In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, staying informed and connected is key to success.

We’re excited to launch a new feature this month that we know will become a valuable resource to the Tri-Cities business community – business-focused lists.

Each month the Journal will run at least two business-focused lists to showcase top companies or institutions in a particular industry or category, ranked by criteria appropriate to their sector. The lists will be keyed to topics ranging from professional services to real estate and construction, to health care and business and industry.

This month’s featured lists (see pages A12 and A22) are timely: state-certified women-owned businesses – to complement the popular Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business Conference on Sept. 27 and the Tri-Cities Women’s Expo on Sept. 29-30 – and the top colleges and universities within a 150-mile radius of the Tri-Cities – to coincide with the start of fall classes.

Lists coming later this year include the Tri-Cities’ largest accounting firms, leading contractors, top social service nonprofits, biggest commercial real estate firms and more.

What can these lists do for our readers? They can help companies prospect for new customers, enhance marketing databases, research the competition and identify new partners. Discover who’s doing business and who to do business with.

Each list is compiled and produced by the Journal’s editorial team and edited and checked for accuracy.

At the end of next year, we’ll compile all the lists into an annual publication that we think will be a powerful reference tool.

Business journals across the country publish similar lists featuring the latest market data, and they’re quite popular. Over the years we’ve fielded many inquiries asking for Tri-Cities lists highlighting our business community. Today, we’re excited to offer them to you.