PUBLISHING GOOD NEWS
An honor for one of our own.
Titan 100, a program that recognizes the top 100 CEOs and C-level executives in the area, has named Joanne Hayes one of its 2026 honorees. The founder, CEO and publisher of Simply Buckhead and a three-decade veteran of the publishing industry, Hayes created the magazine in 2010 through her company, ValueStream Media Group, for readers in Buckhead, Brookhaven, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Chamblee and the Upper Westside.
“I was shocked when I received the call [in November 2025] that I had been nominated and was thrilled to make the first cut,” she says. “The application process was intense. We were given a series of essay-length questions outlining our company’s goals and business philosophies.”
Two months later, Hayes was notified that she was among the 100 inductees from both the public and private sectors whose combined companies generate more than $91.7 billion in annual revenue and employ over 534,000 across the region. “They recognized me as an entrepreneurial CEO with a distinct operating philosophy,” she says. “One question was about radical integrity. That jumped out at me because it is so much of what we practice at Simply Buckhead, which is authentic journalism, not ‘pay for play.’”
The awards ceremony was held on May 7 at the Delta Flight Museum.
Hayes’ career in advertising began in 1996 when she landed a position at Southern Rhode Island Newspapers and helped launch its fifth newspaper, the Coventry Courier. Within a few years she became the top salesperson for the company and managed both the Courier and The East Greenwich Pendulum, her hometown newspaper. Twelve years later, Hayes was approached by Providence Media Inc., now named Hey Rhody Media, that owned a small group of magazines, and was tasked with helping launch SO Rhode Island. It grew to 100 pages in less than 2 years and is still publishing today...
Read more in the June issue of
@SimplyBuckhead out now!
📝Mickey Goodman
📸 Alexandra Zak
SIMPLY BUCKHEAD
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@simplybuckhead
TITAN 100
@Titan100CEO
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