Our view: PCBT looks forward as we celebrate 25th birthday
With the current issue of the Business Times, we’re turning over to a new year — and celebrating 25 years as the Central Coast’s voice for business news and information.
On March 17, 2000, we launched the Business Times with the idea that the Central Coast business community was dynamic, unique and worthy of in-depth news coverage.
Over 25 years we’ve reached thousands of readers, and hundreds of businesses and followed our dynamic innovators in agribusiness, biotech, software, semiconductors and more recently Quantum computing and AI.
We’ve handed out hardware to more than 1,000 up-and-coming leaders via our 40 under 40 awards and we’re celebrating the first anniversary of our Civil Dialogues podcast, with new episodes dropping monthly.
We’ve got some exciting opportunities ahead, beginning with our Top 50 Women in Business special report, a signature edition that publishes on March 28 and will lead to our biggest event of the year in April.
Our 25th anniversary will be a special Hall of Fame issue in late April, recognizing Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong, Limoneira CEO Harold Edwards, Village Properties founder Renee Grubb, Saalex founder and CEO Travis Mack, Lazer Broadcasting founder Alfredo Plascencia.
We’ll also be recognizing other organizations celebrating milestone years and we’ll celebrate on May 22 at the Ritz Carlton Bacara resort.
In May, we’re producing our Central Coast Best Places to Work awards as a stand-alone report. Our theme this year is “Community Connection,” and our survey is live on the pacbiztimes.com website.
Also coming up fast is our April 11 Champions of Education special report, where our topic is “Business Education/Financial Literacy.”
Our Spring Forecast report on May 9 will include our semi-annual look at the economy, the markets and Women & Wealth.
To advertise or sponsor our special reports email Publisher Linda le Brock at [email protected]. For questions about nominations, you can reach Co-Managing Editor Amber Hair at [email protected].
WHAT PCBT BRINGS TO THE TABLE
We also wanted to share a few thoughts about our approach to the news and the business community.
• We are an independent voice for business and leadership, with the only team of full-time journalists devoted to business and economic coverage between the Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles. We don’t endorse candidates, and we believe in a nonpartisan approach that focuses on issues.
• We encourage the community to speak up via our op-ed pages where we are providing a unique opportunity for thought leadership.
• We believe in our subscription-based model because we feel strongly that our content is worth paying for. On issues related to public safety or broad social concerns, we’re happy to drop our paywall and share our content with the world.
• We respect the privacy of our subscribers. Unlike social media sites, we don’t sell our subscriber data and advertising on our website and our emails are controlled by the Business Times ad team.
