65 Years and Counting

It is an honor and privilege to lead an organization with roots going back 65 years, and one that is an indispensable authority on the issues, people and ideas defining Florida and its business community.

In my 27-year career in publishing, I have had the good fortune of working for three industry-leading brands: American City Business Journals, Crain Communications and FLORIDA TREND.

When I was recruited from the Midwest eight years ago to help lead FLORIDA TREND, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. I knew the brand well, its strength in the market, the respect it garnered across the state and among its industry peers, the loyalty of its readers and the talent of its staff. However, the true realization came upon my family’s move to Florida and understanding the “power and purpose of place.” Florida is an amazing kaleidoscope of destinations and adventures. Florida’s savvy business leaders are focused, determined and collaborative across sectors. They are smart and thoughtful, and their combined efforts in economic development drive Florida toward a common goal.

Since its founding, FLORIDA TREND has been led by an amazing group of publishers. Each provided their own vision, foresight and unyielding dedication to their craft. It is the sum of all those individual leaders who shaped FLORIDA TREND into what it is today – Florida’s Business Authority – an independent thriving statewide business-to-business publication and media company.

Today, FLORIDA TREND’s monthly print readership is more than 270,000 strong and our online reach is deep. Our website, FloridaTrend.com, garners over a million pageviews and more than 170,000 unique visitors each month. Digitally, FLORIDA TREND delivers twice-daily news alerts — totaling nearly 3 million each month to a 100% opt-in subscriber audience — as well as weekly industry specific newsletters and our weekly video newscast, Business Beat.

It’s quite the operation, and one that FLORIDA TREND’s founder, Harris Mullen, would be extremely proud of today. All these years later, his bold vision and editorial ethics still hold strong and ring true.

Mullen approached the job with passion and enthusiasm. “We see no place for timidity or mildness in this new future. It is a future to be met with boldness, action, and a certain calculated risk,” he wrote.

Mullen ran FLORIDA TREND for 22 years before selling the magazine to the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) in 1980. Remaining independent, FLORIDA TREND is run as a separate business unit within Times Publishing Company, which is owned by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a non-profit that provides training to journalists and media literacy programs for citizens.

A strong and thriving business is only as solid as the individuals who hold it together and FLORIDA TREND’s individual staff members are without equal. FLORIDA TREND’s 24 full-time employees have an average of 15 years tenure. This not only says a lot about the organization and its work environment, but also the loyalty and commitment of the team.

If our past performance is any indication of our future success, count me as being extremely bullish on FLORIDA TREND’s next 65 years.

— David G. Denor, Publisher ddenor@floridatrend.com

Tags: Publisher's column