2024 October-November Analysis Featured

From Safe Fuel Regulations to Bacteria Phages: 100 issues promoting Georgia to Investors

Investor.ge celebrates its 100th issue with a look at the challenges it overcame and its plans for the future.

When former AmCham Georgia Executive Director Amy Denman started the AmCham newsletter in her apartment in 1998, the goal was to attract members—not create one of the longest serving English-language publications in Georgia.

“We were trying to promote our association because, beyond going and knocking on doors, there weren’t a lot of avenues for promotion at that point beyond the support of the American Embassy,” she recalled. “So we just wanted to publish a small newsletter.”

The layout was straightforward, printed on her home computer: four to six black and white pages about AmCham: what it was, what it was doing, and contact information.

However, over time, it became clear that this four-to-six page newsletter had the potential to become much, much more.

“We realized there was very little English-language news at that time in Georgia,” Amy recalls. “We decided that we wanted to make it a broader economics magazine…not only did we want to get the information about AmCham out, but we also wanted to publish information that would remain relevant about Georgia. We wanted to have information for new potential investors, current investors, visitors. It was a calling card.”

There were technical hiccups and challenges along the way. Electricity was still sporadic and the digital revolution had stalled at CD-ROMs. But a small group of dedicated AmCham staff—usually just Amy, the current editor, and Levan Baratashvili—managed to put the magazine out regularly with the help of designer Giorgi Megrelishvili.

“That is the most amazing thing about this: the sheer tiny amount of staff that was put on it and the enormous amount of content that came out,” Amy says.

Former editor Allison Ekberg Dvaladze, former executive director Amy Denman, former editor Molly Corso, and former editor Susanne Channon

By 2001, the newsletter had transformed into the AmCham News, a full-fledged glossy magazine, full of hard-hitting news articles on major challenges for businesses—like illegal gas stations selling doctored or stolen petrol—and interviews with the Georgian and foreign businesses who were creating the modern economy.

“When I started working on it…there was certainly nothing like a glossy magazine to get news and information about things that mattered… So I think it was a quite a useful publication when it got going because it covered issues that mattered to people,” noted Susanne Channon, who was the editor from 2001-2002.

Allison Ekberg Dvaladze, who was the editor during the 2004 Rose Revolution, noted the magazine’s ability to dig in deep into the issues instead of having to chase the headlines. That was especially true since it was published bimonthly, giving the staff plenty of time to identify the stories that mattered and develop them.

“We were writing in Georgia at a time when it was really protecting the media. Not that bad things didn’t happen—we know that they did. But in the region, Georgia was sort of a model of really allowing the media to be free. And that was an amazing time to be there,” she says.

The freedom to report on the issues that were concerning AmCham’s business members as well as the wider community meant that the magazine delved into topics like controversy surrounding the AES Telasi electricity provider privatization and concerns about power sharing the Enguri hydro power plant with separatist Abkhazia.

“There really was nowhere else to find those stories in English. That’s what set us apart,” Dvaladze adds. “When you look back, we were documenting a lot of history. The newspaper caught the day-to-day, but we were capturing all that other stuff…how people were living and going about trying to keep everything going as normal as possible.”

For AmCham Georgia, supporting the magazine became a strategic decision: even without any fulltime staff, it was a major drain on resources. However, it also provided a platform to advocate for policies that affected members and increase interest in Georgia, as the country tackled tough economic reforms.

Former editor Ari Neumann

“It was an avenue for us to explain to people our thoughts on our policy stance,” Amy says. “We always wrote from both sides because we didn’t want to be seen as pro anything. We would approach things—always there are two sides of the story and we always told both sides.”

Warren Hedges, who served as editor after Allison, recalls the years immediately following the Rose Revolution as a time when there was a huge push to reform.

“Having spent time outside of Tbilisi, I had many conversations with people who didn’t believe business or government could improve. It has stuck with me that the members of AmCham dedicated time and energy to building a better place to get work done, to invest, and to build a better future for Sakartvelo,” he recalls. “Everyone felt the painful need for reform and breaking out of corruption and poor government that was stifling business and simple everyday life. We were giving a perspective on what was changing and what else needed to change so people and their businesses could succeed and grow.”

When I was hired as editor, at the end of 2006, the magazine was already an established name in Georgia, with a strong history of reporting on the stories that mattered. During my 12-year tenure, the executive directors and editorial board made sure we covered issues that affected the business climate and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions. At times, that meant the magazine didn’t resemble publications put out by other AmChams.

As current AmCham Executive Director, George Welton, points out, “The Investor.ge magazine has always been able to provide a great mix of hard-hitting business and economic stories, with articles that, particularly a Western-oriented and English speaking audience might appreciate; with articles on the reform of the energy sector with pieces about the growth of artisanal carpet making, or the export of new kinds of Georgian cheese.”

Ari Neumann, who served as editor during the 2020 pandemic, noted the magazine was at the forefront in Georgia, providing real analysis on the policy issues affecting business.

“I think business media started going around the time I started as editor…I remember looking at Investor.ge and being proud that we were one of the only analytical outlets for business news,” he said.

Current editor Mackenzie Baldinger and her husband Giorgi Jangiani

“The fact is that we have a huge business community behind us, and every once in a while the priorities and concerns of the business community would boil up and come on our radar at a time when other business magazines might be reporting the news rather than fishing around in the depths. We found out ‘what is the bottleneck here, what is not working there, how do we actually improve policy?’”

As AmCham moves forward, there is no doubt that the Investor.ge magazine will continue to be a central product produced by and for the Chamber. It will continue to entertain and hopefully inform its diverse readership. As AmCham President Irakli Baidashvili says,

“Investor.ge continues to be a unique offering. Moving forward, we will make every effort to utilize its excellent journalism to add value for our members. We will also ensure that it is seen by more people online. At a time of dangerous disinformation, the best defense is independent and well-written fact-based journalism. That is what Investor.ge has always offered.”