We hosted the 11th Annual DBT 40 a few weeks ago.
Let’s think about that for a moment. Since its inception, Delaware Business Times has recognized Delaware’s 440 achievers and innovators under 40. Many of them were recognized publicly for the first time.
We launched the Delaware Business Times in September 2014 in the face of The News Journal (and others)’ decision to de-emphasize business coverage. In fact, I remember when Gannett had a business staff of 10 people in Delaware. But the decision to discontinue publication of Business Monday facilitated the choice to launch a pro-business publication in the First State.
I asked our leadership team to think about DBT10. There were three recurring themes.
Movers and real estate agents praise us as a trusted source of good business news.
People are hungry for news that impacts their communities beyond ribbon cuttings and groundbreaking ceremonies.
It’s exciting to meet the next generation of members at our events and watch their careers take off.
We launched STUFF (recently rebranded as Delaware Careers) because workforce development is today’s big challenge. Our readers love that we shine a light on the issue of not having enough workers to fill available jobs.
We are showing students, their parents, and the business community that there are good, high-paying career paths that don’t necessarily require a degree. These are in industries like construction and healthcare that they may not know much about.
While I’m proud of Delaware Careers, which has won two national awards from the Association of Area Business Publishers (AABP), we have many other differentiators.
We launched the CEO of the Year Awards and the Mitchell Awards to recognize catalysts of change and drivers of inclusion. We partner with our sister publication Delaware Today to host our annual Women in Business event at venues across the state and upstate. The list goes on: Delaware 222 (focusing on people at the peak of their careers), Giving Guide, 90 Ideas in 90 Minutes, a publication in conjunction with the Delaware World Trade Center and the DCA Construction Excellence Awards.
Our readers love our Book of Lists, and we’re going to focus even more on connecting our articles with companies and CEOs. This is a valuable resource for leads and information from across the state.
When the Business Roundtable announced its Growth Agenda, it called for further advancement of Delaware’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. That led to the creation of Innovation Delaware.
The future is bright.
It’s now fully digital, but it could have happened sooner. Introducing a paywall has helped fund our journalism. But digital is another way to deliver information the way people want to read it.
We’re committed to better coverage of government and politics. I think we’re electing a candidate who is very progressive and anti-business. These could harm our corporate capital position. It still takes too long to get things done and you’re losing business because of it. It’s frustrating and deserves more attention.
Finally, I am fortunate to have very talented employees. I want to give a shout out to our founder, Sam Walz, who helped get this business off the ground in 2014 at a time when people were having doubts about starting a print publication.
We could not have reached this point without our talented editorial staff. Founding editor Michael Mika hired Christie Milligan, a Milford native who became the second editor-in-chief. Next up was Peter Osborne, who has 15 years of experience in business journalism. He hired Jacob Owens, and the two hired the current editor, Katie Taveling. I would like to thank Avie Silver (ex-Spark) and Charlie Tomlinson for getting our business development off the ground, and our current leadership team of Mike Reath, Lisa Minto and Kate Schlegel.
Local news may be more important than ever. People want to know what’s going on, and they want it to be presented in an unbiased way. Opinions are clearly marked as such. I promise to continue on that path.
Thank you for letting us into your life.
