Southern Oregon Business Journal - February 2024 Issue

around 40 or 44 pages over the years since I got involved and the number of stories we ran each month stayed somewhat consistent.

But this issue has been the most challenging to get out because so many stories are about AI and AI is changing daily. The stories I had at the beginning of the month were already out of date.

monthly “print” edition is finally here.

I will post stories as they are submitted or written and not hold on to them. Look how many we have this month already. Over 20 and counting. I’ll still email a recap to get subscribers attention and I’ll post on social to get more traffic.

The first issue

I’ll still have a cover story as March should be on all the Solar Projects in Southern Oregon.

I asked my sponsors and advertisers and they welcome it.

There is a line from the original Ghostbusters where Dr. Egon Spengler says “Print is dead.” That movie came out in 1984. It took me 40 years, I’m a little slow.

I’ll be finding ways to showcase full page advertisers to you and the design of the journal online will change overtime.

Let me know what you think. It’s a pretty big change and change is hard on folks.

Speaking of change where are the photos?

Another change you see today is no images on the homepage next to each story. This is intentional for this issue. I got a press release from a local company a while back and ran it. It had a photo as part of the release. This month, I received a bill from the Associated Press (the AI police that scans for images) for using the image unlicensed and a demand to take it down. I paid the bill and

took down the photo. Lesson learned but it bothers me. The bill was for more than what I make a month on the journal. So my little protest this month, no photos… I’m such a rebel.

Jim Teece, Publisher of the SOBJ.

SouthernOregonBusinessJour nal.com

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Eugene Branch

360

333

Ashland Branch

1500

Albany Branch 185

Grants

509

Jacksonville

Lebanon Branch

1495

Medford

1528

1311

Central

1017

Klamath

210

By Jim Teece SouthernOregonBusiness.com

Launching a Wheelchair Charging Station Finder

WheelchairChargingOregon.co m We wanted to create a simple way to find places to charge your wheelchair and a simple way to add a Charging Station listing to the map with hopes of encouraging all government…

Introducing Art Authority Museum for Apple Vision Pro

By Jim Teece We had an app in the App Store on the first day for the iPhone. We had an app in the App Store for the iPad on…

Kwansei Gakuin, SOU announce 4th installment of Mills Bowl for May in Ashland

ASHLAND – Thirty-eight years after Kwansei Gakuin University traveled to Ashland to become the first Japanese university to play a college football game on American soil, the Fighters will make…

Collaboration and Compromise

The Eight Secrets of a Successful Small Community The birth, growth and dying of small towns. Heavy sighs of old-timers

February 2024

holding back tear-causing memories of better times, carefree children, now…

When Data Makes the Difference

Over the years, we have been inundated with an increasing amount of data used in a number of ways to influence or to make arguments for one cause or another.…

Understanding the Broadband Facts Nutrition Label

Beginning in April 2024, you’ll probably start to see a new and rather official looking label on some marketing materials, advertising, and websites for broadband internet services. Given the importance—and…

The Difference Between the “Three P’s” – Public Relations, Publicity and Press Releases

It’s commonly assumed that PR means “press release” but this is misleading and frankly, not true. “PR does not = Press Release” although, press releases are directly related to PR.…

SOU Institute for Applied Sustainability celebrates with Innovation Fund kickoff

Southern Oregon University’s Institute for Applied Sustainability is stepping into its second year with the official launch of its IAS Innovation Fund and recognition of the institute’s many first-year accomplishments.…

Asante Health

System has concluded a 3% workforce reduction

Citing unsustainable financial losses over the past two fiscal years, Asante Health System has concluded a 3% workforce reduction across its regional hospitals and clinics as of Friday. This decision impacts more than 6,000 employees across Medford, Gra nts Pass, and Ashland.…

Dutch Bros moving 40% of corporate jobs out of Grants Pass

Dutch Bros to move 40% of corporate jobs out of Grants Pass and send them to the new corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona by January 1,2025. Years ago we worked…

Rallly by Luke Vella – Meeting Polls made simple.

I used to use Doodle with a group of random folks from different organizations to herd cats and try to find a time that we can all meet. It’s a…

Gartner Identifies the Top Cybersecurity Trends for 2024

Generative AI (GenAI), unsecure employee behavior, third-party risks, continuous threat exposure, boardroom communication gaps and identity-first approaches to security are the driving forces behind the top cybersecurity trends for 2024,…

Examples of AI in apps for small business

AI apps are applications that use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing patterns, solving problems, and generating content. AI apps can…

Why is NVIDIA the AI darling right now?

Nvidia is a leading chipmaker that specializes in producing graphics processing units (GPUs), which are essential for powering artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Nvidia’s GPUs can handle the massive amounts of…

What about Apple and the rumored AI iPhone?

Apple is planning to introduce more AI features and capabilities to its iPhone and iOS products in the near future. According to various reports, Apple is working on developing a…

What is Google Gemini?

Google Gemini is a family of multimodal large language models developed by Google DeepMind, serving as the successor to LaMDA and PaLM 2. It powers the generative artificial intelligence chatbot…

What is Microsoft Copilot?

CoPilot is an AI assistant developed by Microsoft. It is a conversational chat interface that lets you search for specific information, generate text such as emails and summaries, and create…

AI in Your Small Business

AI is being used today in small business in various ways, such as: Save time and money by reducing operational costs and increasing efficiency and productivity. Some of the challenges…

AI and my small businesses

By Jim Teece AI has been around for decades but openAI unleashed ChatGPT last year to the surprise of many and it has awaken everyone as to the power of…

Gartner Predicts CFOs will be Challenged with EBITDA Margins That will Shrink by More than 30% by 2027

By 2027, weak demand and rising costs will shrink earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margins by more than 30% relative to 2022, according to Gartner, Inc. Most…