‘Iron Man’ Schott ‘exactly what we needed’

BOULDER — Owners, publishers, reporters and advertising salespeople have come and gone during the Boulder County Business Report’s 30-year existence, but only one person can say he’s worn all four of those hats.

During the span of 25 years, Jeff Schott was a reporter, salesman, sales director, co-publisher and co-owner of the little business newspaper that covers the Boulder Valley.

From the time he began writing stories as a freelancer in 1983 to cashing out as a co-owner in February 2008, Schott became well connected in the business community. His was the longest tenure of anyone at the paper.

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Some of his colleagues gave him the nickname “Iron Man.”

A transplant from New Paltz, New York, Schott graduated with a journalism degree in 1982 from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He was working for Boise Homes’ lumberyard and taking any freelance writing job he could find, landing gigs with the Rocky Mountain News, Longmont Times-Call, Boulder Daily Camera and the Business Report.

“Jeff Schott showed up,” recalled Suzanne “Zan” Gripman, who founded the newspaper in 1982.

He had entrepreneurial drive and a great sense of humor. Ultimately, he changed the course of BCBR’s future.”

Schott went to work full time for the BCBR in 1986, when Gripman sold the paper to Fred Ayers and Rhett Speer.

“I thought a business newspaper was the best idea I’d ever seen,” recalled Schott, who was writing the Business Digest column and started selling ads to sources for stories while he was interviewing them.

“I had no idea I was any good at sales,” Schott said. But he was. He worked very hard and was “fairly aggressive” when it came to convincing people to buy ads in the paper. And he found the key people to convince — economic development leaders, bankers, lawyers. “I found that the business community was incredibly supportive of the idea of a business newspaper.”

His sales mantra was, “We will write about you, your industries and your customers.”

Speer, the BCBR’s publisher from 1986 to 1989, said the paper was fortunate to have Schott. “He truly was a diamond in the rough, exactly what we needed. He was a natural salesman, and I daresay the paper would not have survived if it weren’t for Jeff.”

When Ayers decided to sell the paper, Schott seized the opportunity to become an owner. He teamed with Jerry W. Lewis, who became editor and co-publisher, along with silent partner Jirka Rysavy, who was owner of Corporate Express and an advertiser in the BCBR.

For nearly 20 years Schott and Lewis built the BCBR. It introduced myriad events and special publications.

“Jeff’s forecast about selling more advertising was on target as the 1990s turned out to be one of Colorado’s and Boulder County’s biggest growth spurts,” recalled Lewis.

But running the paper was always a challenge.

“The biggest challenge was remaining profitable,” Schott said. “We concentrated on growth, hiring more people. We were putting all the money we made back into the company.”

Schott, Lewis and Rysavy sold their interest in Boulder Business Information Inc., parent company of the BCBR, in 2008 to Brown Publishing Co.

“We were tired,” Schott said. “But the real reasons we sold were that we felt we had reached the peak for a market this size, and we could see the competition challenges coming from the Internet, with its capability of delivering news nearly instantaneously.”

Since selling the newspaper, Schott has become involved in an Internet company. He is president and co-owner of EarthVisionZ LLC in Boulder, which offers a line of virtual products for the Internet and mobile devices powered by its patented geo-spatial platform, WorldEngine.