A Time to Sow
The calendar flips, and here it comes: Ingram’s is closing in on its 40th year of providing business news and information for the KC area and region.
It’s been a long, steady climb, and over the past decade in particular, we’ve been able to increase not only the number of our readers, but our reach—today, Ingram’s is read by subscribers in each of the 219 counties throughout Kansas and Missouri.
The operating paradigm in business, of course, is to grow or die. We certainly don’t intend to die, but rather expand by publishing targeted publications and to further develop and enhance a data-rich integrated portal Web site infrastructure which effectively ties business and government with communities, counties, regions and both states. Ingram’s Magazine, as you know it, will remain Kansas City-centric with the printed page, but we’ll continue to focus on business sectors, people and policies that have statewide interest. This month’s edition is a perfect example of that, with our 50 Kansans You Should Know and Icons of Education annual features. Each of those features has a decidedly state-wide or regional flavor to it.
That bigger footprint is one reason we expect 2013 to be a big and important year for Ingram’s Media. Not only will we launch the robust new Ingrams.com Web site rich with business intelligence next month, this Spring we’ll begin to roll out Destination Kansas and Destination Missouri Web sites and companion publications, which not only educate prospects and drive investment to both states, but the sites will attract more quality jobs and economic development in every significant market within our bi-state region from the Colorado border to the Mississippi River.
It’s been a challenging decade for print and other media, with changes in advertising strategies, competition from the Internet for marketing budgets and web development, technology and an emergence of endless communications channels. Through all of that, though, we’ve seen time and again that content remains king, as does credibility and having relationships with business and government leaders throughout the bi-state region. With trusted journalism and a reputable locally-owned media, innovations in technology and communications, we’re building a business infrastructure unlike any that exists today—in the region and nationally.
Get on the Bus!
Our goal is to build an integrated portal Web site and multi-media platform with compatible publications and to work in collaboration with state, city and county government and other partners including economic development agencies, chambers of commerce and leading employers, as well as with reputable journalists and media properties throughout both states. All will have a role to play in the effectiveness of the DestinationKansas.com and DestinationMissouri.com infrastructure and publications.
You can read more about what’s ahead with Destination Kansas on Page 35, and on Page 49, for Destination Missouri.
We’ve made an inordinate commitment to this project, and we’ve invested a large sum of our money in its future. Now, we’re looking for relevant partners and patrons who will align efforts with our talented journalists and regional partners to make Destination Missouri and Destination Kansas a unique model for business news, accurate and useful data and information. More important, to create a Web-based integrated infrastructure that helps all of us drive investment and quality jobs to the states of Kansas and Missouri and to our communities herein.
Ingram’s is the most highly-read and respected locally-owned business publication in the two-state region, and we don’t intend to cede that status to anyone, including to organizations who are neither from our home state, nor those that do not possess a strong commitment to either state. What’s necessary to enable the Destination Kansas and Destination Missouri Web site and multi-media enterprise to become an effective tool to help build our communities and the regional economy, we need support from the business community in both states and from local, county and state government.
Our hope is that through the afore-mentioned Web sites and publications, the best-kept secrets of this region will be secret no longer: the logic of living, working and investing in Kansas and Missouri.
It’s time we all joined together with the confidence and assertiveness needed to make our mark on this region in ways that matter most of all: With tools that lead to greater job creation and prosperity for all.
Joe Sweeney
Editor-In-Chief & Publisher