Todd: 00:00 Welcome back to the podcast. We're really pleased today to have the publisher of the Phoenix Business Journal, Ray Schey, joining us. Ray, thank you for being here.
Ray Schey: 00:09 I'm delighted to be here, Todd. Thank you.
Todd: 00:11 Well, let's get started. For those two people out there that haven't met you, tell us a little bit about your background and maybe something that we wouldn't find on your bio.
Ray Schey: 00:21 Sure, sure. Well, I graduated through a communications program at St. Bonaventure University, a small Franciscan university south of Buffalo and Rochester. I grew up in Rochester, New York, and so journalism really was my mainstay. As you probably know, and most people know, any good writing skills are always beneficial in any line of work.
00:43 But my first job though, actually, was managing a ski and bike shop, and so there I just interfaced with the public throughout the seasons. We flip flopped between ski season and bike season, and that was great. Through that though, I ran some events for some of the radio stations that partnered with us with the ski shop, and through that, met the person who was a promotion director at a radio station.
01:05 I was hired at 23 and a half years old or so as a promotions assistant for a radio station. That's a good example that I share with a lot of young people now too, is that start anywhere because you're going to move up very quickly. I worked in promotions at the radio station for about six months, and then the general manager of the radio station approached me and said, "What do you think about moving into sales?"
Todd: 01:28 Did you hesitate?
Ray Schey: 01:30 Not really because I mean, it was something I was comfortable with the people that I was working with there and just getting my feet wet a little bit at the radio station and knowing some of the ins and outs. Of course, knowing the background of what goes on behind the scenes behind the microphones, as they say, gave me a little talking points in a sales situation or scenario too.
01:50 From there, my sales career really started in broadcast media, so radio and television and then fast forward many years later, I won't say how many, but I left the TV station. Actually, the Clear Channel Television or Clear Channel sold the television division to another TV group, and so I lost my job on Friday the 13th in TV.
Todd: 02:17 Oh.
Ray Schey: 02:17 Yep. In 2008, and two weeks later I was working at the Business Journal in Rochester, which was independent.
Todd: 02:26 Fantastic.
Ray Schey: 02:27 From there was recruited by this company about four years later. They approached me a few times, and so joined this company.
Todd: 02:33 In Phoenix.
Ray Schey: 02:35 First in Milwaukee.
Todd: 02:36 Oh, interesting.
Ray Schey: 02:36 That was my first venture. The company was as the advertising director in Milwaukee with our publication there, and less than a year started talking with my VP about where publisher opportunities might exist. Could have gone to Denver, could have gone to Phoenix, and chose Phoenix and the rest is history, buddy.
Todd: 02:53 We're glad you chose Phoenix. Before we get into the rest of this, little something about you that we wouldn't see on your bio that most people wouldn't know?
Ray Schey: 03:04 Gosh. Well, probably the ski and bike business, that's kind of interesting. I used to, for some of the radio stations I worked for, would moonlight as one of the radio station mascots to pick up a few extra bucks. My wife wasn't working, and my kids were young. Funny thing about that is one of the times I had, so my son was probably a year and a half old and came to one of the radio station events, and I had this big costume with a big head. He didn't see me physically by my face or anything. My wife was holding him at the time, and he reached out. He knew that it was me behind this mascot mask and big costume that I had on too.
Todd: 03:44 That's awesome.
Ray Schey: 03:45 Interesting story.
Todd: 03:45 Yeah. No, absolutely, absolutely. Obviously, you've been in the publisher chair now for a while.
Ray Schey: 03:53 Yeah.
Todd: 03:54 What you learned along the way?
Ray Schey: 03:56 Boy, first of all, what an embracing community that we have here too, and many people that have moved here have learned the same but to me, it was just so welcoming. My clients have become good friends and just people in the business community in particular are just so embracing and just so kind and really easy to be able to build those relationships.
