Opinion

BusinessWest at 25: a Progress Report

If you look carefully, you’ll notice that some things are different in this issue of BusinessWest. There is a subtle new look that we believe is a little cleaner, more modern, and easier to read.

These minor changes come as BusinessWest marks 25 years of serving the business community in Western Mass., and represent about the only thing we’re doing to mark the occasion, other than to restate our mission and stress our commitment to honoring it.

This publication was started as the Western Mass. Business Journal, and first arrived at area businesses in May 1984, when the world — and the Pioneer Valley — were much different places. Now, as then, the magazine’s purpose is to hold up a mirror to the region and especially the business community, write about the reflection in that mirror, and comment on what it all means.

It’s been a challenging, yet enjoyable and rewarding assignment, one that has changed in some respects, but is still very much a constant.

First, let’s look at what hasn’t changed. For more than 300 years now, and especially the past quarter-century, the region’s business community has been a force in constant motion. People, names, products, technology, issues, needs, and desires are always changing and seemingly moving. It has always been our mission to capture this motion, describe it in great detail, and examine its significance. And we think we’ve done that pretty well.

Since this motion is constant, as we said, that aspect of our mission won’t change. But what has changed, and what will continue to evolve, is BusinessWest’s role in how this movement takes place. Where once we were content to merely observe and report, the magazine has become increasingly involved in shaping response to change and the issues of the day.

How? By becoming more involved with groups such as area chambers of commerce, the Young Professionals Society of Greater Springfield, area colleges and universities, and agencies like the Regional Employment Board and the Tourism and Convention Bureau to inform, educate, and perhaps inspire progress.

The word you’re hearing more often with regard to BusinessWest is ‘partner,’ and you’ll be hearing it much more in the months and years to come.

We want to partner with those aforementioned groups and many others to make this region’s business community stronger, more diverse, and, ultimately, more competitive. We don’t want to sit and hope that the region and its capital, Springfield, become more vibrant; we want to help make that happen.

We won’t do this only by reporting the good news, but also by partnering in efforts to promote the region, its businesses, and the people who make those businesses run. If we’re successful, then perhaps there will be more good news to report.

As BusinessWest turns 25, those of us who bring it to you every two weeks want to say thank you for supporting our efforts, but more importantly, we want to thank you for inspiring us to reach higher, do what we do better, and create more of those partnerships mentioned earlier.

Such collaborative efforts are necessary; these are exceedingly challenging times, and our region is facing a number of hurdles to achieving desired progress — from closing the skills gap in employment to keeping talented, young individuals from leaving this market; from reducing poverty in many area cities to identifying new sources of jobs for future generations of area generations — and no one group or individual can tackle them alone..

The magazine you’re reading now doesn’t look anything like the one that first debuted in 1984. We’ve come a long way in 25 years, but there’s still a lot of work to do. We’ll hold the celebration and get right to it.

—Kate Campiti, Associate Publisher and Advertising Director