West Virginia Executive Summer 2018 | Page 40

[ 20th anniversary ] SAMANTHA CART 2005 Looking Back on 20 Years in Print A Q&A with Editor in Chief Kensie Hamilton Fauber Since 1998, West Virginia Executive (WVE) magazine has been sharing in- depth profiles and news coverage with the Mountain State’s business community, carving out its reputation as the state’s premier business-to-business publication. In 2008, 10 years after the magazine’s inception and in the midst of a country- wide financial crisis, five partners bought out the previous owner and established Executive Ink, LLC, the publishing com- pany for WVE, Discover West Virginia and Profiles magazines. The company has undergone serious changes and weath- ered many storms over the past decade, but it has come out stronger and more committed than ever to celebrating West Virginia’s success stories. In celebration of 20 years in print, WVE’s editor in chief, Kensie Hamilton Fauber, shares her views on the maga- zine’s growth and where it is heading in the future. WVE magazine has been in print for 20 years. What thoughts and emotions come to mind when you consider that? When did 2018 get here, and has it only be 13 years since my first day at the magazine? I graduated college in 2005 and started working for the magazine two weeks later. This has been my only grown-up job, and I feel blessed to have been able to put my heart and soul into this magazine for the past 13 years. I’m so proud of our magazine and the role it plays in helping promote our great state while defeating unfair stereotypes 38 WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE and celebrating our best-kept secret: our people. I’m also proud of our gifted staff. They love West Virginia more than most people I have met, and they take the mis- sion of the magazine—to promote West Virginia—very seriously. I couldn’t do this without them, and I wouldn’t want to. 2010 In what ways has the company grown or changed over the past 20 years? Executive Ink, LLC is not the founding publisher of West Virginia Executive magazine. My partners and I bought the magazine from its founder in November 2008 and created Executive Ink as the parent company. When the sale was final, we sat down and addressed a whole slew of topics, from how to improve the quality of our editorial to completely overhauling our mail list. While West Virginia Executive has re- mained a statewide business magazine, we have made content changes such as incorporating departments in each issue so there is something for every reader. We also added regional advertising to offer another marketing opportunity specific to businesses with a targeted area in mind. A few years ago, we did a complete overhaul of our website, www.wvexec- utive.com. We now offer online advertis- ing opportunities, and readers can find a page-turn version of the current issue to review. Since then, we have also in- creased the amount of exclusive online content, called web exclusives, to help us overcome the challenges of limited print space and timeliness as a quarterly mag- azine. We have launched social media ac- counts for both West Virginia Executive and Discover West Virginia in order to share our content with a new audience and have a direct line of communication with our followers. We have also started planning annual company retreats. These give us time to bond as a company—and as friends— while scheduling time away from ring- ing phones and full inboxes to focus on addressing challenges and brainstorming new opportunities. We have grown our awards programs from one to three. Our Young Guns pro- gram has been around since 1998. We started Sharp Shooters in 2016, which focuses on outstanding West Virgin- ians over the age of 43, and last year, we launched Lawyers & Leaders in partner- ship with West Virginia University Col- lege of Law to honor elite lawyers who studied at WVU or now practice in the Mountain State. Our awards programs are a great way to recognize those making