04:17 A lot of what I do is founded upon the relationships that I have where I can approach some of the people that we work with and some of our clients and prospects and say, "Hey, here's an idea that I have. What do you think?" An example of that where we put together a women's event coming up at the end of January called Health, Wealth and Happiness. I vetted the idea to a few people. We've got the CEO of Sprinkles is going to come in and be our keynote.
Todd: 04:42 Excellent.
Ray Schey: 04:44 That's how those things come to fruition is through the relationships too, being able to know people and be able to bounce some ideas off them and say, "What do you think about this?" Then once it sounds like something they're interested in, then we move forward on it too. We're walking before we're running and making educated guesses on things, not just throwing it at the wall and hope it sticks.
Todd: 05:06 Absolutely. Well, and like you and me, most people that you talk to came here from somewhere else.
Ray Schey: 05:10 Right.
Todd: 05:11 What you always hear is what you just said, this is a good place to be new. People are accepting. Do you find that that's different from, for instance, Milwaukee or other places that you lived?
Ray Schey: 05:20 Yeah, definitely. I've lived in other parts of the country too. I lived in Florida and Tampa in the mid '90s, and then Milwaukee before coming here. I found in each of those markets too, still a little bit different to break through. Whether it's all the generations of families in Milwaukee, the people are nice but still, it was a lot of the conversations with meeting people was where you from, and then where'd you go to school?
05:46 When I was off on sales calls with some of the sales team and so on too, a lot of the conversations would roll around, "Where did you grow up in the Milwaukee area and what school did you go to?" And things like that too. "Did you go to Marquette or did you go to Madison to go to University of Wisconsin?
Todd: 06:00 Yeah. That doesn't seem to be the first question here.
Ray Schey: 06:02 No, no, definitely not.
Todd: 06:03 You ready to roll up your sleeves and get involved? And you've done that, outside of your lane, you've really gotten involved in other areas.
Ray Schey: 06:09 I've loved that, and again, going back to the relationships I built. The first year I was here, I accepted every invitation to go everywhere and meet everybody, and that really has paid off for me in the long run too. A lot of people that I still get to meet now, they quickly learn that I know so many people.
06:25 I had somebody that I met a few years ago reach out to me. They work with one of their bank clients, and the client doesn't know this banker, and they do significant multi millions of dollars of business with their bank and didn't know the bank president. I made the introduction and they're going to dinner this Friday because they didn't have a specific relationship. Those are the kind of things I like doing too. I like connecting the people too, because now that I have been here eight and a half years, it's very gratifying to me.
Todd: 06:52 You know what it was like.
Ray Schey: 06:53 Yeah, indeed.
Todd: 06:54 Well, thinking about the media market and the internet I think has just really crowded it. What makes the Phoenix Business Journal unique and maybe just the business journal concept writ large?
Ray Schey: 07:04 Yeah, I mean, we're pretty consistent throughout our markets. We really stay hyper local. We don't cover activity in Tucson or Flagstaff. We really stay within our markets, all of our markets. We have 40 weekly publications across the country, and then five markets that have digital products only. But the key is just the credibility that we all have.
07:25 The reporters are really well known within the verticals or the beats that they cover. Through that, a lot of their sources come to them with story ideas like, "Hey, here's happening here." People want to share those story tips with us because they know that the credibility that the Business Journal has, that they want the story to be published first and foremost in the Business Journal.
07:46 Through that, we have a lot of exclusivity for the stories that we publish too. A lot of breaking news. Frankly, we really have a hard time keeping up with that at times. Sometimes it'll be two, three, four breaking news stories in the day in the midst of us trying to push other stories out for our morning and afternoon edition that we do digitally too.
Todd: 08:04 There's a lot.
Ray Schey: 08:05 It can be a little overwhelming, yeah.
Todd: 08:06 Well, and I think to that point, thinking back to your first days in radio and then with the business room in Buffalo, how has the newspaper industry changed, and what are you doing to adapt?
Ray Schey: 08:18 Yeah. Well, for us, it's creating the digital products. People want more bites, smaller, faster and so we've been able to accommodate the interests of the business community. Our subscribers and readers want, they want to look at the quick headline. If it's a story that they want to really go more in depth, they can read that. They can read the full story, or they can just read a couple sentences and have just some basic understanding and then move on.
