Since its inaugural issue in October 2002, The Journal has grown to become the largest business monthly in Mississippi. More than 30,000 business and community leaders read The Journal each month.

Published by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sun Herald newspaper - but separate and independent from it - The Journal was created to report on and record the story of economic and business development throughout South Mississippi. We're telling the stories of entrepreneurship, of leadership and of a new spirit of cooperation among the region's development leaders.

From the first issue, we've encouraged and reported on the growing efforts at "regionalism" - the recognition that the area from Hattiesburg to the Mississippi Coast is, in fact, an economic region. While we have our unique differences, we've got a lot in common. For decades, we concentrated on the growth and development of our own individual community, but that's begun to change. A new spirit of cooperation has taken hold. South Mississippi leaders realize that we must get more focused and aligned around common issues. And we are finding common ground.

In fact, The Journal itself is an outgrowth of this spirit of regionalism. After conversations with leaders of economic development organizations along the Mississippi Coast and the Area Development Partnership in the Hattiesburg area, it became apparent that one thing missing was a way for these business leaders from Hattiesburg to the Coast to communicate with each other and to promote their progress and their needs to each other and to our legislators in Jackson and in Washington. With their blessing and encouragement, The Journal was born.

That regionalism was never more apparent than in our rebuilding and renewal after Hurricane Katrina. As the storm and its aftermath demonstrated, we were blessed with some excellent leadership among our elected officials and business community. The Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal wisely took a regional approach and brought together some of the best minds from throughout South Mississippi to develop the plans which will make our area a model for the rest of the country. A priority of The Journal has been covering the implementation of that plan and monitoring progress.

South Mississippi's recovery from the triple threat of Katrina, the Great Recession and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill may be the biggest business and economic development story of the first half of this century. And The Journal will continue to tell that story not only to South Mississippi's business community, but through The Journal and its web site, to the rest of the world.

But the recovery is not the only story. South Mississippi has emerged as the centerpiece of a very high tech aerospace corridor.  From Stennis Space Center in Hancock County to the University of Southern Mississippi’s campuses in Hattiesburg and on the Mississippi Coast to the manufacturing and support facilities in Jackson County, South Mississippi is playing a leading - and growing - role. To better cover that story, The Journal has partnered with the Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development to publish that organization’s quarterly newsletter - the Alliance Insight - as an insert to The Journal on a quarterly basis.

The Journal of South Mississippi Business launched in October 2002 with a distribution of 8,500. By the summer of 2006, that distribution had grown to over 10,000 copies with a readership estimated at over 30,000.

Our readers are business leaders. The distribution of The Journal includes every chamber of commerce member from Hattiesburg to the Mississippi Coast. Economic development officials, elected officials and other business leaders are included in our distribution. More than 1,200 copies are mailed outside Mississippi each month. And this website offers The Journal to a worldwide audience through the World Wide Web.

The Journal is advertising-supported. By making this publication available to the vast majority of the region's business leaders, we are providing the most unique and most cost-effective advertising vehicle for you. Our advertising information page shows just how cost-efficient The Journal is. We strongly recommend you consider The Journal as your business-to-business advertising medium. And ask about our "combination" advertising packages, which allow your ads to appear in The Stennis News (the official publication of the John C. Stennis Space Center) at a discounted rate.

The Journal is your publication, your opportunity to talk to South Mississippi's business community and chamber members each month. While our editorial staff will provide interesting and timely features each month, much of what you find in each edition comes from readers like you. We encourage you, your public relations department or communications committee to share your news with us. You can write us at The Journal, P.O. Box 4567, Biloxi MS 39535 or, more conveniently, you can email us at mynews ( at ) southmississippi.biz.

A very important role of The Journal is to recognize outstanding business and community leaders in South Mississippi and to hold them up as example. You'll find such leaders profiled every month in our publication. Partnering with the Sun Herald newspaper, we also sponsor an annual awards program to identify and recognize South Mississippi's Outstanding Community Leaders and Top Business Leaders Under 40. For more information, or to nominate someone you know, check out the Roland Weeks Hall of Fame on our website.