John Zwarensteyn

When we launched the Grand Rapids Business Journal in September 1983, no publication devoted entirely to business news served any city in Michigan. We were a pioneer, one of the few business journals anywhere in the country.

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	Zwarensteyn

Twenty years! Reflecting back, it seems strange now, but prior to 1983, business news in Grand Rapids “did not exist.” Paraphrasing a former Grand Rapids Business Journal editor, Grand Rapids was a bit like the former Soviet Union. There was the “official” newspaper, the local daily, which you could not rely upon, and then there was the real news network — the grapevine. Back then business news traveled mostly by word of mouth, person to person.