Indianapolis Monthly: A Local Magazine With Four Decades of Name Changes and New Ownership

Indianapolis Monthly is a lifestyle magazine published in Indianapolis, Indiana. Its history reaches back to 1977, when the publication launched under the name Indianapolis Home and Garden. The original title reflected a focus on domestic life and gardening, but the magazine’s identity changed as its scope and branding developed.

In 1980, the publication became Indianapolis at Home. A further transition came in 1981, when Mayhill Publications, led by owner and publisher Robert Thomas Mayhill, took ownership. The magazine was renamed Indianapolis Monthly, and Deborah Paul was appointed editor-in-chief. That name has remained associated with the publication since then.

The magazine’s ownership changed again in 1988, when Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications purchased it. The acquisition placed the publication under the ownership of a company based in the same city it covers. Indianapolis Monthly later received recognition from the City and Regional Magazine Association, earning the organization’s General Excellence II award in 2014.

A more recent ownership change occurred on Dec. 1, 2022, when Emmis sold the magazine to Hour Media Group, a company based in Michigan. That transaction marked a shift from local corporate ownership to an out-of-state media group while preserving Indianapolis Monthly as an Indianapolis publication.

Alongside its main magazine, Indianapolis Monthly has been connected with several special publications and projects. These include Indiana Bride, Home, The Ticket and Indiana Travel Guide. Their titles indicate a range of subject areas connected to weddings, residential life, events and travel within Indiana, though the supplied information does not provide additional details about their formats or publication schedules.

The magazine is part of Indianapolis’s broader media landscape and is listed in connection with media in Indianapolis. Based on the publication’s documented history, its trajectory has involved repeated changes in name, ownership and publishing structure rather than a single fixed identity. It began with a home-and-garden title, adopted an explicitly Indianapolis-focused name in 1981, gained recognition from a regional magazine association and later moved into the ownership of Hour Media Group.

The publication’s official website is listed as an external resource, but the supplied material does not describe its current editorial staff, frequency, audience, circulation or coverage areas in greater detail. This background therefore focuses on the magazine’s documented origins, ownership history, award recognition and associated projects.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “Indianapolis Monthly” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Monthly The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.ibj.com/articles/emmis-corp-sells-indianapolis-monthly-magazine - https://indyencyclopedia.org/indianapolis-monthly/ - https://www.newspapers.com/image/312801524 - https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8348365 - https://citymag.org/member_mags/indianapolis-monthly/ - https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0899-0328 Image rights Photograph description: 24 June 2021 - Indianapolis, IN - US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh speaks to LGBTQ Community Leaders including Emma Vosicky, left, at Baby's restaurant in Indianapolis, Indiana. Official Department of Labor Photograph*** Photographs taken by the federal government are generally part of the public domain and may beused, copied and distributed without permission. Unless otherwise noted, photos post Creator: US Department of Labor. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AL-21-06-24-A-009_(51269405335).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.