Seven Days wins BBA award!

Tweet

It was an honor to be at the Sheraton last night while Pamela & Paula accepted the 2008 Burlington Business Association award for exemplary business practices, contributions to the community and promotion of a positive image for Burlington! As one excited fan shouted out "Go girls!"

Read their remarks after the jump.

From Paula:

 

You all know Bob Miller, right — the developer, philanthropist, man about Burlington?

 

Bobby was our first landlord; he gave us a great deal on a cheap office space at Miller's Landmark when we first started Seven Days 13 years ago.

 

He gave us another opportunity as well: One day he came downstairs to check out the chaos, and he offered me and Pamela some sage advice. He extended his arm and said, kinda dramatically, "Touch me I'm gold."

 

Needless to say, we obeyed.

 

Not to underestimate Bobby’s power — or generosity —but it's all of you that have made Seven Days what it is. Your support has enabled us to create a newspaper that shows Burlington for the vital place that it is: a place people want to visit if they don’t live here; and, if they do live here, hopefully they flip through it and say to themselves, Maybe I don’t need to move to Boston. . .  I’m pretty sure that benefits all of us.

 

So thanks to all of you — Burlington businesses — for believing in us. Your investment has allowed us to grow Seven Days into a national model.

 

And thanks to our amazing staff, for pulling it together every week.

 

To our sales people, who are tireless and creative and thankfully, never leave.

 

To our writers, who work work all hours of the day, night and weekend.

 

To our designers, who make everything look cool.

 

To our web team. They never stop innovating even though sometimes we wish they would. . .

 

Our marketing director, classified director, circulation drivers — many people are involved in making Seven Days, which I hope you’ve noticed is no longer just a newspaper.

 

People often ask us, “Where did you find these people?”

 

I can tell you: we found em right here.

And from Pamela:

 

I want to briefly tell you about our name. Not Seven Days, which you know, but our corporate name, Da Capo Publishing, Inc.

 

In Italian, da capo literally means "from the head"’ In music, it’s an instruction to go back to the top, or the beginning, and start over. Which is exactly what we did almost 13 years ago.

 

We also chose Da Capo because it reflected our interest in the arts. We were, after all, a couple of arts writers whose prior business experience was bake sales.

 

Perhaps because of that shortcoming, we also liked the vaguely Mafioso sound of Da Capo.

 

The most significant meaning of our name, of course, turned out to be the musical one: starting over.

 

We took a huge leap of faith back in 1995 in starting our own newspaper. We cajoled advertisers with an inaugural three-for-the-price-of-two deal — enough for a 28-page paper. At the end of three weeks we realized, "Omigod, we have to keep doing this!"

 

And so we did. I don't need to tell you the challenges that every new business owner faces, but it's imperative to say that we could not have started over — and reinvented ourselves every week for all these years — without the people Paula mentioned earlier.

 

In fact, we're convinced we couldn't have done this anywhere but Burlington, VT. So I want to thank you for the tremendous opportunity we have had to reflect, inform, critique — sometimes poke fun at — and to evolve with this community, week after week. Thank you so much for this great honor.

Comments

[usrbingeek]

Congrats!!

[Mary @ WhistleStop Antiques]

Hi Pamela & Paula,
Congratulations! You all do a wonderful job at Seven Days. I'm thrilled that the Burlington Business Assoc. recognized it.
Keep up the great work.
Warm regards,
Mary
WhistleStop Antiques

[Bob Bolyard]

"We couldn't have done this anywhere but Burlington." Ain't it the truth... and that's one of the reasons why I love living here.
Congratulations.
But, I do have to giggle that the Burlington Businesss Association held their soirre outside of the city limits.

[Cathy Resmer]

I know — the Sheraton is in South Burlington, even though the hotel refers to itself as the "Burlington Sheraton." But there isn't a big enough ballroom within city limits. The biggest room at the Hilton only fits about 350 people or so, and there were at least 400 at the BBA thing.

[fran zankowski]

Pamela & Paula: Congratulations! Watching this video even made this tough old biz guy tear up. I can't think of a paper that more reflects its community. Big round of applause to you and your staff. It is a great honor and so very much deserved.

[MistressMaeve]

Jeez, between the RIP Julius post and this one, I'm crying in the middle of a sex conference.

Congrats, Seven Days!

xoxo,
MM

[Eva]

Wow, congrats! Go Ps! This made me tear up but they were happy tears.

I am so proud to be a part of such an innovative, funky, hard-working group of people.

And I love it that you had music for your entrance, what rock stars!

Go Team Seven Days!