08:45 It's like the pace of our whole world too. Everybody is moving faster, and so with that is our responsibility to come up with content that meets the demands and the interest for our regions and subscribers too. Creating those digital products that move faster than waiting for a weekly print edition. Like it used to be, they wanted to keep the cover of the Business Journal on Friday under wraps.
Todd: 09:07 Right.
Ray Schey: 09:07 It was like, "Oh, this big story is going to break in the print." Now we're doing that multiple times a day really.
Todd: 09:13 You don't have time.
Ray Schey: 09:14 Yeah.
Todd: 09:16 Thinking about this changing media landscape, anybody with an iPhone and a Twitter account becoming a journalist, and that sort of led to this idea of misinformation and the distrust of mainstream media. How do you maintain that credibility and what should we be looking for?
Ray Schey: 09:31 Yeah. I mean, it's really trusting the sources where you're getting your news from too. We consider ourself a trusted source, certainly, and that makes a big difference because anything that we publish, we know that we spend the time to not just go off of a press release, but we go into that further.
09:48 There's even other local media companies that don't do that. They'll just take the press release and they'll basically repurpose the press release, so we virtually never do that. We'll always reach out and we'll talk to the people involved, even if it means waiting a little while before putting it out there right away. We want to be able to verify and do some fact checking and speak to the sources behind that story before we move forward.
Todd: 10:10 Just taking it for granted that it's what it is.
Ray Schey: 10:12 Yeah. No, exactly, again, I think the biggest advice would be to the business community or to the consumers for that matter, is trust the source that you're getting your news or information from.
Todd: 10:23 Switching gears a little bit, thinking about when you first got here, the economy was still in a pretty decent recovery mode.
Ray Schey: 10:28 Yeah, yeah.
Todd: 10:28 We were still coming out of that Great Recession, and obviously a lot's changed. When you look around, what are some of the big changes you've seen in the economy? When you're talking to business leaders, what are some of the trends we should be paying attention to?
Ray Schey: 10:40 Yeah. Well, for Arizona and for the Valley in particular, it's just the diversification of the industries that are growing. We were, for the longest time, real estate was it and now we've got manufacturing, we've got tech, we've got biosciences. We have all these other verticals that are really what we need to be able to sustain any kind of a economic slow down too.
11:02 To that end too, I shared with my staff too that I encourage them not to use the term recession. I say we can say economic slow down or slow down in the economy, but I think that recession just has such a negative connotation. But the biggest thing over the years since I moved here was just the growth of other industries. Here's another fact too, the growth of our colleges and universities in the state.
Todd: 11:25 Absolutely.
Ray Schey: 11:26 In particular, here locally and everyone always points to ASU, and I do first and foremost, but GCU is also this juggernaut over in the West Valley too, that's doing some amazing things. Both university presidents are just doing some terrific things to be able to grow our economy. Every grant that ASU earns or professors that they bring in that have the flexibility to work on research that maybe they didn't have at the institutions that they came from, leads to more economic growth.
11:53 Now they have these grad assistants that are working and they're making money, these research projects that are generating revenue for Arizona too. Those are the kind of things that you also point to in addition to just those other industries. Our education system here, colleges and universities are doing an amazing job with economic growth.
Todd: 12:11 Well, I think you're dead on on the diversification. I mean, thinking about TSMC and what that's bringing to the Valley, so many of those supplier companies from Taiwan.
Ray Schey: 12:19 Yeah. No, and then you look at Pinal County too.
Todd: 12:24 Yes.
Ray Schey: 12:24 Another area that we held an event there a few months ago too, and shared just some of the activity down there. It's one of those, people don't drive through Pinal County, obviously. But when we held that event a few months ago too, people were just amazed at the stories that we published that shared a lot of what's happening down there.
