Published April 2003
Journal
celebrates
five years of news
Happy
new year!
Even though it’s
April, for the Snohomish County Business Journal this month IS the start
of a new year, our sixth year of providing countywide business news coverage.
Since 1998 we have
enjoyed a warm welcome and strong support from the county’s business community.
Each month we mail 15,000 copies to business owners, executives and their
staffs, reaching 45,000 readers, according to our reader surveys.
Over the past five
years, we have published 60 regular issues and more than eight special
editions — including our annual Business Women and Market Facts issues
and special keepsake issues for such major construction projects as Providence
Everett Medical Center’s new Pavilion for Women and Children.
Those issues have
provided more than 2,600 pages of business news about technology, housing,
health care, banking, business resources, nonprofit agencies and the business
people who power the county’s economy.
Five of those issues,
one on each anniversary, have honored a successful, inspirational business
leader as the journal’s “Executive of the Year,” including the man on
this month’s cover — Rocky Wens, president of Engineering Support Personnel
Inc. of Lynnwood.
Month after month,
year after year, the journal has been praised by its readers. Yes, this
is my annual “How great we are!” editorial, but it’s also a time to tell
you that the popularity of the journal as a significant source for Snohomish
County business news, and business-to-business advertising, was assessed
recently in a Verified Audit Circulation survey of 505 of our readers.
Of those who responded
to this opinion sampling, 84.5 percent said they read the journal regularly,
96.7 percent said they want to continue receiving it, and we found that
an average of nearly three people read each issue, according to the report.
Even better, 51 percent said they read each issue 20 to 30 minutes, while
26 percent read it 30 to 60 minutes.
Ninety percent of
the respondents said they find the news quality to be “good” or “excellent,”
and 85 percent find the advertising content “very useful” to “somewhat
useful.” Eighty-two percent of the respondents said they “make or influence
their company’s purchasing decisions” and 47 percent said they have made
buying decisions based on the content in the business journal.
Also, our Web site
— www.snohomishcountybusinessjournal.com — has continued to grow in popularity
since we launched it 18 months ago. Last June, according to a Web Trends
report, there were 3,771 individual “unique” visitors to our Web site
who made 8,544 visits during the month and viewed 18,391 pages of material.
Last February, only
eight months later, our site received 6,722 “unique” visitors who made
19,183 visits to look at 66,731 pages of material — a sizable increase
in Web site activity over the eight-month period. As we add more features,
more current and archived issues and more advertisements on the site,
we anticipate those numbers will continue to rise.
In this “new year,”
we remain committed to providing Snohomish County’s business and technology
communities with hundreds more pages of business news, trends, advice,
statistics and profiles — business news you can use.
We offer our thanks
to our loyal readers — and to the business-to-business advertisers who
have shown their support and confidence in our business journal during
the past five years — for their continued confidence in our publication,
a business journal that really is your publication.
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