American-City-Business-Journals-corporate-office

American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. 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 ''Hemmings Motor News'' is a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic, and exotic sports cars. It is the largest and oldest publication of its type in the United States, with sales of 215,000 copies per month, and ...

'' and ''

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''. The company is owned by

Advance Publications Advance Publications, Inc. is a privately held American media company owned by the families of Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the sons of company founder Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. It owns publishing-related companies inc ...

and receives revenue from

display advertising Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...

and

classified advertising Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements use ...

in its weekly newspaper and

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on its

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and from a

subscription business model The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

. 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. 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 A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

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 The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...

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 Black Monday (also known as Black Tuesday in some parts of the world due to time zone differences) was a global, severe and largely unexpected stock market crash on Monday, October 19, 1987. Worldwide losses were estimated at US$1.71 trillion. ...

. 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 The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. Previously he retired earlier in the year from working as president of

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (also known simply as Dow Jones) is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp, and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', '' MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'' ...

. Shaw served as ABJC's chairman for two decades. Under his leadership, the company moved its headquarters from

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, to

, and greatly increased the number of its publications. In 1995, ACBJ was acquired by

for million (equivalent to $million in ). 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

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to provide content for bcentral.com. In 2007, the company acquired

. In 2012, sister company

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

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. Best Places To Work awards

* ''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

, 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 * ''

'' - 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 * ''

'' - 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

References

External links

*
American City Business Journals corporate website

The Business Journals

Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal

Hemmings Motor News
* {{Advance Publications 1990 initial public offerings 1995 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Advance Publications American corporate subsidiaries Business newspapers published in the United States Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina Mass media companies established in 1985 Weekly newspapers published in the United States 1982 establishments in the United States