The company began in 1982 with the Kansas City Business Journal. As of 1986, Mike Russell was chairman of the firm. ACBJ went public in 1985 and was traded as an over the counter stock. In 1986, ACBJ bought out the full complement of publications from Business Journal Publications, which included the St. Louis Business Journal, and a number of other business journals and legal publications. Ray Shaw joined ACBJ in 1989 and served as the company's chairman and chief executive officer for two decades, ending with his death in 2009. Under Ray Shaw's leadership, the company moved from Kansas City, Missouri, to Charlotte, North Carolina and greatly increased the number of its publications. In 2009, ACBJ acquired Portfolio.com, a website formerly associated with Condé Nast Portfolio, and redirected the URL to the ACBJ website.
The Business Journals
The Business Journals is the online media division of American City Business Journals which operates websites for each of the company's 40 print business journals, as well as its web-only local business news and information sites for Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York. The site contains local business news from around the nation, updated throughout the day, along with an archive that contains more than 5 million business news articles published since 1996. The Business Journals' sites have more than four million unique visitors each month.
The Business Journal's Forty Under 40 is an annual list compiled and published by the Business Journal newspapers since 1992. The purpose is to list the 40 most successful entrepreneurs under the age of 40. The 40 are usually nominated from within individual areas in range of the local business journal's publication.
Best Places to Work Award
The Business Journal's Best Places to Work ranks top businesses in local areas for best employee experience. Rankings are determined based on surveys uncovering such variables as leadership, corporate culture, and communications. Some variation exists between different cities. For example, Minneapolis-St. Paul recognized 59 companies and 4 individuals in 2018, whereas Los Angeles will honor its top 100 in 2019.
