Lesley Weidenbener: Indianapolis Business Journal Editor

A lifetime of reporting on government and politics seemed natural for Lesley while growing up in a household that read and talked about the news of the day.  Listen to follow her career from covering the Indiana legislature to teaching journalism students at Franklin College and starting TheStateHouseFile.com, to landing as the editor of the Indiana Business Journal.  

Follow Lesley’s life and work here:

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/lweidenbener/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleyweidenbener 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LWeidenbener 

Independent Mail: https://www.independentmail.com/ 

Indianapolis Business Journal: https://www.ibj.com/ 

Vincennes Sun Commercial: https://www.suncommercial.com/ 

Evansville Courier: https://www.courierpress.com/ 

Indy Star: https://www.indystar.com/ 

Frank O’Bannon/Steve Goldsmith: https://www.thestatehousefile.com/commentary/analysis-running-mates-mean-more-to-political-junkies-than-voters/article_2dbc37bc-32e2-57f6-8fe1-a4b39e8860be.html 

2008 Presidential Primary Obama/Hillary:  chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.in.gov/library/files/HPR1436.pdf.pdf 

Timothy McVeigh execution: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/181466374/ 

C-SPAN: https://www.c-span.org/ 

Indiana Weekend Review: https://www.wfyi.org/programs/indiana-week-in-review 

Louisville Courier Journal: https://www.courier-journal.com/ 

Franklin College Journalism: https://franklincollege.edu/academics/majors/multimedia-journalism-franklin-college/ 

TheStateHouseFiles.com: https://www.thestatehousefile.com/ 

Indiana Lawyer: https://www.theindianalawyer.com/ 

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: https://www.journalgazette.net/ 

Viewpoints from the Industry: https://www.ibj.com/topics/viewpoint 

IBJ Newsletter subscriptions: https://www.ibj.com/newsletters 

Thank you for listening!  Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the Media in Minutes podcast here or anywhere you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-in-minutes/id1555710662  

Transcript

Angela Tuell: 0:05

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those reports on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. On today's episode we are talking with Indianapolis Business Journal editor Lesley Weidenbener. Lesley became editor of the IBJ in 2021 after five years as its managing editor, and 20 years in government and politics reporting for three news organizations at the Indiana State House. A native of Vincennes and a graduate of Ball State University Lesley started her career at the Independent Mail in Anderson, South Carolina. Hi, Lesley.

Lesley Weidenbener: 0:56

Hi, how are you doing, Angela?

Angela Tuell: 0:58

Great. I'm really excited. Looking forward to our conversation today. You spent most of your career - 20 years - before joining the IBJ as a politics and government reporter covering the Indiana State House from various Indiana newspapers. During that time, you covered five governors and 20 regular legislative sessions. Had you always known that was the kind of journalism you wanted to do?

Lesley Weidenbener: 1:22

Well, I had wanted to be a journalist since I was a little kid. And I think I think it was because my parents took several newspapers. So I grew up in Vincennes. And we took the Vincennes Sun Commercial and the Evansville Courier and the Indianapolis Star and my dad talked about what he was reading in the newspaper all of the time, it would show me stories and and I had kind of a natural proclivity for writing. And so I think it was a very natural thing to become a reporter. And I just always thought being a reporter was covering government and politics. I didn't realize when I was younger, that some people became a journalist and covered food and some people covered entertainment and other people covered housing, it just it - I just always thought that it was about covering politics and government. And so that's the direction I was always headed in.

Angela Tuell: 2:19

Okay, did - were your parents in journalism?

Lesley Weidenbener: 2:21

They were not my dad was a dentist, and my mom worked in the school system as an aide and then as a secretary.

Angela Tuell: 2:29

Yeah. Well, that's great that they exposed you to that, though, and -

Lesley Weidenbener: 2:32

For sure.

Angela Tuell: 2:33

Yeah. What did you like about covering government and politics? And you know, what were you not too fond of?

