Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The era of the Boston Business Journal feature stories begins...

... but I can't link to the stories very well because you have to be a paid subscriber to view them. I'm going to try to find a way to get them up on my site, but until then, enjoy the lead paragraph of the one story I was able to locate this week, out of the four published.

This year saw the Greater Boston Business Council (GBBC), the only gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) chamber of commerce in the Boston area and the only culturally based chamber on the Boston Business Journal's top 25 list, rise to the No. 6 slot.

It's been a long climb to the near-top for an organization that in 2000 had fewer than 100 members and $50,000 in debt, but board members say that the changing culture of Boston, coupled with good parties and good business, will ensure the trend continues.


You know you want to finish reading that story. How many people out there even knew there was a gay chamber of commerce? This is why I adore writing for a business newspaper. Everything, everything is about business. Because business stories, the best stories, are about people and their dreams and desires, about people doing good in the world, and about people changing the way we live our lives. It's the best feature-writer's gig of all time: making a topic that others overlook or misunderstand as uninteresting into a grand narrative that engages all of us.

And did I mention that the staff of the BBJ is an amazing group of people themselves? We're from all different backgrounds: I know of 2 staffers who have recording careers, a few who are painters, many who are teachers on the side (including my boss and the editor of Mass High Tech, both of whom I had as professors). We came to the BBJ for the same reasons: a desire for security, integrity and professionalism in the newspaper world, which this paper has in spades. It may be a somewhat drab publication at times, but if you read it often enough, you'll come across gems like Naomi Kooker, our hospitality writer, cracking crabs with restrateurs, or Michelle Hillman quoting something quizzical from our own jowly Mayor Menino. Look forward to more of same from me--I hope.

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