Dining and Opining

Some business lunches are soon forgotten, sometimes within hours of paying the bill. Some will stick in the memory, always.

Falling into the latter category was a gathering that took place a generation ago—on the first business day of 2004, to be precise: Jan. 2. One might infer that date could indeed be memorable for blessing us with an early-winter high temperature of 62 degrees (yes, in January!). But that day’s gathering at the late, great Frondizi’s Restaurant sticks in the mind for those who dined there that day: a collection of Ingram’s magazine publishers past and present, whose contributions covering the development of the Kansas City region, eventually would combine into a 50-year legacy.

At the table that day were Richard Kappa, Woody Overton, Bill “Doc” Worley, Mike Russell, Michelle Sweeney and Joe Sweeney, and while they couldn’t be present, phone connections 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 brought 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 decided that the business community deserved a higher level of journalistic interest than that reflected in the ocean of fine-type stock listings and commodity price moves that accounted 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 information about the economic thrust and focus 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 decades on various levels. One was through collaboration with key businesses and sectors through the long-running Industry Outlook roundtable series. Unique among business get-togethers in this market, it has long brought to a shared forum otherwise competing interests who understood that their voice, collectively, could produce policy change to drive growth.

Another has been through its signature series of recognition programs for individual and organizational performance. That commitment to long-time honors like 40 Under Forty, Corporate Report 100 and Women 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 companies are, by virtue of their successes, setting standards for business excellence here. Not just through profitability, 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 began shaping the contours of that first issue in the back room of a Westport 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.”

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 acquires Ingram’s, Joe and Michelle Sweeney become owner-operators