12:40 That Proctor and Gamble news that we broke a few weeks ago. Just the companies that are going there to have that Southwest presence too. In addition to the supply chain that's going to support TSCM. We don't even know how much growth that that's going to bring to the Valley too. Certainly, some are going in and around that area, up around Anthem and North Phoenix, but there's a lot of that supply chain that is carving out some space, some land down in Pinal County to be able to, yeah.
Todd: 13:06 Correct. Amazing what that's done, and even a presidential visit, right?
Ray Schey: 13:09 Yeah. Oh, it's all coming together, right?
Todd: 13:12 Obviously, you talk to other publishers in other cities. I mean you, Phoenix Business Journal, the Business Journal is everywhere. What are your colleagues saying about the national economy, and how do they see Phoenix?
Ray Schey: 13:23 Yeah. No, our company publishes an aggregate of stories from around all of our markets too, where generally the biggest stories are, and most are positive, but there's some that might have job cuts and so on too. That Intel announced some cuts over these last few weeks too. But for us, we're catching the eye and the attention of people in all of our other markets too. To that end, and I knock on wood a little bit, but Phoenix is having the best pace to our revenue goal for the year of any of our 40 markets currently.
14:00 I attribute that to, first and foremost to the growth of the market, but secondly to the team that I have in place too, that we have some really talented people on the advertising side. But of course, that only goes so far. We have to have good content too. So my editorial team, the reporters that we have, so from top to bottom, this is the best staff I've had since I moved here.
Todd: 14:20 The guys in Milwaukee are regretting your move.
Ray Schey: 14:22 Yeah, no regrets whatsoever. None.
Todd: 14:25 You mentioned Intel, and obviously you don't want to talk about recession, but there is a reset that seemed to be happening and some things in the economy or things that are happening that are concerning. Things that come to mind, for instance slower job numbers, perhaps water issues, housing. What are some of the things that you're seeing out there that we need to be paying attention to now before they become significant?
Ray Schey: 14:52 Yeah. I mean, definitely the water and I think when we talk about Intel, specifically for some of the job cuts that they've announced too. I think that's just a little bit of a hiccup for our region and for the state and the Valley in particular. But I think water to me is probably what needs the most attention, and I know that there's been a lot of efforts, first and foremost by the Governor. ASU just received 40 million to dive into that a little bit and try to find some solutions.
15:21 I think certainly putting money, creating some programs and some committees to be able to explore the needs and some ways to get to deal with it too. I mean, we can't count on the climate. We can't count on the snowfall in the Rockies to give us the water that we need anymore, especially when we're just hit with a cut of our own water coming out of the Colorado River too. That, to me, is probably the one that needs the most attention because without that, a lot of that other growth is going to be challenging.
15:51 Attainable housing is another, and workforce development. Certainly some of the cuts that we've seen from different companies in different regions too, that's why we're still growing as we are as a city and as a county, as people still want to come here because they have job opportunities. I'm not as concerned about the workforce development as I am probably being able to have housing for people that they can afford to live in and not be underwater every month too.
Todd: 16:17 Yeah, and certainly from the time that you came here in '08 to today, I mean, the housing market's changed dramatically.
Ray Schey: 16:22 Indeed.
Todd: 16:22 Obviously, for those who own houses, that's great. But to your point, from a workforce perspective, that could be a problem for us going forward.
Ray Schey: 16:29 No question, and hopefully some of our newly elected officials will be able to continue some of the efforts of those that are leaving office and be able to maintain some level of growth that we have and be able to move through whatever slow down that we're going to see very quickly. Certainly, I still feel that we're far better positioned than most other markets and regions of the country to be able to not only go into whatever slowdown occurs later, but also to come out quicker too.
Todd: 16:58 Well, speaking of elected officials and newly elected officials, we obviously had our election. We have a new governor, Governor Katie Hobbs elect. What are some of the things that you think she needs to be focused on as she starts to transition into this new role?
