Business West is the premiere business news magazine in western Massachusetts. This twice-monthly journal has embraced new media by creating a web page and a twitter. I talked to George O’Brien, the editor at Business West, to find out how the economy and how new media has affected publication. In the past he worked at the Westfield Evening News, but for the past sixteen years has been editor at Business West. With so many newspapers losing subscriptions, Business West has endured through this difficult time.
Though they do not have a direct competitor, the Springfield Republican does cover business and is printed weekly and has proven to be a bit of an obstacle. Even with their balance of media, they try to focus on their print version as much as possible. “We try to direct as much traffic to the print version as possible. We delay information printed online to keep it up,” says O’Brien.
Circulation of papers around the country have gone down significantly. Business West, however, has only decreased in readers slightly. “Fewer people read print these days. The newer generation reads less in general. The fact that most people read the news on new media has been a challenge,” says O’Brien. But they do not plan on raising prices for subscriptions. Their new media outlets like their web page and their twitter have been beneficial. “There are a lot of people who are more comfortable with reading information online. We want the print to succeed but new media is just more popular. It gets challenging though. It requires staff, not much revenue, and you’re basically giving the product away,” says O’Brien.
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