After two years as Springfield Business Journal’s publisher, Marty Goodnight on Jan. 2 officially became the third owner of the publication in its 46-year history.

The ownership change completes a two-year transition between Goodnight and former SBJ owner Jennifer Jackson. Plans for the business sale were first announced in December 2023. Jackson became owner in 2016 following the retirement of her mother and SBJ founder Dianne Elizabeth Osis.

Goodnight, who initially worked for SBJ from June 2016 to December 2020, serving first as chief revenue officer and later as associate publisher, returned to the business in 2024 after three years as director of marketing at Classy Llama Studios LLC, an e-commerce marketing, branding and consulting firm.

Goodnight declined to disclose financial terms of the agreement but said he formed Lucky Seven Media LLC with his wife, Shallina, to buy the company assets from Jackson. The LLC does business as SBJ Media, he said.

“It’s a unique situation because I had a lot of background with SBJ and obviously working with Jennifer and having a very strong relationship there,” he said. “The two-year window was a really good opportunity for us to slow down the sale process and really integrate the team. That two-year runway allowed us to really focus on a lot of internal opportunities to get SBJ positioned for success in 2026.”

Beyond his time at SBJ, Goodnight has accrued over 25 years of media sales and management experience at publications such as the Springfield News-Leader and Kansas City Star.

While he’s worked for much larger news media companies, Goodnight said being owner of SBJ is a different experience than anything thus far in his career.

“Even though it’s nowhere near the size of those organizations that I’ve worked for, the responsibility is so much greater,” he said.

As of the end of December, SBJ’s staff size is 14, although Goodnight said that number is expected to increase to as many as 16 in January. He declined to disclose company revenue.

Impact awareness
Goodnight said he recalls first coming to SBJ in 2016 and reading results of a survey of around 700 readers who spoke of the importance of the publication to them. That planted the seed years later to pursue purchasing SBJ from Jackson. By late 2022, the two began conversations in earnest about a purchase agreement.

“It was unbelievable the impact that SBJ has on the business community,” Goodnight said about the reader survey responses. “Through that timeframe, I just fell back in love with media and what our mission is and what we can do.

“The opportunity to own it and continue to work with the team and build upon its purpose is always what was most exciting to me,” he added.

Matt Morrow, president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said it’s notable that SBJ ownership will remain local.

“I think the best journalism is local journalism of all kinds, and especially from an unapologetic business perspective,” he said. “I don’t know how you could do an effective job of covering local business in a local business environment without having that local ownership. So, I was just very pleased to see that and obviously that continues a strong legacy of local business journalism here in Springfield.”

Morrow said he and the chamber have worked closely with both Jackson and Goodnight over the years.

“I have just tremendous respect for Jennifer and for her leadership, and she’s been a great partner in our community for all these years and has led the organization extremely well,” he said. “I was thrilled to see that when she came to a point where she was ready to move on from that, that she found a partner like Marty to be able to take that over. Marty has just a deep understanding of our community and our culture and the important role that business plays in helping us all to thrive here.”

Goodnight credits Jackson for continuing her mother’s legacy of the publication she founded in 1980.

“She’s been a steward of SBJ and the brand and keeping things going,” he said of Jackson. “In retrospect, you look at some of the recessions we’ve been through and COVID and things like that, Jennifer kept things strong and continued to lead us through some challenging times, but also some really good times.”

Goodnight said he’s very happy with the quality of news being generated by the editorial staff, noting SBJ for three consecutive years has received the Gold Cup from the Missouri Press Association as the top weekly newspaper in awards received for its size category.

He wants SBJ to continue providing the market needs for business news and information, while also leveling up across every experience the publication can provide, such as its e-news products, website and events.

“There’s so much more value that we can add to the business community,” he said. “My feeling is always grateful and honored to be able to work on the team that keeps doing this and also very excited and bullish and optimistic about our future.”

Looking ahead
SBJ isn’t the only new ownership venture for Goodnight, as he and his wife have acquired The Daily Events as an independent sister company. The deal, which included ownership of the news publication through Daily Events Media LLC, closed Dec. 31. He declined to disclose his investment in the publication, which had been owned since 1995 by Springfield entrepreneur Jeff Schrag, who was elected as the city’s mayor in 2024.

Noting he worked extensively with legal ads during his time at the News-Leader, Goodnight said he was familiar with The Daily Events. He said both it and SBJ serve a niche business-to-business audience.

“It wasn’t in my original plans to acquire Daily Events, but that opportunity surfaced, and it had made a lot of sense and it’s a healthy business,” he said. “I believe that there will be some opportunities in the future to continually look at how we serve The Daily Events audience and how we serve the SBJ audience. I think there could be some innovations potentially in how we package that legal data for our readers.”

He’s still examining ways to find efficiencies with the workforce but said it will be strictly run as a separate company.

“No changes in rates, deadlines, staffing, anything like that,” he said. “We’re mainly getting our feet under us so that we can continually serve the market well and then look for strategic opportunities.”

No immediate plans to relocate from The Daily Events’ current location at 310 W. Walnut St. are in place but Goodnight said he doesn’t plan to hold onto the property long-term. 

He intends to eventually have The Daily Events housed in the same building with SBJ, once the latter publication has a new permanent home. In November, SBJ exited its 4,000-square-foot space in a building Jackson owns at 2101 W. Chesterfield Blvd., Ste. B105, in Chesterfield Village. Staff are currently working remotely while a new location is secured.

“My goal is to invest in people and technology and to be conservative on our real estate expenses. And so, by moving out of Chesterfield in that situation, SBJ Media saved a lot of money,” he said, declining to elaborate. “We do have solutions and proposals active right now. I’m hoping to hear back within days for us to settle into our new home, but that’s not finalized yet, so I don’t have a lot of other details.”

Aside from investing in news resources and expanding coverage across all of its platforms, Goodnight said he wants to continually improve the experience for subscribers, whether that’s buying or renewing a subscription and password retention.

“Advertisers are going to see that we are more committed than ever to business-to-business marketing solutions and understanding how we help our business partners succeed versus a transactional advertising relationship,” he said. “It’s a much more idea-based, consultative, holistic approach to how we help our customers than transactional ads.”

For Morrow, he’s hopeful SBJ will retain its commitment to bring strong quality journalism from a business perspective, no matter who is its owner.

“There isn’t as much great journalism in our world as there once was, and even less that carries a deep understanding of the important role that business plays in all of our success and all of our ability to thrive,” he said. “I think that’s something that is a deep and rich part of the legacy of Springfield Business Journal. And just knowing Marty and having had a chance to visit with him in these past several months leading up to this official transition, I believe he’s deeply committed to that as well.”