History

For over forty years, we’ve been dedicated to telling your story.

Some might call us a rare breed - an independent media company who is locally owned and operated. We are proud of our rich history and even more excited about what lies ahead. Learn more about our story.

IBJ Media has been providing thoughtful, in-depth business reporting in central Indiana since 1980 when Indianapolis Business Journal launched. The paper’s first issue on May 19, 1980, included a front-page story about whether Indianapolis would be able to land a pro-football team, and it has been covering the area’s most important business stories since.

Over more than four decades, the company has evolved and expanded to include several local and statewide news brands in addition to IBJ: Indiana Lawyer, Inside INdiana Business, Court & Commercial Record and IBJ Custom Publishing. Under local owner Nate Feltman, IBJ Media has grown into the most important news source for business and community leaders in Indiana with dozens of events, publications, email newsletters, a TV show, radio broadcasts and the Indiana 250 list of the state’s most influential business leaders.

Here are key dates in IBJ Media’s history:

19801980
Indianapolis entrepreneur John Burkhart and St. Louis businessman Mark Vittert formed Business Journal Publications.
May 19, 1980
Indianapolis Business Journal publishes its first issue with John Mayhill as publisher and Nancy Cotterill as editor.
December 1980
IBJ moves from offices at East 71st Street and State Road 37 to offices at East 86th Street in Nora
1981June 1981
IBJ moves from its Nora offices to The Pyramids at College Park. James Cotterill is named publisher. His wife, Nancy Cotterill, remains editor.
1985May 7, 1985
Business Journal Publications acquires legal daily, The Indianapolis Commercial, which later is rebranded as Court & Commercial Record.
1986November 1986
Business Journal Publications sells IBJ and other holdings to then-publicly traded American City Business Journals.
December 1987
IBJ moves to 431 N. Pennsylvania St.
1988June 1988
ACBJ sells IBJ and Court & Commercial Record to Minneapolis based publisher MCP Inc., which owned business journals in New Orleans, Minneapolis, Providence and Boston.
1990April 1990
The company launches the Indiana Lawyer, an every-other-week newspaper for the statewide legal community.
October 1990
Entrepreneurs Mickey Maurer and Bob Schloss purchase what’s then called IBJ Corp., putting the company back under local control.
1997November 1997
IBJ moves to the second floor of 41 E. Washington St., which was built for the S.S. Kresge Co., a retailer, in 1924.
19981998
IBJ launches Contract Publishing, a division to provide design and production services for other companies and organizations. It later is renamed IBJ Custom Publishing.
2017September 2017
Nate Feltman, a former Indiana commerce secretary, becomes a one-third owner of IBJ Corp. Mickey Maurer and Bob Schloss each retain one-third ownership.
2019March 2019
IBJ moves from its 41 E. Washington St. location to the IPL building on Monument Circle.
2020March 2020
Court & Commercial Record becomes a section of IBJ and moves from publishing three times a week to once per week.
March 2020
Nate Feltman increases his ownership of what’s now called IBJ Media to 50%. Mickey Maurer and Bob Schloss each retain one quarter ownership. Feltman becomes CEO of IBJ Media and publisher of Indianapolis Business Journal and Indiana Lawyer.
2021August 31, 2021
IBJ Media acquires Inside INdiana Business, a media brand launched in 1998 by television journalist Gerry Dick that includes a weekly TV show, daily radio reports and a news website and emails. Dick becomes president of IBJ Media’s Inside INdiana Business division.
2022July 2022
IBJ Media launches the Indiana 250, an annual list of the state’s 250 most influential business and community leaders in the state.
2024March 2024
Nate Feltman becomes sole owner of IBJ Media after acquiring Mickey Maurer’s and Bob Schloss’ remaining shares in the company.