I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

On my first day on the job here, I was speaking with Summit Business Media’s CEO, Andy Goodenough, and I used the term “trade publication.” Andy stopped me. “I don’t like that term,” he told me. “It makes us sound less important than we are.”

I don’t remember what I was saying at the moment, or what I said afterwards. But I do remember Andy’s comment. It is something I have thought about often, and I have to say, Andy was right. So often, people use the term “trade publication” or “trade press” as a way of suggesting that business journalism is somehow secondary or derivative of something. That the stories we write are not worth as much as the stories written by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times or the Economist. And in that, I suppose they are right. They are not as important. They are more important.

For it is in dedicated business publications that we often see the start of important trends, where we find the stories behind the stories reported in the mainstream, and where we can bring to light the great business practices and the deplorable misdeeds that have such a profound impact on all of the rest of us. So much of the news today is compiled from elsewhere and repackaged. What we get to do is find the news and report it ourselves. And that is a job worth having.

I am extremely proud of the nearly award-winning work we did. But I am more proud to work for you fine readers, and to try every day to live up to your expectations of National Underwriter. You never give us a free ride, and you always call us out on things you think we could improve upon, and I appreciate that so very much. It is an honor to serve this audience, and a pleasure with each blog post, each daily news story, each printed issue. Thanks for having me.