Ingram's May 2024

From Outlook to Ingram’s : Half a Century in the Making  1975: Ludwell Gaines founds Outlook magazine ___________________________ 1977: Dorn Communications acquires Outlook , rebrands as Corporate Report Kansas City ___________________________ 1980: Steve Hedlund named on-site publisher ___________________________ 1984: Richard Kappa named on-site publisher ___________________________ 1986: Mike Russell and Bill Doc Worley acquire Corporate Report Kansas City , name Woody Overton as publisher ___________________________ 1987: Robert and Beth Ingram acquire Corporate Report Kansas City ___________________________ 1989: Ingram’s debuts as the new brand in the October issue ___________________________ 1997: Heritage Media acquires Ingram’s ___________________________ 1997: Two days after Heritage Media ac quires Ingram’s, Joe and Michelle Sweeney become owner-operators

Ingram’s recognizes exceptional performance because these leaders and their companies are set ting standards for business excellence in the Kansas City region. Not just through profitability, but civic and philanthropic engagement, innovative workplace design and more.

allowed others in the magazine’s rich history—founder honing Lud Gaines, Bill Dorn, Steve Hedlund, and Beth Ingram—to offer lunch-time comments from a distance. One reason this assemblage bro ught together so much knowledge about the business history of Kansas City is that they helped drive that growth. It all started back in 1974 when business owner Ludwell Gaines de cided that the business community deserved a higher level of journalis tic interest than that reflected in the ocean of fine-type stock listings and commodity price moves that account ed for so much of the daily business “coverage,” for lack of a better word. Gaines wanted a publication, he wrote in the inaugural edition, that would “be an essential, authoritative, timely and positive source of informa tion about the economic thrust and fo cus of Kansas City. I also believe that it is important for Outlook to take an active role in Kansas City’s growth.” That’s been done through the de cades on various levels. One was through collaboration with key businesses and sectors through the long-running Industry Outlook round table series. Unique among business get-togethers in this market, it has

long brought to a shared forum oth erwise competing interests who un derstood that their voice, collectively, could produce policy change to drive growth. Another has been through its sig nature series of recognition programs for individual and organizational performance. That commitment to long-time honors like 40 Under For ty, Corporate Report 100 and Wom en Executives-Kansas City have been supplemented through the years with features like the Ingram’s 250 and the Executive of the Year awards. Why? Because these leaders and their com panies are, by virtue of their successes, setting standards for business excel lence here. Not just through profit ability, but civic and philanthropic engagement, innovative workplace design and more. Lud Gaines, who died in 2018, had confessed over the phone at that long ago luncheon that “I did not know a thing about publishing” when he be gan shaping the contours of that first issue in the back room of a West port night spot. But 25 years after its founding, and a generation removed from its ownership, he observed: “I am impressed with the magazine. It has come a long, long way since I was involved.”

In Memoriam Among the key figures in the history of Ingram’s magazine who have passed away:  Ludwell Gaines (1931-2018), founder, 1975-1977  Bill Dorn (1937-2019), Dorn Communications, owner, 1977-1986  Mike Russell (1939-2009), co-owner 1986-1987  Woody Overton (1946-2017), publisher, 1986-87  Robert P. Ingram Jr. (1917-1997), owner and publisher, 1987-1997

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I ngr am ’ s

May 2024

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