Gwaltney Takes Top Honors; BizVoice Total Grows to 50

Readers of the Chamber’s BizVoice magazine have seen the name Candace Gwaltney quite a bit over the past 18 months. Candace has played an ever-growing role in analyzing the issues and telling the company stories in our bimonthly publication, as well as being a key contributor to other communications and public relations efforts.

Candace took top honors in two categories in the recent Indiana Society of Professional Journalists "Best in Indiana" competition. I like to attribute that in part to her journalism background at Ball State, but even that fine university can’t take all the credit for the strong interviewing, organizational and writing skills Candace possesses.

Her winning entries: 

Matt Ottinger earned an honorable mention in the environmental category for Greener Building Practices: Trials and Benefits for Indiana Businesses (July-August 2008) and Tom Schuman placed second in the Best Print Feature category for 2008 Government Leaders of the Year: Joe Kernan and Randall Shepard (November-December 2008).

BizVoice has now earned 50 state and national awards over the past 10 years. It takes a talented and dedicated staff to achieve such a consistenly high performance level. Congratulations to all. Keep reading BizVoice, Indiana’s only statewide general business magazine. If you’re not familiar with the publication, what are you waiting for?

BizVoice Stands Tall in Ever-Shrinking Media Pool

The master of this space, colleague Matt Ottinger, shared a post a few months ago about the future of the newspaper industry. Since then, more bankruptcies and closings have been making headlines. As someone who spent nearly 20 years (seriously, I started when I was in high school) at various newspaper publications, it’s a sad thing to see.

In a related development, Indiana Business Magazine announced its shutdown last week after 52 years in the business. That also is not a good development. It reduces the number of voices — the business stories being told and the information and analysis made available.

Our Indiana Chamber BizVoice publication is now the ONLY general business magazine in the state. Not that we didn’t already do so, but we will take that responsibility seriously. Just a few facts:

  • BizVoice has earned nearly 50 national and state awards over the past 10 years
  • Our audience of 15,000 (and more for event distribution to both Best Places to Work and Chamber Annual Awards Dinner audiences) includes top Indiana business, political and community leaders
  • We’re blessed with a staff that excels at telling those stories and creating an important and effective publication — both in print and online
  • Jim Wagner, our Chamber business development coordinator, boasts more than 25 years of experience in working with Indiana companies and organizations. He knows what works for those looking to get the word out about their products and services

We’re hard at work on the next issue, honoring 70 Best Places to Work companies, featuring a special health care section and a Community Focus on Terre Haute. Learn more online.