ATLANTA (JULY 23, 2013) - Anyone who knows Mark Bisnow can see he's the consummate entrepreneur always teeming with enthusiasm, curiosity and new ideas.
More than eight years ago, Bisnow chose to alter the way reporters covered commercial real estate, one of the country's most traditional and conservative industries. Instead of focusing on the transactions (sales, leases, lsitings), Real Estate Bisnow focused on the brokers, developers, financiers and others who made the deals happen. And because commercial real estate is filled with personalities, gunslingers and characters, the formula is working.
This week, Bloomberg Businessweek profiles Bisnow as an entrepreneur who disrupted commercial real estate coverage, in a very good way, and perhaps has changed the way it's covered forever. Moreover, he's succeeded in a media world wracked by declining revenue, layoffs and a tired work force.
Here's the nut graf from the article:
"Bisnow Media has taken a high-volume, light-hearted approach to its conference business. It hosted 250 events in 2012, selling 60,000 tickets at prices that are typically about $70 a pop. That helped the company earn just shy of $11 million in revenue in 2012, says Begelman, and he estimates that will increase 35 percent this year."
Clearly, Bisnow's events are the money maker here, but the newsletters create the buzz.
To read the entire article, The Guys Putting Jet Packs on Commercial Real Estate Brokers," click here.
In Atlanta, Real Estate Bisnow has become a must read. Brokers and developers across the metro area instantly forward the e-newsletter when they see a buddy pictured. Caroline Wilbert, a principal of The Wilbert Group, helped launch Bisnow's Atlanta newsletter in March 2010 by working as the first Bisnow reporter in the city.
But not everyone is embracing the new format. Yesterday, three old-school brokers bemoaned the picture-and-caption-heavy newsletter. Specifically, they seems annoyed that Bisnow published a photo of brokers joking around at a Braves game.
Of course, they were discussing Bisnow, which is half the battle. If Mark Bisnow had been there, I'm sure he would have joined the converation and asked them how he could make the product better.
Bisnow recently handed the reigns of his growing Bisnow Media to Ryan Begelman and son Elliott Bisnow. Keep an eye on them.
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