Who we are

Donald E.L. Johnson, M.B.A.

has more than 30 years of experience in business publishing. He co-founded The Business Word in 1986. He is publisher of TWINS Magazine and editor in chief and publisher of Health Care Strategic Management, Hospital Materials Management, Health Care Advertising Review, Profiles in Healthcare Marketing, Financial Advertising Review and Health Industry Today. He has developed newsletters and custom publications for major corporations, database owners, consultants and other clients.

In 10 years he helped build Modern Healthcare, a Crain Communications Inc. publication, into the hospital industry's leading business magazine and one of the top 280 magazines in the country. At Modern Healthcare, he wrote and edited numerous articles on health care marketing, finance, architecture, law and management.

He was publisher of Lamaze Parents' Magazine during 1989 and 1990.

In addition to health care, he has covered architecture, banking, marketing, commodity futures and economics, materials management and distribution, transportation, law, computers and agribusiness.

Don began his career in 1964 as a staff writer in the Chicago Bureau of The Wall Street Journal and has worked as a business reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, New York Journal of Commerce, American Metal Market and Metalworking News.

Susan J. Alt

is a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter and Associate in Risk Management. She co-founded The Business Word in 1986. Former editor of Business Insurance and current editor of TWINS Magazine, Hospital Materials Management, Health Industry Today and several single-sponsored publications, including the Managed Care Digest. She has a finance degree and extensive experience in editorial consulting and management.

Susan has planned and supervised the designs and redesigns of several magazines and newsletters. She is a trained artist and illustrator and has extensive experience in publication design and production management as well as in strategic planning and publishing.

Susan began her career in 1969 as a reporter for Home Furnishings Daily and has reported for Women's Wear Daily, Daily News Record and Supermarket News.

Todd Reid

Graphic Designer

has over 15 years experience in the print and publishing industries, working as a designer and production artist for agencies in New York City and Colorado, as well as in-house design experience for mid-sized commercial printers.

Tom Visocchi

is a professionally trained graphic artist and desktop publisher. He designs and produces magazines, catalogs, newsletters, brochures, data books, annual reports and direct mail pieces. In the graphic arts field for over 10 years, Tom has worked in graphic design agencies, electronic prepress shops and printing companies.

Paula DeJohn

has spent more than five years covering hospital supply chain issues, including hospital supplies and equipment purchasing, logistics, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), and health care e-commerce.

She has spent most of her career as a journalist, editing a series of weekly newspapers in small New England towns before moving on to magazine writing. As associate editor of Wire Journal International, a monthly magazine serving the wire and cable industry, she was responsible for editing scholarly research papers by metallurgists and engineers.

Her experience also includes work in marketing communications at a major insurance company and financial writing for a Boston-based investment company. Paula has designed promotional materials and managed public relations campaigns for a variety of civic and professional groups.

Paula's work has appeared in a wide variety of magazines, newspapers and trade publications, including Journalism Quarterly, Woodshop News, the Hartford Business Journal, Hartford Advocate, and The Good Life, a magazine supplement to the Hartford Courant. She has received several journalism awards from the New England Press Assn. and Connecticut Press Assn.

Tom Rees

is a veteran Colorado newsman. He was an editor for the Rocky Mountain News, Denver. He also worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph and the Pueblo Star Journal. He has covered virtually every news beat but sports, including the manned and unmanned space program and Operation Plowshare nuclear experiments. He also is a former public relations director for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a public relations consultant for Denver area businesses.

Sharon Withers

Editor, TWINS magazine

joined the Business Word Inc. in November 1999 after working in Phoenix, Ariz., for Get Up And Go!, a magazine for seniors. She has experience as an editor, writer and reporter for newspapers and magazines.

Judith D. Botvin

Associate Editor, Healthcare Advertising Review, Financial Advertising Review and Profiles in Healthcare Marketing

has 20-plus years of experience including a wide range of corporate communications positions and freelance consultation for clients in health care, marketing, education, nonprofit organizations and trade associations. She has written and edited employee newsletters, trade association features, news releases, direct mail, letters to the editor, educational monographs and strategic customer responses. She has taught English composition and has presented career-related programs at several colleges.

Most of Judith's career was at GPU Energy, Inc. in Pennsylvania, where she specialized in employee communications, community relations and media relations. She helped initiate a number of programs designed to meet the high-profile company's strategic challenges. Intensive exposure to the news media enabled Judith to develop a training program for media interviews presented to approximately 300 utility employees, from line workers to senior executives. This was a particularly critical element of GPU's crisis-management efforts following the Three Mile Island nuclear event.

Judith's successful community relations and employee volunteer programs helped restore the utility's positive image in many communities throughout Pennsylvania. During several company reorganizations, she created well-received programs to assist relocated spouses of employees.

Judith also has experience in speech writing and coaching speakers, and worked as a freelance communications consultant for three years, writing and editing projects for the Colorado Assn. of Commerce and Industry, Denver Academy and other non-profit and retail clients.

Richard J. Rhinehart

directs subscriber and customer services, circulation marketing and promotions, and publication fulfillment for The Business Word and its many clients. An experienced professional with 20 years of publishing experience, he has worked with diverse business and consumer publishers, as well as an Olympic-recognized national sports governing body.

Richard's experience in circulation management includes positions with the influential cable and satellite television business publication Multichannel News, the international bicycle-racing journal VeloNews and the environmental and photographic Earth Journal. He also has worked with several Colorado daily and weekly newspapers, including helping launch Colorado Springs' weekly alternative newspaper The Independent in 1993.

At USA Cycling, this nation's governing body for competitive cycling, Richard spent five years managing association membership programs. In this role based at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, he played a key role in the development and launch of the association's member publications, including Bike Racing Nation, NORBAbiz, USA Cycling Biz and USA Cycling Magazine. Richard directed public relations programs for the membership department in the late 1990s, as well as developing innovative new association event properties such as the popular American Mountain Bike Challenge, this nation's largest grass roots competitive mountain bike series.

A journalism graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Richard also has extensive experience in marketing and copywriting. He is the author of two Colorado consumer history books and has had articles published in several Colorado and national-based periodicals.