Lesley Weidenbener: 2:40

One of the great things about covering government, especially covering the legislature, which I got into fairly early, is that you are exposed to so many topics and different issues. And so even though it feels like you're doing the same thing all the time, you're actually constantly being exposed to new ideas and new topics. And I once saw this fantastic editorial cartoon that was reporters coming into work coming into the newsroom. And there was a board that had all of these little, like, post it notes on it that said things like, aviation, abortion, you know, I mean, just like everything you can imagine, and then each reporter would walk up with like a dart and throw it at the board. And then like, whatever they got, that was their story. And that is actually -

Angela Tuell: 3:34

That's so cool.

Lesley Weidenbener: 3:34

Yeah, that's actually very much the way it felt. And so, you know, over the years, I covered everything from, you know, lizards at a state park down in southern Indiana to, you know, execution at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute to just run of the mill property tax and utility legislation. So it was just about everything.

Angela Tuell: 3:59

That is really cool. What was your most memorable story, or stories I should say, during those years?

Lesley Weidenbener: 4:06

It's really hard to pick and, especially back when I was covering the legislature, I would write hundreds of stories a year and I mean, it was so many that honestly, you could go back, you could look back at a story you'd written a few months ago and think I don't remember anything about that. But I would say covering the Franco Bannon, Steve Goldsmith governor's race was a big one. That was that was. I was pretty early in my Indiana Statehouse career at that point. I learned a lot from the other reporters that I was around. It was a very interesting and exciting race. So that covering that race really sticks out to me, as does covering the presidential primary when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were still battling it out for the nomination. And then I'd say honest if I had to pick a single story, I covered with a team the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber at the federal -

Angela Tuell: 5:11

In Terre Haute, right?

Lesley Weidenbener: 5:11

Prison in Terre Haute. And it's not the story itself, though, but it was just the - I had never done anything quite like that. And I was working for the Louisville Courier-Journal at the time and the Courier-Journal in the Indianapolis Star worked together on it. And the entire, the team that was there, the way we had to go about working, we were in a tent out in the federal penitentiary lawn, and everything about it was just different. And so I have a lot of memories from that.

Angela Tuell: 5:43

Yeah, Were you there when it happened as well?

Lesley Weidenbener: 5:45

I was not in the I was not in the prison. And I was not one of the people who went in to witness. Very glad that I wasn't.

Angela Tuell: 5:54

Yeah.

Lesley Weidenbener: 5:55

But I was part of a group that wrote a number of the belief stories.

Angela Tuell: 6:00

Wow, amazing. You've also provided political analysis for a number of television and radio networks and programs including C-SPAN, Indiana Weekend Review, Indiana Lawmakers and Indy's Morning News on WIBC Radio. When you went into print journalism, I bet you didn't think you'd be on TV.

Lesley Weidenbener: 6:18

I did. Uh, you know, when I went to Ball State University, the the print the the newspaper journalism, and the TV journalism were a totally separate parts of the campus like nobody talked about the convergence, like they did later in my career. And so yeah, it was really not something I thought about. And I think it started when Jim Shella was hosting Indiana Weekend Review, and he asked me to fill in one week. And I have to tell you that and this is this was humbling as a print reporter, that going on TV really changed my career. And I was never a regular on any show. I was not a regular on Indiana Weekend Review, but I subbed a lot. And I've always told Jim Shella that he really did change my career from the moment I first appeared on that show, people in the statehouse looked at me differently. And like I said, that was humbling, because for years, I've been writing stories that have been on the front page of the newspaper in Fort Wayne or the front page regularly newspaper in Louisville, which covered the you know, southern Indiana suburbs. And, and so you know, you feel like you're really making an impact.

Angela Tuell: 7:31

Big time, right?

Lesley Weidenbener: 7:32

Yeah. But then the, you know, you go on TV, and it just changes the way people look at you. At least it did, then I think it's, it's a little harder to tell now whether it would be the same because of the way people watch TV is it's just so different or watch video is so different than it used to be. But it really made people at the statehouse, think of me in a different light. And it gave me credibility. I frankly didn't know how much I needed.

