Outlet profile

Business North Carolina

U.S. pro-business, regional

Owned byPrivately held by The Pilot Media Group, whose principal owner is David Woronoff; co-owners include Jack Andrews, Frank Daniels III, and Lee Dirks. The group has owned the magazine since 2015.

FundingAdvertising (primary) and paid subscriptions; privately held with no public, nonprofit, or state funding disclosed.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Business North Carolina was founded in 1981 by Ray Shaw, then-president of Dow Jones, and his sons Kirk and Whitney Shaw, launching during a period of high inflation and a growing national interest in business journalism. The monthly magazine covers companies, entrepreneurs, and institutions shaping the state's economy, and has won more than 100 national awards, including recognition as the country's best regional business magazine in 2012. For much of its history it was independently operated; since 2015 it has been part of The Pilot Media Group, a privately held company that also publishes The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines and several regional lifestyle magazines. Publisher David Woronoff, a fourth-generation North Carolina newspaper figure who worked at Business North Carolina in the 1990s, leads the group. The magazine covers North Carolina's General Assembly and state politics insofar as they affect the business community, and it accepts advertising broadly from businesses statewide. Its editorial tone is pro-business and pragmatic rather than ideologically partisan; it has reported on the negative uncertainty created by federal tariffs for North Carolina manufacturers and small businesses while also noting potential opportunities for some sectors such as furniture and agriculture. No significant editorial controversies or ownership-related conflicts of interest have been publicly documented.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-11; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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