For the past few weeks, the Mirror has been running a series of brief business-related news items concerning Santa Monica-based companies under the headline “Santa Monica Means Business.” The paper has also endeavored to increase its general news coverage of the local business community, and will continue to do so.
Calvin Coolidge famously pronounced in the 1920’s that “The business of America is business.” While we would not subscribe to such a sweeping and myopic focus by saying that “The business of Santa Monica is Business” – after all, there is more to life, and besides, we all know what happened at the end of the 1920s – it is certainly true that the life of Santa Monica includes business, and that the business community of Santa Monica impacts all of us. It is an integral part of the larger community whose concerns are reflected in the Mirror.
In approaching the coverage of business news, it is the conviction of this newspaper that the coverage need not be presented in an adversarial context – management vs. labor, business interests vs. the environment, and the like. A thoughtful approach to the business of the community can redound to the mutual benefit of however many “sides” may be involved.
For example, this week’s discussion of the treatment of bonuses in calculating the rate of overtime pay is not intended to give a “leg up” to either employers or employees, but is rather presented in the belief that all parties mutually benefit from increased access to information. And so the discussion appears under the “kicker” heading “Mutual, I’m Sure” – a reference to the reply of the character Doris in White Christmas when she is introduced to the Bing Crosby character, who asks simply, “How do you do?”
Whether you are employed by a Santa Monica business or own one, whether you patronize businesses in town or provide goods or services to them, the Mirror wants to reflect your concerns. The business of Santa Monica is publicly-held companies and family firms, it is retail and service, real estate both commercial and residential, automobile sales and public transportation. It is tourism, charities, entertainment, food service, doctors and lawyers.