Angela Tuell: 7:58

Yeah. And so after 20 years, is that what helped drive you into the new role as managing editor of the Indianapolis Business Journal?

Lesley Weidenbener: 8:05

I don't think it was actually.

Angela Tuell: 8:07

Okay.

Lesley Weidenbener: 8:08

You know, you don't think that some things have things happen in your life that you think are bad at the time, and they turn out to be good things and that's kind of that's sort of what happened to me here. So I, as I mentioned, I was working for the Louisville Courier Journal, and Louisville and that newspaper, we had had an Indianapolis Bureau for 40 years, I think.

Angela Tuell: 8:29

Oh, wow.

Lesley Weidenbener: 8:30

And but they were owned by Gannett as is the Indianapolis Star and during a round of cost cutting the - Louisville decided to close the Indianapolis office which in you know, was quite devastating for me. But, but at you know, I did not blame my editor, the editor of the paper for that. I mean, he had some tough decisions to make, and it made sense. So, so they closed the bureau. I lost my job. And so I had to find something new. And at just at that moment, Franklin College, which had started a State House reporting program was looking for someone who could take that program full time.

Angela Tuell: 9:10

That's very well respected, by the way, for those listening that don't know.

Lesley Weidenbener: 9:15

They didn't have a publication at the time, but we so I took that job. Kept me in the State House. We started the website called TheStateHouseFile.com.

Angela Tuell: 9:25

Okay. I didn't know that was started under you.

Lesley Weidenbener: 9:28

Yeah. And I and we started, we create, you know, we we trained young journalists, and yeah, and at the time, we would sometimes have 20 kids in during the legislative session. And we were, you know, teaching them how to report about this politics and state. And I absolutely loved it. Those kids were incredible to work with. They taught me as much as I taught them.

Angela Tuell: 9:57

Wow.

Lesley Weidenbener: 9:57

And it gave me a taste of management experience that I really - and editing experience - that I had never really considered. I thought I would be a Statehouse reporter forever. But I started doing some editing. I stayed there for about little more than four years and actually kind of fell in love with editing. And so I got a call from IBJ when the managing editor here left, and I really took the breakfast without much intention of making a change. But as soon as I spoke to Greg Andrews, who was the editor then, I thought this is something I want to do. This is a job I want. And that's what happened.

Angela Tuell: 10:36

So and for those who are not super familiar with Indianapolis Business Journal, which we also call the IBJ. Yeah, tell us more about it and its audience and you know, much of what you say I'm sure, or you know, assuming applies to many of the business journals across the country that are even in the same group.

Lesley Weidenbener: 10:53

Indianapolis Business Journal is a locally owned newspaper. We are owned by three entrepreneurs to Mickey Mauer and Bob Schloss are minority partners. They actually bought the Indianapolis Business Journal a few decades ago, from an out of state owner and they were the owners for a number of years. And then I think it was about six years ago, Nate Feldman, who's a former Indiana Secretary of Commerce decided to buy in. He has since bought a 50% share, and is our CEO of IBJ Media. So at IBJ Media, we have three news brands. We have the Indiana Lawyer, which is a statewide newspaper for the legal community. We have Inside Indiana Business, which is a business television show, and a website and newsletters and then it focuses on business news statewide. And then we have IBJ, which focuses on business news in Central Indiana. And we have a once a week newspaper. But we are very much a daily news organization. We have a several newsletters every day, including something we call Eight at 8, which are eight things that you should know first thing in the morning, we have a daily newsletter that goes out at about one o'clock. And then we have industry newsletters and other newsletters that go out all week. And we're constantly posting on the website. So so we're really a daily operation.

Angela Tuell: 12:24

Yes. And after five years as managing editor, you earned the top spot as the editor. Congratulations, by the way.

Lesley Weidenbener: 12:31

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Angela Tuell: 12:33

Please tell us a little more what that role entails and how it's different than, you know, managing editor to editor, what a typical day looks like, that sort of thing.

