Making a magazine work.

• Author: Smith, Carol
• Position: Alaska Business Publishing Co.

Ten years ago this month, two young men, Paul Laird and Bob Dixon, convinced three Anchorage businessmen that they could successfully produce a statewide business magazine if they just had the financial support. So these three men, Tony Smith, Allan Gallant and Bob Richards, contacted their friends and convinced eight of them to join in their venture. Thus was the Alaska Business Publishing Co. born in the summer of 1984.

The only original investor with a background in journalism was Vern McCorkle, who at that time was the city manager at St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands. Tony claimed to know something about the business because he had written racing tips for Ski Magazine at one time and had been a columnist for the Alaska Journal of Commerce and The Anchorage Times. Bob Richards, also a Times columnist, was a well-known economist but more importantly, he understood the importance of deadlines. In reality, however, we were putting our faith in Laird and Dixon to make this investment pay off.

What made us think we could succeed when other similar ventures had not? How did we manage to survive the late '80s in Alaska when many businesses could not? Why do we persist today in producing a quality magazine for people interested in business in Alaska? And how have we managed to be profitable for all these years?

First, everyone is interested in business in some form or another. All of us are consumers, we need banks and other financial institutions, and we are interested in the economic situation of our state. There is a growing demand for the...