and publisher during conversion, then Heschmeyer, editor).
Sold to Mark Hopp, 1988.
San Jose Business Journal Founded by American City, 1983 (Keough founding editor).
Sold to Mark Hopp, 1988.
Orange County Business Journal Founded, 1978.
Sold to Mark Hopp, 1988.
Sacramento Business Journal: Founded by Gary Dunham, 1982. Bought by American City, 1984 (Keough, editor and publisher during conversion, then Heschmeyer, editor). Sold to Mark Hopp, 1988
