Volume 1, Issue 3
Table of Contents

Cover Story:
The Tourist Trade
We need 'em, We want 'em, We got 'em.

Feature Story:
How'd He Do That?
Some words of advice from Union State Bank's Tom Hales

DEPARTMENTS:

Economics Roundup
• The Smart Investor
Bold moves can be exciting, but also fruitless
• Economic Viewpoint
The Fed's bark may be worse than its bite

Business Roundup
• Technology Viewpoint
Five steps to drive more traffic to your website
• The Fine Art of Advertising
Building a good campaign - how would you rate you?

Retail Round-Up
• Retailers Seeing Green
Shoppers plan to open their wallets this holiday season

Invest in Your Community
• Get The Ball Rolling
Learn how your company can help Meals on Wheels

Odds & Ends
• From The Publishers
• PR Patter

Dedicated Section:
Rockland Business Association:

The President’s Desk
Want to help Rockland and the business community gain some respect? Here's how.

Bridging Borders EXPO 2006
Recent Business-to-Business Expo a great success

RBA Happenings
• Other News
• Committee and Council Info
• Calendar of Events
• New Members

I’m advising you up front — this is a sales pitch. A pitch for you to help your business, your association and your business community.

For many years, we have complained about the lack of media attention given to Rockland County. The NY Times has a Westchester Edition, but we get covered in the Bergen County (New Jersey) Edition. NYC TV stations cover Westchester in their weather reports, but rarely mention Rockland County (there’s been some improvement). Even some of the weather maps on News 12 fail to show a Rockland County venue although Rockland might be mentioned.

We have one radio station that needs more bandwidth to fully cover the county. Our print media has never adequately covered the news of the business community. As Rodney Dangerfield might have put it, “We don’t get no respect.”

We just had a marvelous EXPO. We had a unique presentation. We kicked-off with a great brunch (over 200 people) with a guest speaker. We had 5 1/2 hours of pretty impressive traffic and we closed with a great cocktail party (over 200 people) that featured the food of eight of our better restaurants. And, we had the Mahwah Regional Chamber of Commerce join us for a truly regional approach. We didn’t get a single line of copy in our daily newspaper.

On April 17th, of this year, the Westchester Business Council held their trade show at the Westchester Marriott. The next day they got 67 column inches of copy, to include two pictures (one in 4-color) — we got zip.

I’m actually tired of fighting with the media. I’m exhausted trying to be collegial with them. They have their agendas; we have to be entitled to ours. They have their “slow news days” when they might be able to give more space to someone else’s event. They have their days when they’re short-staffed and can’t get to an event. But, we have to ensure that our “message” gets to the full business community.

If you are reading this column, you probably are one of the over 11,000 businesspeople who get this magazine. And, that’s a guaranteed circulation. In fact, this is the only publication that can guarantee your message for your business and our message for your association actually is reaching Rockland’s business community. But, it needs your help so that it can deliver this most important service.

Please consider the Rockland Business Digest in your advertising and marketing budget for 2007. If you need to reach the business community, you need to use this magazine. We certainly know that to grow the RBA, we need to reach the non-members who are receiving this publication.

End of sales pitch. But, I will add, we do not realize a revenue stream from the Digest’s advertising.
I share the above with you “pure of heart.” I believe the Digest can help you; I know it can help your association.

Okay, now it’s the end of the sales pitch.

 

Al Samuels
President/CEO
Rockland Business Association