John MacDonald, left, Lise MacDonald, centre, and Mark MacDonald, right
By Mark MacDonald
VICTORIA – Business Examiner is celebrating being the voice of business on Vancouver Island for four decades this year.
It was 1984 when Grant Wittkamp and Tom Neilson started the newspaper in Victoria.
“Being in business for 40 years is a tremendous accomplishment in any sector,” says John MacDonald, owner of the Business Examiner News Group. “When you consider that half of businesses don’t last five years and around 85 percent don’t make it to 10, the fact this publication has been around since the 1980’s is amazing.”
Business Examiner is British Columbia’s largest business-to-business network with five on-line editions covering most of the province: Greater Victoria, Vancouver Island north of the Malahat, Peace Cariboo Skeena in northern B.C., Thompson Okanagan and the Fraser Valley.
“Business Examiner has consistently focused on local companies and business news, and that remains today,” says MacDonald. “It has also been able to give a voice to business owners regarding a wide number of issues, and really has been speaking up on their behalf so that readers, leaders and government officials understand how entrepreneurs view the world. They’re the ones that drive the economy, and it’s important that their point of view is heard.”
Business Examiner founders Grant Wittkamp and Tom Neilson
Wittkamp recalls how it all started.
“We were two young men looking for a brighter independent future,” he says. “Tom was 27 and I was 24 years old when we founded the Victoria Business Examiner. Tom worked as an advertising sales representative for the Oak Bay Star when we met at Mister Burger. At the time I was handling the advertising, and we quickly formed a friendship.”
Soon after, they began discussing the idea of starting their own newspaper.
“At the time, B.C. was just coming out of a major, crippling recession which peaked in 1981,” Wittkamp remembers. “We both felt prevailing attitudes in the business community were both distressed and generally negative. We felt a business newspaper with a positive point of view could make a difference.
Neilson notes the inaugural edition was published on June 1, 1984.
“Of course we were very excited, but we recognized it needed refinement in both layout and design, so we decided to produce our newspaper in-house, purchasing our own publishing equipment and hiring a graphic designer,” Neilson states. “The first two to three years were a struggle in business, but we managed to grow over the years. I managed the advertising and marketing and Grant was editor and managed operations.”
In 1987, they expanded their distribution by creating the Mid/North Vancouver Island edition.
“Our operation grew to 13 full time employees,” Nelson adds. “We caught the attention of David Black, who expressed interest in purchasing our newspaper. The deal with Black Press (then Island Publishers) was done in 1990, and we both moved on with our lives.”
When Black purchased the papers, Mark MacDonald, John’s father, who had been with the Nanaimo Bulletin two months from its start in 1988 was appointed Publisher of the Mid/North Vancouver Island edition. A decade later, he was named Publisher of both Island Business Examiners, during which time he created the Vancouver Island Business Excellence Awards, in 1998.
After 16 years with Black Press, his boss asked him if he wanted to buy the papers in 2003. Four months later he was told by management that the papers were not for sale, noting “We don’t sell newspapers”.
“We were working our way to get our own operation started when we were told that, so we had a decision to make,” Lise recalls. “We decided to move ahead anyway, and we started Business Vancouver Island, and went head-to-head with the Business Examiner.”
Five years and one week later, in May, 2009, the MacDonalds purchased the Business Examiner from David Black. It was the first newspaper he had ever sold.
“Competing with Black Press was the biggest fight of our lives,” Mark states. “They were tremendous competitors, and our team worked as hard as we possibly could to make it through. Buying the Business Examiner was a tremendous accomplishment.”
Along the way, Business Thompson Okanagan was started in 2006, followed by Business Fraser Valley and Business Peace Cariboo Skeena in 2007. Later that year, Business in Vancouver Media, a subsidiary of Glacier Media, bought shares in the parent company, Invest Northwest Publishing Ltd., and remained partners in the company until 2014.
Once the deal with Black Press was completed, all of the publications were changed to Business Examiner.
“Our mandate was to promote, educate and celebrate local business,” says Mark. “When we created events like the Business Excellence Awards and the Commercial Building Awards, it was with that in mind – bringing busy business owners and managers out to events to applaud them for the success they’ve enjoyed because of their vision, determination and hard work.”
The events continue to be successful, and John MacDonald has expanded the event division to include six across the province, including the MNP LLP Vancouver Island Business Excellence Awards, set for February 2 at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre in Nanaimo.
Others include the Vancouver Island Commercial Building Awards in April, the Pushor Mitchell Thompson Okanagan Business Excellence Awards in Kelowna in June, the Thompson Okanagan Commercial Building Awards in September, the Fraser Valley Commercial Building Awards in October, and the Capital Region Commercial Building Awards for Greater Victoria) in November.
“We’re always looking for ways to expand and grow, and we’re looking forward to great things in the future,” says John.
