Our story isn't ours alone
For our 20th anniversary issue, Mainebiz wanted to look at two decades of business through the eyes of business leaders.
Throughout the issue, we have highlighted key Maine industries and asked at least one longtime leader to tell the story of an industry's past two decades. Senior writers Jim McCarthy and Lori Vilagra, along with our web editor, Dylan Martin, contributed, as did freelancers Doug Rooks and Laurie Schreiber. Photographers Tim Greenway and Amber Waterman were also key contributors, as was our design team, art director Jan Holder and designer Matt Selva.
It's been a great honor for me to come into Mainebiz at this time and to look back at the changes over time — from the publication's roots, known simply as BIZ, with founder Jonathan Whitney pedaling the issue around town, with newspapers piled in a shopping cart.
One of the first issues of Mainebiz featured a headline cover story about the “information superhighway” likening the speed of the Internet at that time to “driving a 1969 VW bus uphill, with your flashers on, in the breakdown lane. But at least you're there.” And of course readers now receive much of our news digitally, either online or from daily emails, or both.
This issue isn't entirely about Mainebiz. There are other companies that are celebrating 20 years: Coffee By Design, Advance Technology, Pro Search, GWI and Shipyard Brewing.
It's fitting that our very first issue featured a story about Shipyard Brewing, including a photo of co-founder Fred Forsley. Elsewhere in this issue, Forsley talks about the first two decades of Shipyard. He talked about the demand for “quality versus quantity.” He and Mary Allen Lindemann of Coffee By Design talked about being pioneers in downtown Portland and taking over derelict buildings. In that early story, Forsley made the comment that the city and state had once again put out the “Welcome business” sign.
“I think Maine is getting more perceptive to the fact that we have to help business if we're going to provide jobs for people,” he said back in 1994.
And into that environment Mainebiz was launched.
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Mainebiz presents a 20-year retrospective of doing business in Maine
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