Business Journal Publisher to Head Australian Venture

Donald L. Keough, publisher of the Los Angeles Business Journal and a key player in the development of more than 20 local business newspapers around the country, has resigned to head a business publishing venture in Australia.

Keough also resigned his post as senior publisher for CBJ Associates, the partnership headed by Kansas City real estate developer Larry Bridges that owns the Los Angeles Business Journal, the San Diego Business Journal, and--since last month--the Orange County Business Journal.

Tom Link, associate publisher of the L.A. Business Journal, has been promoted to publisher, and he said he expected few changes: “We’re on such a growth trend it would be silly to change anything--our goals were 100% growth over last year’s advertising sales, and we’re on that type of track.”

No successor has yet been named to assume Keough’s responsibilities as senior publisher for the three CBJ papers in Southern California. In that capacity, Keough had been helping to overhaul the Orange County paper and searching for the synergies that he believed lay in having a chain of weekly business papers.

In Australia, Keough will head Regional Business Newspapers Ltd., a new company that will initially launch a weekly business paper in Brisbane. The company is backed by Lloyds Bank and private investors, and Keough said he would hold a 25% to 30% equity stake in the firm.

The company will use U.S. city business journals as models in an effort to build up a chain of publications in Australia and then elsewhere on the Pacific Rim. Keough was the key editorial talent behind the growth of the American City Business Journal chain, and he still remains the owner of the San Francisco Business Times.