BridgeTower names group publisher for SC Biz News

Listen to this article

BridgeTower Media has named Rick Jenkins group publisher for SC Biz News.

Jenkins formerly served as the publisher for GSA Business Report in the Upstate and will now oversee all operations for the statewide business-to-business media operations.

SC Biz News is the publisher of GSA Business Report, Columbia Regional Business Report, Charleston Regional Business Journal, SCBIZ magazine and many associated digital, print and event-driven media products.

BridgeTower named Jenkins after a nationwide search to replace long-serving group publisher Grady Johnson who stepped down in March.

“I’m so honored to have the opportunity to lead SC Biz,” Jenkins said. “The company has been the leader in producing and distributing valuable content to high-level business executives throughout South Carolina for more than 25 years, and the SC Biz brand is as strong as ever.”

BridgeTower is an independently owned company, serving commercial interests in more than 25 markets from coast to coast with a strong focus on digital, print and event marketing.

Jenkins said this is an exciting and challenging time to be in the media industry, but those challenges provide flexibility to innovate and serve the SC Biz News community with creative, data-driven products the way businesses want them.

“Our industry continues to transition from traditional print to digital technologies, and I’m galvanized by the continued trend toward digital media and all that entails,” Jenkins said. “Providing valuable content that helps businesses and business leaders make strategic decisions remains vital, but how we  deliver that content is changing.”

Jenkins has been the driving force behind the S.C. Manufacturing Conference and Expo, an annual event that draws thousands of manufacturing professionals and executives from across the U.S.  Jenkins also helped pioneer SCBIZtv, a digital video channel that provides news, information and conversations with South Carolina’s thought leaders with more than 140 business-related videos.

“We started it in the early stages of COVID, and it has blossomed,” Jenkins said. “Over the past three months, SCBIZtv has garnered more than 30,000 video views. It’s just another example of our willingness and desire to provide content to our readers in any format they wish to consume.”

Jenkins said BridgeTower Media, the parent company of SC Biz News, continues to invest in digital transformation, giving the community of B2B business leaders sophisticated and targeted options for connecting to customers, investors and talented professionals.

“We are reaping the rewards of that investment into the digital transformation of our business,” Jenkins said. “Now we are able to offer advertisers an exhaustive suite of digital products, which provides them more ways than they ever could’ve dreamed to reach potential customers. We are also constantly looking at refining technologies that deepen reader engagement.”