American City Business Journals
American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market's edition named for that market, and also publishes Hemmings Motor News and Inside Lacrosse. The company is owned by Advance Publications receives revenue from display advertising and classified advertising in its weekly newspaper and online advertising on its website and from a subscription business model.
The bizjournals.com website, using the overarching online title The Business Journal, contains local business news from various cities in the United States, along with an archive that contains more than 5 million business news articles published since 1996. As of August 2021,[update] it receives over 3.6 million readers each week.
History
American City Business Journals, Inc. was founded in 1982 by Mike K. Russell with the launch of the Kansas City Business Journal. Three years later the business became a public company via an initial public offering and was traded as an over the counter stock. Starting 1985, ACBJ set out to acquire as many as fifty business newspapers across the United States. The goal was to establish a network of newspapers selling national advertising packages.
In 1986, ABJC acquired all the publications owned by Mark Vittert and his company, Business Journal Publications Corp, for $40 million. The sale included business journals in Cincinnati, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and St. Louis. Later that year American City merged with Scripps Howard Business Journals. At the time the division of Scripps-Howard Newspapers operated publications in 10 cities: Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Washington, D.C and Miami/Fort Lauderdale.
After expanding to 35 weeklies, ABJC faced mounting debts and losses reaching $13.5 million in the first nine months of 1987. This resulted from sales of national advertising packages falling short of goals amid the 1987 stock market crash. The company began divesting in 1988. ACBJ sold eight publications to various unnamed buyers, including five business newspapers in Westchester, Rochester, Richmond, Hartford and Southern Connecticut; St. Louis Magazine and partial-ownership of two legal papers: St. Louis Daily Record and St. Louis Countian. Two weeks later ACBJ sold another six of its business newspapers in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and San Jose and Sacramento to Metro Collegiate Publications for $46.3 million. Then Russell sold his controlling stake in the company.
In 1989, Shaw Publishing, Inc., owned by Ray Shaw and The Oklahoma Publish Co., purchased a million shares of common stock in ACBJ for $22.75 million. Shaw was then elected as the company's chairman and chief executive officer. Previously he retired earlier in the year from working as president of Dow Jones & Company. Shaw served as ABJC's chairman for two decades. Under his leadership, the company moved its headquarters from Kansas City, Missouri, to Charlotte, North Carolina, and greatly increased the number of its publications. In 1995, ACBJ was acquired by Advance Publications for US$258.8 million (equivalent to $472.8 million in 2023). A year later ACBJ acquired CityMedia Inc., which published six business journals in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Sacramento.
In 2001, the company partnered with Microsoft to provide content for bcentral.com.
In 2007, the company acquired Inside Lacrosse.
In 2012, sister company Condé Nast redirected Portfolio.com to the startups page of ACBJ.
In 2020, the company launched a book publishing partnership.
Annual awards
The publication publishes the following annual awards for each city:
- The Business Journal's Forty Under 40 lists the 40 most successful entrepreneurs under the age of 40. It has been published since 1992.
- The Business Journal's Best Places to Work ranks top businesses in local areas for best employee experience. Rankings are determined based on surveys on leadership, corporate culture, and communications. Different cities can use different methodologies and rank a different number of employers.
List of publications
City business publications
As of 2023[update], American City Business Journals (ACBJ) publishes print copies of 44 different newspapers, addressing business news in 44 different cities, generally under the names City or Region name + Business + Journal (33 cities) or First (5) or Times (2) or Chronicle (1) or Courier (1) or News (1) or Review (1).
Other publications
- Hemmings Classic Car - Launched in 1970 as Special Interest Autos, which was acquired by ACBJ in April 2002 with the purchase of Hemmings Motor News Publishing, renamed in 2004
- Hemmings Motor News - Launched in 1954, acquired by ACBJ in April 2002 with the purchase of Hemmings Motor News Publishing
- Hemmings Muscle Machines - Launched in 2003 by ACBJ
- Inside Lacrosse - Launched in 1996, acquired by ACBJ in 2007
Online only
- L.A. Business First
- Chicago Business Journal
- Cleveland Business Journal – Launched in May 2020
- New York Business Journal
- Providence Business First
- The Business Journals - in addition to links to the websites of the individual city business publications, this main page curates an assortment of direct links to some of the current week's stories from across the company's websites