Ray Schey: 17:15 Certainly, she's got different ideas and different plans than what Governor Ducey had. I think, first and foremost in the transition to take a step back, evaluate, see where she can be most effective, not to... The things such as economic development, I mean, Arizona Commerce Authority and the work that Sandra Watson and her team do there is unprecedented too, so let's try not to fix what's not broken. Let those things continue to grow and do what they're doing those offices.
17:48 But then also find ways where some of her knowledge and experience and listening to the people. The consumer certainly, because that's probably a lot of who she's going to get a lot of her feedback from, but also the business community. There's oftentimes legislation that comes up either through the legislature or through ballot initiatives that kick the business community in the head a little bit too, and slow it down.
18:13 Some of the taxes where the public doesn't necessarily see all of what's behind or what can occur as a result of some of those passages of some of that legislation? Those are the things that I think that we need to just be conscious of business. Certainly, as the Business Journal we probably speak more loudly than others when it comes to that, but certainly you and the Chamber too are also the voice in that too. We just want to make sure that the needs and the wants of the business community are still heard by the new administration.
Todd: 18:40 Absolutely, and we appreciate that voice.
Ray Schey: 18:43 Yeah.
Todd: 18:44 As you're out and about and seeing new players and new companies coming into the market, who are some of those folks or some of those companies that we should be paying attention to as they come into our market?
Ray Schey: 18:55 Yeah. Well, I think tech. Anything that's going to bring some of the higher paying jobs are those that are going to be most important for us. The advanced manufacturing, certainly anything related to chip manufacturing too. We held an event in partnership with our DC publication back in September too, where Michael Crow moderated a panel with Kyrsten Cinema and Senator Cornyn from Texas talking about how the CHIPS Act came to be, where they crossed the aisles and worked together to be able to get that done. Certainly, the $52 billion CHIPS Act is going to benefit Arizona tremendously.
19:34 Anything that's going to help us to grow both through workforce, like the engineering program at ASU, which has grown tenfold in the last 20 years, which is just remarkable too. But paying attention to advanced manufacturing, chips manufacturing. The less that we can rely on foreign companies and foreign countries for some of our day-to-day needs, like chips for example, is the best example, the better off our own economy will be, and the better off we'll be as a state too.
20:03 But having Intel and TSMC both in our backyard, or front yard and backyard depending which direction you live. But to me, that kind of growth and it's nonstop. I mean, there's more projects in the pipeline for companies that want to come here. Then the other thing, we look ahead in what I hear? How many, 51 days or something or 50 days to the Super Bowl?
Todd: 20:26 Yes.
Ray Schey: 20:27 The Super Bowl and some of those marquee events that we bring, sporting events or otherwise that come to the Valley here, gives us a great, great opportunity to be able to entertain people. Entertain executives from companies from around the country and around the world, and lets them see Arizona firsthand.
Todd: 20:43 Great.
Ray Schey: 20:44 We roll out the red carpet, we wine and dine them a bit. I say we as a state, and so we show them and we use the powerful people that we have here, like the Jerry Colangelo and Michael Bidwill to tell their story of coming from somewhere else and the success that they've experienced after moving here too.
Todd: 21:01 Governor Ducey from Ohio.
Ray Schey: 21:03 Governor Ducey, I know, first and foremost.
Todd: 21:04 Absolutely.
Ray Schey: 21:05 Yeah, so those programs are really good. Those CEO forums are really effective to be able to introduce those executives to our market and to the state.
Todd: 21:14 Thinking about the Governor, Governor Ducey, Sandra Watson, Mayor Gallego, I think what some of the things that have been really important with their administrations is intentional economic development, not just passive. Looking ahead, maybe looking around the corner where now advanced manufacturing is really hot. Looking around the corner, what are one or two industries that you think might be important targets for us to be focused on?
Ray Schey: 21:40 Electric vehicles. They all seem to be having an interest in doing something here too. The battery power. I mean, KORE Power going in over in Buckeye. Those things because they complement one another. We've been talking about different programs that we're going to look to execute either through an event or special section throughout 2023. Those are, I mentioned advanced manufacturing, but electric vehicles and battery power. Those are two that I think that we can really... Because again, it's going to tap into the educated workforce that we need and have and provide those people with well paying jobs too.
