A report to our readers: We launch SCBIZ, our first statewide publication
By Bill Settlemyer
President and CEO, Setcom Media
Change is in the air—in South Carolina and at our company, Setcom Media. From 1995 through 2005, our mission was to help the Charleston region grow by providing high-quality independent business news and information to our Business Journal readers.
In 2006, we went through a lot changes:
We renamed the company. “Setcom, Inc.” became “Setcom Media, Inc.,” and we branded the company as “Your Media Partner for Economic Growth™.”
A few months prior to the start of 2006, we successfully launched the Daily Journal, an e-mail newsletter that for the first time put us in the daily news business.
Our management worked as a team to redefine our mission, determining that our new role would be “to provide business information resources that advance economic growth and prosperity in our region and our state.”
In pursuit of our new mission, we began exploring ways to serve the entire state as well as the Charleston region. The result of our efforts is reflected in the name of a new publication launched both in print and on the Web: SCBIZ, South Carolina’s Media Engine for Economic Growth™.
Last week, the first quarterly edition of SCBIZ magazine was mailed to 20,000 business, education and government leaders around the state. The issue’s featured topic is “Innovation South Carolina,” highlighting the significant changes in the direction of economic development being driven by the state’s research universities.
We also launched a new Web site, www.scbiznews.com, and within a few weeks we’ll launch SCBIZDaily, an e-mail newsletter with a statewide reach and perspective.
Another mountain to climb
Even though the development of our expanded mission was a team effort, I’ll confess that it got my entrepreneurial juices flowing again. Pursuing our new mission has required significant new investments in technology, office space, personnel and other resources. As we all know, there’s no free lunch when growing a business (unless, I guess, you’re a twenty-something dot-com genius who figures out how to build a billion-dollar company by flooding the Internet with homemade videos).
I’m no genius, so we’re doing it the old fashioned way: Invest, work hard, serve your customers and believe in yourself and your mission.
It helps that we’re very clear about what we’ve set out to do: Serve our state by becoming South Carolina’s Media Engine for Economic Growth™. That clarity of mission resonated with the advertisers and sponsors who played a vital role in the launch of SCBIZ. I want to personally acknowledge and thank them for their support.
Happily, we found we had already earned a degree of statewide credibility from our decade of business publishing in the Charleston region, but it’s still asking a lot for advertisers to commit their dollars to a brand-new publication.
The long-term success of SCBIZ depends on two things: Our skill and commitment in performing the mission we’ve established for SCBIZ, and the financial support of advertisers and sponsors of our SCBIZ print and online information services. In a very fundamental way, this is truly a partnership to serve a greater cause.
We’re entering a new period of growth and challenge for our company. But isn’t that the way of the world now? The global technology-driven economy is itself a dramatically new phenomenon, offering both great risk and great opportunity. In this new business environment, “if you rest, you rust,” so we might as well all jump on the roller coaster and enjoy the ride.
We also owe thanks to all our loyal Business Journal readers and advertisers. We haven’t forgotten you, either. We’ll continue to look for ways to deliver more of what you want and need to grow your businesses and your careers. Stay tuned!
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