Is Tucson ready for a new business magazine? (What, Inside Tucson Business isn’t enough for you?) That’s the idea being floated by Steve Rosenberg, former publisher of Tucson Lifestyle magazine.

Now he’s talking to advertising agencies about a project called BizTucson, subtitled Tucson’s Buziness Magazine.

I tried to reach Rosenberg but with the short holiday week last week, we didn’t connect.

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According to people at some of the advertising agencies he has contacted so far, Rosenberg is developing a monthly glossy magazine for a business audience. He is offering no specific start dates to agencies, except that it could be before next summer. 

People who have been contacted by Rosenberg couldn’t tell me if there’s anything new or unique about his proposed publication.

It’s not like the idea of monthly business magazine hasn’t been tried before. The Tucson Citizen published a magazine called Business Edge until late last year.  Business Edge is now one page in the daily Citizen.

And just this month, Gannett pulled the plug on its statewide glossy business magazine called BizAz.  

As one agency rep said, “It’s a gutsy move to try to start anything in this economy, much less another printed publication.”

Rosenberg resigned in August from Tucson Lifestyle after 26 years with the magazine during which time he worked his way up from a sales representative to publisher.

 GoDaddy’s new PR specialist

Lisa Contreras, former news director at KVOA 4 and, more recently a media consultant to Carondelet Health Network, is the new senior public relations specialist for GoDaddy.com, which bills itself as the world’s largest domain name registrar.

For Contreras it means she’ll move to the Phoenix area — GoDaddy is headquartered in North Scottsdale — and she says she’s looking forward to working for a company that thinks outside the box. “It’s very much like a newsroom atmosphere there,” she says.

Contreras was news director at KVOA from 1998 to 2005. She officially starts in her new job today (Dec. 1). At GoDaddy she’ll be rejoining former colleague, Elizabeth Driscoll, who had been assistant news director at KVOA. Driscoll is GoDaddy’s vice president of public relations. 

 Party planner Bednarek 

Need to pump your company holiday party? Long-time radio personality Jim Bednarek can do that. Especially now that he’s devoting more time to his Bednarek’s Music Works business - http://bednareksmusicworks.com/. Bednarek was among a group of employees laid off as part of nationwide cuts at Citadel Broadcasting. 

Bednarek, whose Tucson radio career dates back to 1977 when he started on the old KTKT and including stops at KRQ and KHYT (when it was known as 13-K-Hit), had been the program director and morning radio host on Citdael’s KTUC 1400-AM. The station is now entirely automated.

Bednarek says he is looking to develop Bednarek’s Music Works business to offer services for corporate party planning and weddings but won’t rule out look for other opportunities. But he says he’d like for them to be in Tucson. “This is home,” he said.

Among others let go locally in the Citadel cuts was Valerie Knight, who did traffic reports on KHYT 107.5-FM.

Names in news

Catching up on some reporter changes in print: At the Arizona Daily Star, Jack Gillum left the business section and is now working for Gannett’s USA Today at its headquarters in McLean, Va.... Josh Brodesky moved into the business section from general assignment... Jennifer Sterba left the Star and is now working at the Caliber Group. Sterba had been an education and features writer and editor.

Here at Inside Tucson Busines, Nicholas Smith joins the staff from the Explorer. Smith replaces Ed Egger, who retired... At the Explorer, Smith’s job will go unfilled and sports editor Craig Grau’s job was eliminated.

GM out at PBS in Phoenix

KAET, the PBS TV station in Phoenix run by Arizona State University, laid off eight people, including general manager Greg Giczi, last month after the most recent pledge drive fell $250,000 short of what was projected.

The TV station is relocating to ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications in downtown Phoenix and is struggling to come up with the $1.8 million of its share of the expense. So far, it has raised less than $1 million.

 Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237. Inside Tucson Media appears weekly.