I write this by the light of 2016’s twilight days, looking down the path toward a new year with the predictable mix of reflection, apprehension and tentative hope. To be honest, I kind of hate New Year’s resolutions. Personally, I find the dreariness of winter to be a completely inappropriate time for self-critique and rebirth — that’s why I make Spring resolutions for myself.
Related: Start the New Year with a New Mindset
On the contrary, professional resolutions can prove a bit more palatable this time of year. Our whole team at Comstock’s is grateful for the past year of growth in our web users, paid subscribers and retail sales. We want to thank long-time readers for your continued support, and our new ones for helping us grow and evolve. You continue to show us that our message has teeth, and you drive us to always seek to do better. So here are the priorities we’ve identified for 2017:
Increased regional coverage: Being based in Sacramento, it’s easy to focus heavily on what’s happening in the capital city — because it’s important. But Comstock’s actually covers the nine counties surrounding Sacramento as well: Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, San Joaquin, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba. We’re reaching out to local businesses as well as writers in those communities so that we may offer a more robust picture to our readers of what is happening throughout our entire region.
Deeper industry insight; broader analysis: There are exciting things happening in the Capital Region: We will see if the Golden 1 Center makes good on its promises of catalyzing economic activity in downtown Sacramento; innovation hubs within and beyond the City of Sacramento, like I/O Labs, Elk Grove’s Innogrove, the Hacker Lab extension in Rocklin and the Green Screen Institute in Nevada City, are expanding or coming online; there’s even talk of automotive testing for driverless cars in Sacramento. And our economic development organizations hope that increased collaboration with the Bay Area will help us reach even greater heights. But despite a growing economy and steadily decreasing rates of unemployment, California remains a two-economy state. We’ve got the lucrative industries of tech, information and trade along the coast that have been driving growth; while manufacturing, government and agriculture still dominate our inland communities. In the coming year, we’ll be looking at how the growth in automation impacts our manufacturing industry, how agriculture big and small adapts to new environmental obstacles, our growing green economy, the impact of potential upcoming changes to trade regulation, and how our entrepreneurs continue to innovate within the framework of a highly regulated environment — changing how we Californians live and do business, while setting the pace for the rest of the country.
Related: The Next Act
Reaching our audience where they are: Comstock’s has been producing our high-quality and insightful print publication for almost 28 years. We continue to believe in print media and know our readers do too. However, we’ll also be adapting our delivery methods to offer our unique business insight on more platforms. We will release the first full season of our podcast during the first quarter of 2017, and have plans to launch a video series later in the year. We will need your feedback on both these projects. If you’re a regular print subscriber, I encourage you to go online and sign up for our weekly newsletter for more content and information on new offerings. If you’re reading this online, consider supporting our flagship print publication as well. Nothing beats the full package.
At the end of the day, these are enhancements and not alterations to our core mission, which is to support economic growth and business sustainability. We will continue to offer you the connections and resources that contribute to the success and vitality of both established and burgeoning businesses. Sacramento is home to a vibrant media scene with a variety of publications that fulfill their own unique missions, and we take our role in that ecosystem very seriously. Send your feedback to editorial@comstocksmag.com.
Happy New Year, and from our team to yours, we wish you a healthy and prosperous 2017.