WBJ Publisher Peter Stanton
December 23, 2020
From WBJ’s publisher: Making it through 2020 together
By Peter Stanton
Since March, a few businesses have been able to thrive, and many others have managed their way through the pandemic with minimal damage. But so many others have not been so lucky, especially our friends in the hospitality, restaurant and retail sectors. We confess to having a bit of survivor’s guilt as we close out this crazy year in OK shape.
When the pandemic caught us off guard, we did not have a Plan B in place. But as we have all discovered, a crisis tests your team, and our team at Worcester Business Journal has come through this ordeal with flying colors. Rather than finding less need for our product, we found even greater demand. Our readers relied on us more than ever for timely news, insights and information on the local economy and what they could do to survive. Our email open rates rose, our web traffic increased measurably and social followers continued to balloon. We’ve never had more customers engaged with our brand.
From becoming experts on Zoom and dissecting the Paycheck Protection Program, the WBJ team went through a rapid learning curve in record time. The same changes were evident at companies throughout the region, as we wrote about organizations who were able to turn on a dime. Nearly everyone upped their game, and it showed.
While we’re defined as an essential business, that alone was not enough to make us whole. Our loyal readers and advertisers kept their faith in our team and our brand. We are deeply appreciative of your confidence in us, and we try to live up to your expectations every day.
With fewer journalists reporting on our community, we feel a responsibility to do more, helping initiate change to make our regional economy not only stronger, but more fair and equitable. And that will make success for all of us more sustainable.
Thank you for reading and subscribing to WBJ and our enews products, for attending our virtual events, for listening to our podcast, for advertising with us and for sponsoring events, your engagement throughout this difficult period has been humbling. The pandemic has been a massive challenge, but it has also shown the depth of community and caring for one another that exists in Worcester and Central Massachusetts. Harnessing that spirit for transformative change in the years ahead holds great promise, and we look forward to playing our role in reporting on and encouraging positive change.
We wish you and yours a healthy and happy holiday season. Joy to you in the New Year and may the spring bring us a whole new season of hope!
- Peter Stanton, owner & publisher
WBJ Web Partners
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