Nate Feltman: Forty years and still going strong

As 2020 comes to a close, I find myself reflecting about this past year at IBJ and looking ahead with excitement about our future.

This year marked IBJ’s 40th anniversary. We had a big event planned where we would celebrate the 40 influential people who have played an outsized role in the development of our city and unveil 40 big ideas for our region that were submitted by our readers. Like so many other businesses, we changed plans, canceled the event and worked to enhance technology offerings and our online coverage.

In a year that saw so many people and businesses suffer, we are very fortunate to have partners in our community that deeply understand and appreciate the importance of local journalism. While we fell short of the financial goals we set, we innovated and learned what is possible when we work together as a team under challenging circumstances. This experience will prove beneficial in the years ahead.

This year reminded me once again why locally owned businesses mean so much to a community. Our community’s ability to respond effectively to the pandemic would have been much more difficult without the presence of Eli Lilly and Co. and the Lilly Endowment. The recent decision by Elanco (a spinoff of Lilly) to move its global headquarters to Indianapolis and invest $300 million downtown can be directly traced to Eli Lilly’s decision to open his business in Indy 144 years ago.

I’m appreciative of my business partners, Mickey Maurer and Bob Schloss, who purchased IBJ Media in 1990 after it was sold to an out-of-state firm in 1987. Their stewardship of IBJ for the last 30 years has ensured that the incredible stories of risk-taking, leadership, progress and change in our community have been and continue to be chronicled.

While traditional daily newspapers have seen their subscriber base dwindle and their newsrooms hollowed out as a result of corporate cost-cutting in the wake of industry consolidation, IBJ has withstood the headwinds and is on an upward trajectory. Over the last two years, we have grown our subscriber base nearly 40%; in December, we hit an all-time subscriber high, eclipsing our previous high point set in 2001.

We attribute our growth to (1) an incredibly dedicated and talented group of IBJ employees, who continue to contribute new ideas and energy and who every day bring an understanding that embracing change is a requirement for survival, and (2) a resurgence in the demand for local, accurate, trusted and fair news in an era of fake and opinionated national news. IBJ’s local ownership has allowed for timely decision-making based on on-the-ground facts and with an understanding that each decision has long-term consequences for the people of IBJ and the company we all love.

As we look to the future, we will continue to invest in people and technology that will assist us in our mission to deliver trusted news, information and resources that inform current and aspiring business, and not-for-profit, government, civic and community leaders. We will work to advance our goal of being a resource for community engagement and career advancement and provide critical information that can support growth strategies for local companies.

Thank you for your support and confidence over the last 40 years. Your IBJ Media team is excited about where we will take our company in the future. Just like our city placed a bet on landing an NFL franchise nearly 40 years ago, I am certain IBJ will take some risk and venture into new territory in the coming years. Most important, we look forward to continuing to play our part in the growth and evolution of central Indiana and the state of Indiana.•

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Feltman is a shareholder and CEO of IBJ Media. To comment, emailnfeltman@ibj.com.