Todd: 22:18 Well, this is a good incentive to make sure you're subscribed so you can see what's around the corner?
Ray Schey: 22:23 If you're not, you're missing a lot of really good information. It can be really helpful for people in business. If they don't read us, they're going to be behind in the conversations, and you don't want to be that person sitting in a circle of people talking about something that we published and they don't know what they're talking about.
Todd: 22:36 Absolutely. Well, Ray, really appreciate you taking the time. Before we'll let you go, we're going to ask quick lightning round.
Ray Schey: 22:42 Yes.
Todd: 22:43 I think you might have answered this, but we'll see. First job?
Ray Schey: 22:47 First job. Well, paper route.
Todd: 22:48 Okay.
Ray Schey: 22:49 Then I worked in a grocery store when I was 16 too, but paper route when I was 12, bought my first bike. I was just sharing this story with somebody recently. My paper route grew so quickly in the year that I had it, I got tickets for my mom and I to go to a pre-season Buffalo Bills game in the brand new stadium.
Todd: 23:05 Nice.
Ray Schey: 23:05 I think it was the second or third game played in a pre-season game there too for the number of new subscribers to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that I had in my Sunday paper route.
Todd: 23:15 Well, and I love that you started at a newspaper.
Ray Schey: 23:16 Interesting, right?
Todd: 23:17 That's fantastic.
Ray Schey: 23:18 Yeah.
Todd: 23:19 What did you learn?
Ray Schey: 23:21 Learned how to run my own business, and people too. I mean, some of those people that I knew that they were home, but they wouldn't answer their door when I was collecting door to door, which is a practice that's long since gone by the wayside. But we had those little tickets that we'd tear off to give to them when they paid their bill. I'd have some of these people that would owe me for five or six weeks, which is only maybe $10 or $12, and I'm like, "Why are they not answering their door?" A lot of human skills along the way that I learned.
Todd: 23:49 That are serving you well today.
Ray Schey: 23:49 The people that I liked and those that were a little bit of a struggle for me too, and then those that would leave their money. On Sunday, I had 110 Sunday papers, and let me tell you, the Sunday papers back then were probably, I don't know what the weight was, but at the time, my mom, she drove a Ford Maverick.
Todd: 24:05 Nice.
Ray Schey: 24:06 My brother and sister, they'd all have to get up on a Sunday morning to help me deliver these papers. The reward for them was, there was few people that would leave their money for that weekly subscription on their back porch or wherever too, and I'd take the family and we'd buy donuts and go home and have donuts. Yeah.
Todd: 24:21 That's wonderful.
Ray Schey: 24:24 Yeah. That was the bribe.
Todd: 24:24 I love it. I love it, and you can't say your current job, although it's phenomenal.
Ray Schey: 24:28 Right.
Todd: 24:28 Dream job?
Ray Schey: 24:30 Dream job? I think if I could be a little more better focused, I'd like to teach.
Todd: 24:36 Teach what, journalism?
Ray Schey: 24:39 Maybe something that would just be more business, but maybe business journalism.
Todd: 24:45 Excellent.
Ray Schey: 24:48 I mean, and that ties into what I do too.
Todd: 24:48 Well, hopefully our friends at ASU and the community colleges are listening to that for when you retire. Then a final question, what would be your walk on song? What would be your walk on music if Derrick Hall put you on the team?
Ray Schey: 25:02 Oh, yeah. I know, Bad to the Bone.
Todd: 25:03 Well, that took no time at all. I love that. Well, Ray, thank you so much for spending the time with us.
Ray Schey: 25:09 This was great.
Todd: 25:10 Thank you for all you're doing in our community, and we'll certainly look forward to reading what's coming up next in the next year?
Ray Schey: 25:16 Thanks. Appreciate the partnership with you. You do a great job there at the Chamber too, Todd. Thank you.
Todd: 25:19 Thank you.