A mainstay of the Tampa Bay business scene for more than 26 years, the Maddux Business Report has decided to cease further print publication and distribution of its magazine. From its infancy, the “Maddux Report” was a friend and reliable source for all things happening in commercial real estate development, construction and leasing in the Tampa Bay market place.
Eventually, the magazine expanded to cover a broad scope of news in the business market, but as a commercial real estate broker and lender back in the late 80’s and early 90’s the publication was an important and useful tool for most of my professional life. One did not have to be much of a soothsayer to predict that this day was coming. Print media across the country has taken a shellacking by news distributed through the Internet. Compounding with the fact that the area is still in the grips of the worst economic downturn I have witnessed in my lifetime, it was all too much for the magazine to endure.
I will miss the regular recaps on the commercial development market (although permits have been shockingly low for almost 3 years now) and I continue to use the directories for information on developed retail, industrial and office properties around the area. I know this information is available on Loopnet and CoStar, but call me old school. I like picking up a piece of paper and flipping through color pages to find the property for which I am looking.
I wish the publishers good luck. It sounds as if they have some new project on the Internet (http://www.madduxpress.com). I hope it works for them. I will miss the service they provided over the years.
