Tribuna Newspaper partners with the Fairfield County Business Journal
Imagine if nearly one-tenth of the businesses in
From left - Ross Thomas, Strategy Leaders Inc., Andi Grey, Strategy Leaders Inc. President, Alex Soule, Fairfield County Business Journal Bureau Chief, Caryn McBride, Business Journals Editor, Emanuela Lima, Tribuna Newspaper Editor, Celia Bacelar, Tribuna Newspaper Publisher, Dee DelBello, Business Journals Publisher, and Angela Barbosa, Tribuna Managing Director
Danbury were completely isolated from the rest, cut off from critical information that they need to operate and to grow successfully. This wouldn’t just be a detriment to the afflicted 10 percent; it would be a drain on the economy of the entire city — and might have negative implications approaching a national scale.
Businesses supply the lifeblood of any community, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, members of minority populations own 7 percent of all businesses in Fairfield County. Furthermore, people of Hispanic descent own 8 percent of all businesses in Danbury.
Yet the owners of those enterprises say they often feel disconnected from the rest of the business community.
Today, the disconnect between the vast number of immigrant-owned businesses and the mainstream business community of Fairfield County has met its match. Tribuna CT newspaper and the Fairfield County Business Journal are teaming up in a partnership that will expand the reach of both publications, allowing them to connect their respective readers with one another in a new way.
The partnership, beginning in this issue of Tribuna, features a swapping of columns between the two papers.
Tribuna CT newspaper has been delivering locally relevant news to the Greater Danbury, Waterbury and Bridgeport areas for more than a decade, supplying the immigrant community with information that might otherwise be unavailable and keeping it connected to the community in which they reside.
Since Celia Bacelar founded Tribuna in 1999, the small press publication has seen the group of people that it reaches grow steadily. The immigrant communities in Danbury, Waterbury and Bridgeport are no longer made up of disparate groups scattered here and there; they’ve grown into robust and thriving communities of their own, made up of churches, social centers, schools and, importantly, businesses. For more than 50 years, the Fairfield County Business Journal, originally published by a descendant of Joseph Pulitzer, has been providing informative and relevant news to local businesses across the county.
Liaison, translator, go-between, diplomat — whatever it might be called, neither newspaper is a stranger to playing the role. Tribuna CT connects Fairfield County’s multicultural demographic with the greater community that it inhabits, and the Business Journal does the same for the small-business community.
Both papers are independently owned and operated, giving them direct insight into the struggles and challenges facing small business owners. The strategic partnership will allow the publications to operate in a niche that neither could reach on its own. Dee Delbello, publisher of the Fairfield County Business Journal, is very excited about the partnership: “… we recognize the commitment and enthusiasm of all the Tribuna staff and we commend the response they give to the needs of their community.”
“The business information that the Fairfield County Business Review provides will benefit readers in the Tribuna community, and the editorials Tribuna provides will help our readers appreciate and understand the communities that have made our country grow and prosper,” said Delbello.
Andi Gray’s well-known business column, “Ask Andi,” is featured in English and in Spanish this issue, and Emanuela Lima, editor of Tribuna, will have her own column in the upcoming edition of Fairfield County Business Review, dealing with issues that affect multicultural businesses in the area.
“Andi’s column will answer what they [immigrant business owners] didn’t know they should know or did not have the resources to learn, giving them the tools needed to maintain and grow their business in today’s world,” Bacelar said.
Delbello says that the two papers share the same passion, and she sees a lot of potential in the partnership. “Tribuna needs information we can provide that will be a very important boost to the Danbury business community, and likewise, the Tribuna column in our paper will help our readers understand the talent and market potential in the ethnic communities of the area.”
“We see ourselves as part of the catalyst for change. We can’t do it alone,” Lima said.
