Former Jackson business publication owner and radio talk-show host, Jack Criss, has joined the Delta Business Journal as its Executive Editor. In taking the newly created position, Criss is reunited with the person who gave him his start in the publishing business, DBJ publisher J. Scott Coopwood.
  “I first met Scott in 1990, while I was hosting a successful afternoon talk-show in Jackson on WJNT Radio,” Criss recalls. “I called him out of the blue one day and asked if he might be interested in my contributing some columns from time to time to his paper in Jackson, the Jackson Business Journal,” Criss says, adding with a laughs that “the rest, we hope, will be history!”
  A product of the public schools in Jackson, Criss also attended Hinds Junior College and Millsaps College, pursuing a degree in philosophy. The call of doing radio, however, pulled him from his academic goal in 1986, and thrust his career into the media world he has been involved with ever since.
  After writing for Coopwood at the Jackson Business Journal on several occasions, and getting more involved with the publication, Criss took the position of Managing Editor in March of 1992, staying on in that job until August of 1996. This marked the point when Criss purchased the JBJ from Coopwood.
  “Not only had Scott given me the opportunity to work for a business publication,” Criss says, “he ultimately also gave me the rare chance to own one.” Criss turned the bi-monthly JBJ into a monthly paper starting in 1997, and, a year later, changed the name of the publication to Metro Business Review. In March of this year, Criss sold his paper to a group of investors in
Jackson and, subsequently, was called by his former boss, Scott Coopwood.
  “Scott said he really wanted to talk to me about coming to work for him again, this time in Cleveland, with the Delta Business Journal, in the absolute heart of the Delta!” Criss laughs. “I must admit, although I was excited at the prospect, I was also somewhat skeptical. Of course I had seen and been incredibly impressed with what Scott and his staff had done here in the Delta with the DBJ; the track record was obviously one of success. But I also worried how a longtime Jackson resident, with no ties here, would make it. Amazingly enough,” Criss continues, “my first week here assuaged my fears completely. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a more accommodating, more accepting community, with such tremendous business potential, and immediately I felt right at home. It’s also a big plus for me to be working with Scott again, and with the wonderful staff of professionals he has around him at DBJ.”
  Criss’ role at the DBJ will be one of business development and editorial assistance. A lifelong avid reader and writer, Criss still maintains a small publishing company in Jackson, Apeiron Publications, Inc., which he hope will publish 2 to 3 titles within the next 18 months. His current, and future, main commitment, is to the Delta Business Journal, however, and to his new home of Cleveland.
  “Not that I disliked Jackson in any way,” Criss tells us. “It will always be my home. However, I feel now as if I’ve been given a new lease on my professional and personal life here in the Delta, and I intend to make the most of it. Towards that end, I will devote myself, along with Scott and everyone else associated with the Delta Business Journal, to keeping our publication the prime source of business news and information for this unique and wonderful region of Mississippi.”