Putting the new in news

Today’s paper launches Health Care & Hospitals focus section and fresh redesign

Jessica Swanson
is the managing editor of the Vancouver Business Journal.

Reporter Megan Patrick called a local clinic administrator with a question for the featured story on page 20 of today’s paper. She received a cold response from the clinic. You see, this clinic had attempted to approach the Vancouver Business Journal with stories in the past, and, well, we never quite had a place for them. Between covering our core industries like banking, technology, real estate and construction, health care industry ideas seemed to pile up in the in-box. The big projects and substantive issues would make the front pages, but the stories of the day-to-day growth and transformation of the industry by local professionals often didn’t see the light of day.

You’ll notice some changes in today’s Vancouver Business Journal. We are very proud to announce our new special focus section, Health Care & Hospitals. The new section will run six times a year and feature news about hospitals, clinics, health care employment, new developments, insurance, technology and more. There has been great demand for such industry news and advertising, and we are happy to be meeting that demand. Our goal is to be responsive to local industry, and shining the light on the fastest growing industry in the nation – and in Southwest Washington – is a great way to do that.

While I wasn’t pleased that a source – the clinic mentioned above – felt they were not heard in the past, it was thrilling that Megan was able to tell them we have dedicated space and staff to this industry.

Health Care & Hospitals is also a direct tie-in to our annual magazine, the Health Resource Guide, which is distributed to thousands of health care professionals and consumers every October. We hope they will complement each other, and strengthen our readers’ connection to the local businesses and organizations in this field.

Also today, we are launching a fresh redesign of the Vancouver Business Journal. In order to accommodate more news and advertising, we implemented a number of clean, space-saving design elements, modernized the look of our focus sections and created more consistency throughout the paper. We made room for another full page of news and features, and built in a new sponsorship space under Business Spotlight. These changes, too, were spurred on by reader demand. Thanks to designer Stephanie Hardwick for all her hard work on this.

We hope you like the improved Vancouver Business Journal – after all, you made it what it is.

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