Henry Dubroff

Some changes are taking place at Pacific Coast Business Times, beginning with the print edition you are holding in your hands or the digital version you’re looking at online.

First, we’re combining our weekly commercial real estate and finance coverage into a weekly focus section called “Money & Real Estate.” That move will allow us to expand our news coverage and advertising opportunities in these two important categories.

Second, our weekly newsmakers column will get a permanent spot on page four of our print edition. Page five will become a premium advertising position.

Through the fall and into next year, we’re going to be adding more specialized focus sections to expand our reach into Health Care, Education, and Energy & Environment.

They will complement our monthly Technology focus report and our alternating Central Coast and East Ventura County focus reports and give us new opportunities to showcase our Top 25 lists.

We’re already beginning production of our 2017 Book of Lists, which will be published with our last edition of 2016 on Dec. 30.

Looking ahead, I’m delighted to make several announcements about next year’s editorial calendar:

• Central Coast Innovation Awards, which made a very successful debut last year, will be expanded with new categories and participation from the UC Santa Barbara Office of Technology & Industry Partnerships, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and California Lutheran University. Our special report will publish on Feb. 24 followed by our Startup Village and awards program on March 16 at the Bacara Resort & Spa.

• CSU Channel Islands President Erika Beck will keynote our Top 50 Women in Business program at the Deckers Outdoor Pavilion on April 13. Our Top 50 Women in  Business special report will be published on March 24.

• Women’s Economic Ventures Founder Marsha Bailey will become the 16th member of the Business Times Hall of Fame at our 101 One Hundred reception on May 18 at the Four Seasons Santa Barbara Biltmore. We’ll also be introducing a Best Places to Work award as part of that program.

• In August, we’ll be teaming up with the Los Angeles District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration to celebrate the 15th Annual Spirit of Small Business awards luncheon, with a look back at the success of some of our past winners. Our awards luncheon will return to Fess Parker’s DoubleTree resort, where the Spirit awards made their debut in 2003.

We’ve got other exciting plans for next year including a Champions in Health Care panel on longevity and Alzheimer’s, the presentation of our first Business Times Latino Business Awards scholarship and the return of 40 Under 40 for another exciting program.

For nominations, you can reach Special Reports Editor Chris Officer at cofficer@pacbiztimes.com. For nominations and sponsorship, please contact Publisher Linda le Brock at llebrock@pacbiztimes.com.

‘Putting our region on the map’

Finally, a personal thank you to Wes St. Clair and the Santa Barbara Noon Rotary Club.

They invited me to give a talk about the regional economy on Oct. 14 and then surprised me by naming me a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary.

For a non-Rotarian, it’s quite an honor, and I think it reflects well on the role that Pacific Coast Business Times plays in, as Wes said, “putting our region on the map.”  Our innovative companies, our culture of collaboration and our fostering of entrepreneurship have become hallmarks of our economy.

Seventeen years ago this month, I quit a very good job as editor-in-chief of The Denver Business Journal to create the Pacific Coast Business Times. Thanks to your support, it’s been a wonderful ride.

• Reach Editor Henry Dubroff at hdubroff@pacbiztimes.com.