About CVBT

The Central Valley Business Times is an online unit of BizGnus, Inc., a California corporation which reports, writes, edits and publishes business news in online, broadcast and printed publications.

President and publisher: Doug Caldwell
6804 Stonewall Court
Stockton, CA 95219
Phone 209.477.0330

Email

For business matters, please contact: publisher@bizgnus.com

For editorial matters, including story queries, corrections or
amplifications and letters, please contact: editor@bizgnus.com

For advertising, please contact: sales@bizgnus.com

Website

Our websites are developed and maintained by OACYS Technology. To report technical feedback or for custom development information, please contact:

OACYS TECHNOLOGY
Phone 559.781.4123
Email webmaster@bizgnus.com

Corrections Policy

When a question about editorial matter on any of our Web sites is brought to our attention, we will investigate those concerns and correct any errors of fact.

CVBT is not a "blog." It is a news website. Our writers are journalists with decades of experience writing for newspapers, wire services and broadcast station.

Unlike a "blog," we try to keep our opinions out of our news stories. If you think we've fallen short, please let us know.

However, authors of the Premium Content features, such as Letters from Laskin, are encouraged to offer their opinions. We feel their unique opinions are the distillation of years of expertise and are what our readers are seeking. Their material should be read with that in mind.


Editorial Policy

The news stories we cover are based entirely on what we believe are their news value. We accept no payments of any kind to cover any story or to do any audio interview or video profile.

We make our money through advertising.

As a matter of policy, we do not have an editorial calendar. These are artifices created at the behest of sales departments to spawn editorial content that can have ads associated with it ("40 under 40," "Largest Toe Nail Clipper Makers," etc.). We prefer to keep our content behind an impregnable wall separating reporters and writers from the sales department, thus assuring our readers, listeners and viewers that they are not overtly or even subtly consuming information that came to life largely because it was on an editorial calendar.

That said, we appreciate all story suggestions, whether that's your job (such as a PR person) or you've heard about a company or person with an interesting story. Please let us know either by e-mail (editor@bizgnus.com) or a phone call to (209) 477-0330.


About story comments

We encourage reader comments on all stories. Just click on the "cartoon balloon" icon at the bottom of every story. But please keep in mind that all comments are reviewed by an editor before they appear. We will not post comments that we feel are potentially libelous or are personal attacks. We also do not post comments that contain links to other sites or are not on topic.


Our newsroom hours are 5 a.m. - 10 p.m. Pacific time Monday through Friday (major U.S. holidays excepted.) After hours please call us at (209) 470-3400, our 24/7 line.


About our name

Enough people have asked about our corporate name (Bizgnus, Inc.) and the e-mail addresses that we thought we might explain. It's pronounced "biz-nooz." The "gnus" in the name is the plural of gnu, an African antelope and is pronounced "nooz." Yes, "biznews" was taken when we looked for a domain name.


Privacy Policy

Here is how our company, BizGnus, Inc., publisher of the Central Valley Business Times.com Web site and other Web sites, treats the personally identifiable information that is collected about you by a visit to one of our sites.

Keep in mind that if you go off our site through a link to another organization, your trip there is governed by that site’s privacy policies. In other words, our policies apply only when you’re using our sites.

Also note that Web sites are constantly changing as their operators try to improve them. These changes could involve changes to privacy policies, so it’s advisable to review a site’s privacy policies (including our sites) from time to time to see if there have been changes that might affect you.

If you are a resident of California or any Canadian province, you have the right to know how your information may be shared with third parties who engage in direct marketing activities. This policy explains our practices and how you can opt out of having your information shared for such purposes.

While we do not currently make our customer lists available to companies that sell goods and services that we believe would be of interest, we might in the future. Again in the future, we might use our lists of readers for our own direct e-mail marketing. We agree that these things can sometimes be aggravating. Under California and Canadian law, you have the option of having your names and other identifying information removed from those lists. To do so, send us an e-mail at privacy@bizgnus.com.

IP ADDRESSES:
An IP address is a unique number assigned to the computer which is requesting a page from our Web site. It’s usually stored at your Internet service provider or on your company network. BizGnus uses IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer our Web site, and to report aggregate information which can include the following:
• The IP address of the computer making the request
• The URL that is being requested
• The date and time of the request
• The referring URL
• The browser type and operating system used to make the request

ABOUT COOKIES:
A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive.
Cookies can be used to help target the ads you see based on user behavior. Cookies also remember certain actions.
You can block cookies or restrict cookies by reviewing the settings on your Web browser. But before you do, please keep in mind that some Web sites require cookies if you're going to be allowed to see those sites.

REGISTRATION:
Web sites like to have you at least register to gain access to some or all of their content.

Central Valley Business Times does not require any registration; however we might go with the crowd and add that in the future. Here’s why: It would help our advertising sales to be able to report where our readers are coming from and other aggregate -- not individual -- details of the readership. That’s one of the strongest selling point of Internet advertising, frankly.

But from a user perspective, registration is a real pain. What was the name you registered under? If you had a brainstorm when you did, can you recall that you called yourself Daffy Duck? And what about that password?


LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS:
As a business, BizGnus, Inc. believes in strict adherence to the laws of our state and nation. You should know this would include providing personally identifiable information upon receipt of a court order, subpoena, or at our discretion in order to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation, without prior notice to you. We reserve the right to share personal identifiable information to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who use our services for illegal activities. We reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we believe to be unlawful.

OPTING OUT:
If we intend to use non-aggregate information for marketing purposes or to sell to third parties, we will notify users at the time we collect the information and allow users to opt-out of having the information used for those purposes.

OTHER SHARING OF INFORMATION:
As with most other Web sites, BizGnus may have to share information with third parties such as processing credit cards, getting reports on site usage and other uses. In such cases, the third parties will be required to maintain the confidentiality of such information.


Questions or concerns? Please e-mail me.

Doug Caldwell, publisher
editor@bizgnus.com