Daily Herald to launch suburban business publication
The Daily Herald Suburban Business magazine, featuring the latest local business-to-business news and features, will debut in November, Arlington Heights-based Paddock Publications Inc. announced Tuesday.
Paddock, publishers of the Daily Herald, plans to target the publication to meet the needs of the suburban business community, said Doug Ray, Paddock Publications chairman and CEO. It also issues the Biz2Biz e-newsletter and other resources for suburban businesses.
"The connection of businesses to one another is a largely unmet need in the suburbs," Ray said. "We know from our own experience that business owners, managers and corporate leaders and their staffs want relevant local business news and information, and currently there is no authoritative source for it in the suburbs.
"This new initiative will fill that void with a monthly magazine, resource guides, a new and improved Biz2Biz newsletter and special events featuring prominent suburban business executives, sharing best practices and current business developments."
The new monthly magazine will have an initial distribution of 12,000 copies.
Paddock and the Daily Herald have a long-standing relationship with the suburban business community through strong local contacts and feedback, Ray said.
"We know this is an area," he said, "in which there is a real need a close-to-home business information repository, in print and online, as well as bringing together various business disciplines to exchange ideas and best practices.
"This will be in the form of special events and a monthly focus in the magazine on specific areas of interest the law, insurance, health care, among the focus areas.
"Suburban Business will use the Daily Herald's 'Big picture, local focus' approach by reporting on the suburban business community as we do with the local communities on the scene, in-depth and providing perspective with the big-picture analysis along with local concern for making the suburbs a better place.
"Business leaders, executives and small businesses have told us they need that connection, and that is what Daily Herald Suburban Business will be about."
To tie in with the new publication, several events also are being planned, starting with a Business Roundtable in December on the topic "Business and Economic Outlook 2011."
An enhanced Biz2Biz e-newsletter, which already reaches about 5,000 business leaders via e-mail each Wednesday, will provide a weekly suburban business report and a digest of current business news.
James Elsener is an adviser to Paddock on the initiative. He founded The Business Ledger, a DuPage County bi-weekly business publication in 1996 and was its publisher. He left the Business Ledger in 2008 when Brown Publishing Co. purchased the publication.
Kim Mikus, a 20-year veteran of the Daily Herald, will be the new publication's editor. She will continue to write a twice-weekly business column in the Daily Herald.
Andrew Zielonka, formerly of the Business Ledger, will be the manager of sales and operations.
Paddock also publishes Reflejos and an array of niche publications. The newspaper is one of the largest family-owned newspapers nationwide and has been published in the suburbs since 1872.