ESSEX Chambers of Commerce today teamed up with the East Anglian Daily Times to celebrate the launch of a new Essex edition of the EADT’s Business East Monthly supplement.

Business East Monthly (BEM) was launched last year under a long-standing partnership between media company Archant, which publishes the EADT, and Suffolk Chamber of Commerce.

The new Essex edition will see the regular inclusion of news and views from Essex Chambers of Commerce, together with increased coverage of Essex businesses, alongside the established mix of features and advice from and about firms across the region.

Speaking at a breakfast-time launch event held at firstsite in Colchester as the first Essex edition of BEM appeared, EADT editor Terry Hunt said: “Please do not believe the people who tell you that newspapers are only interested in bad news.

“What good local newspapers try to do, and what the EADT certainly does, six days a week, is to reflect life as it is out there.

“When disasters happen we have to report them but we like nothing more than to have positive stories on our front page, and indeed on every page.”

He added: “Businesses can be so focused on doing the ‘day job’ that they do not recognise they have a good story to tell. We want to hear from you.”

Denise Rossiter, chief executive of Essex Chambers, and Robert Leng, president, welcomed the new edition of BEM.

Today’s event was held just hours after the launch in London of Essex Chambers’ new Essex Business Transport and Infrastructure Forum, which was attended by a number of the county’s MPs and business leaders from across Essex.

Mr Leng said Essex and the wider eastern region had fallen behind in terms of attracting national and European funding for infrastructure.

“We have to make a noise and put our views across, and working with the EADT is one way we can do that,” he added.