Ok I admit it I still read my newspapers. I read the UT and the Wall Street Journal daily as well as look at the Business Journal online. Of course, I also enjoy my weekly local newspapers leading off with the Times-Advocate as they’re essential to local business. I drive a connected car and get news feeds that I subscribe to in an effort to keep abreast of what’s going on relevant to what we do here at the Chamber. And there is much going on.
Having been in the media world prior to my role here at the Chamber I kind of know how the sausage is made, so to speak. I’ve led many daily news briefings and attended various journalism workshops so the whole process of delivering the news is not foreign to me.
What is concerning to me is the over exposure of negativity being put out in the mainstream press.
Here’s an example. In Today’s UT Business section, the front-page headlines read in part: “Pace of Home sales slow,” “Used car repo man is back,” “Alphabet has slowest growth,” “Microsoft says economic woes are to blame” and the kicker “U.S. consumer confidence declines.” These are just snippets of the headlines followed by the full story which often doesn’t reflect the headline. See the theme here?
Nothing about Huckleberry’s opening up their newest restaurant in the Heritage Restaurant Brands group and how well they’re doing here in Escondido. We all know Costco is working to open in Escondido and speaking with the Westfield North County Mall GM Nitta Gaddy she verity’s that there are 125+ stores/vendors open and doing business at the mall right now. Erickson-Hall Construction has broken ground on a new private school being built in Escondido. These are but a handful of positive business news happening right now in our backyard.
And then the latest big positive news for the region is Apple’s purchase of the Rancho Vista Corporate Center just to our south for $445 million dollars. The ripple affect of this will be felt here.
My point is, there is much to celebrate around us as we continue to shake off the long tail effects of the last 2+ years.
Economic shifts are often based on broad indexes reflecting global trends not certainties. We can drive ourselves into despair or look for the opportunity change inevitably creates.
We can write our own headlines.
Cheers, JR
