Greenspuns debut new weekly business paper

Thursday, June 1, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

In Business Las Vegas, a weekly business newspaper published by the Greenspun Media Group, debuts Friday following a kickoff salute to the city's top deal makers Wednesday.

Carolyn Ashford, who has specialized in launching business publications throughout her career, is the publisher of the newspaper, which will compete with Wick Communications' Las Vegas Business Press.

In Business Las Vegas is the seventh Greenspun publication, joining the Las Vegas Sun, the Ralston Report, Showbiz Weekly and Las Vegas Weekly and monthlies Las Vegas Life and VegasGolfer. The Henderson-based Greenspun Corp. also owns the Vegas.com Internet site and a one-third interest in the Las Vegas ONE all-news cable television channel.

In Business will appear Fridays and will be directed at business owners and managers. It will have a $1.50 cover price, but Ashford said most of the circulation will be through paid subscriptions at $32 a year. Individual copies will be available at some local bookstores and newsstands.

There are 12,000 copies of the tabloid-formatted first edition being distributed. The initial edition has 40 pages and Ashford hopes to increase that level in the future.

Ashford said the publication would focus on reporting local business trends and recognizing innovation in a variety of fields.

Political columnist Jon Ralston also will have a column in the publication. Profiles of business people and a weekly Top 25 list of businesses in various industries also are planned in each edition.

"This is one of the most interesting business communities I've ever worked in," said Ashford, formerly the chief operating officer of American City Business Journals, which owns business publications around the nation but not in Las Vegas.

"There is so much new growth in Las Vegas and so many changes in the community," Ashford said. "Like most people, I never had a clue about business in Las Vegas until I came here and realized just how much is going on."

Ashford said the mission of the newspaper is to become a tool for business people to keep up with their competitors and to link new business people with the established players of the city.

The approach for doing that, Ashford said, is to publish upbeat, research-based guides and to conduct recognition programs, such as the Deal Makers of the Year Awards. Ashford said her staff solicited nominations and the newspaper's editorial board made the selections. Future recognition programs will cite locally produced innovative products, influential women and health-care heroes.

At a launch party Wednesday, In Business announced the 19 top deals and deal makers. Among them: the acquisition of Travelscape.com by Expedia in the high-tech category and Meadow Valley Corp. for the Spaghetti Bowl ramp project in the public works-transportation category. Park Place Entertainment Corp. was named deal maker of the year in 1999 for its $3 billion acquisition of Caesars World.

To provide a fresh approach, Ashford said she recruited most of her staff from out of state. Key employees include editor Mike Stone, who edited business publications in Richmond, Va., and Orange County, Calif.; Jennifer Robison, special publications editor, a former editor of the monthly Nevada Business Journal; and reporter Malcolm Hall, formerly with the Tulsa (Okla.) Business Journal.

Cathey Rudolph is the publication's advertising director. She was a colleague of Ashford's in Fort Worth, Texas, before moving to Las Vegas.

When fully staffed the publication will have five beat reporters covering commercial real estate, banking and finance, health care, law and high technology. The sales staff will include the director, three account executives and a classified advertising representative.