Gene Cervi
Far from the major financial centers of New York and Chicago, and long before other cities the size of Denver thought it possible, the brash, outspoken Mr. Cervi in 1949 founded a weekly, local business newspaper--Cervi's Rocky Mountain Journal.
He filled it with news, statistics, government records/filings and harsh criticism of the establishment.
The muckraking journal, which developed from a newsletter he began in 1946 and now is known as the Denver Business Journal, is perhaps the oldest weekly business journal in the country. It provided an alternative business voice to Denver's two main papers, where Mr. Cervi previously worked as a reporter.
Mr. Cervi wrote front-page editorials aimed at the pillars of the business community. "Too often, newspapers are in bed with the people they are supposed to be watching," Mr. Cervi is quoted as saying. "With Cervi's Journal, our masters are our readers. The dailies' masters are their advertisers."
Mr. Cervi, who made an unsuccessful attempt to be the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1948, opened the door to an industry of weekly business journals across the United States. In 1969, he received the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado's Whitehead Award. He died in 1970 at age 64.