Lesley Weidenbener: 12:42

I can tell you my typical day is a lot of decision making, I feel like that is the major that is the most important thing I do is to make decisions that help other people kind of get on with their day and or to set priorities. I still do a lot of editing. And I do a little bit of writing. But I would say most of my time is spent trying to help other people in the newsroom make decisions about what is the best story, who are the best sources to call, how do we want to cast something, is a story better to be in the print publication, or is it better to be online? How are we going to illustrate that or what kind of graphic are we going to do? So that is a huge part of my day. I also serve on the IBJ media management team. And so I spend, I also spend a lot of time thinking about our larger company, and how the things that we do will drive more subscribers. You know, we think of our subscription base, really as decision makers, and either decision makers or people who want to be decision makers. And whether that is an executive at a company, a CEO, a founder of a company or a middle manager or someone who just wants to move up in their company. And it can also be people who are leading not-for-profit organizations, people in government. But people who are in positions where they're making decisions, that's kind of how we view who our audiences.

Angela Tuell: 14:12

Yeah. And how is your role currently different than the managing editor role?

Lesley Weidenbener: 14:16

What - they are actually somewhat similar in that, because we're not a very big organization, the entire company is about 60 people. Our newsroom is about, is 19 people, although that includes designers, researchers, copy editors. We have seven reporters, and we have several editors. And so I would say the biggest change in becoming the editor is really in setting the strategic vision for where we want to go and making the bigger decisions about what's important to us and where we want to focus our time. We, we really view business very broadly. A lot of people assume that we just cover companies and we really don't we cover politics cover government, and -

Angela Tuell: 15:06

Entertainment.

Lesley Weidenbener: 15:07

Absolutely. We have a new newsletter, relatively new called After Hours, where we cover a lot of the arts and entertainment. We we do a lot of different kinds of things, but we don't have a ton of people. And so trying to figure out where to best use our resources is probably the difference between being the managing editor and an editor is I say, make more of those calls.

Angela Tuell: 15:29

Yeah, you definitely can't be indecisive. In that type of work.

Lesley Weidenbener: 15:31

I know, I was just talking, was just talking about this where, you know, when I was young, I have a group of girlfriends we all worked in at the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette together. And we used to think back then that the editors knew a ton. And I went to them and asked them a question about what we should do that they knew the answer. And then, you know, then you move up into a position and you realize that they know a little more, you have a little more experience, but you're really, your role is just to make the call and hope for the best. And just try to use, you know, whatever experience, you have to make the best call you can but there's so many things don't have right and wrong answers. And so you're just constantly using your judgment to decide the best thing possible.

Angela Tuell: 16:16

Yeah, and your journalism training.

Lesley Weidenbener: 16:18

Absolutely. And just frankly, all the things that you learn along the way, because right now we're constantly, first of all, the world is constantly changing, and the industry is constantly changing. And so you have to be willing to be learning all of the time. I mean, I A great example is, you know, there's a there's kind of a controversy about the use of the word Latin X. Some people of Hispanic origin, do not like the word Latin X, other people think it is a really great modern way to be, to be not be gender specific, when you're talking about people who are Hispanic. And, you know, the issues like that, and we're trying to make decisions about how we use words, how we use phrases, what we cover, how we do it, who our sources are, that stuff changes every day. And so it's just, you know, you just constantly have to be willing to change.

Angela Tuell: 17:16

Yes, yes. In the time that you've been at the IBJ, what changes have you implemented or oversaw?

Lesley Weidenbener: 17:23

We have really tried to diversify our sources more, we have also tried to just do a lot more stories that cover marginalized communities or cover not always just marginalized communities, but more diversity in who owns businesses and who is working in management and, and top positions and try to get a lot more of those voices in the paper. We're also trying to do, for example, this week, we have an issue coming out that is completely focused on downtown. And so we're really trying to harness our resources so that we can cover things in broader ways with a lot more context, to help people make better decisions and to understand complicated situations better. And so we've we've really worked on that. Also, last year IBJ media, the larger company created a program called Indiana 250 To recognize 250 of the most influential people in Indiana, I did oversee that project. So that's been a big thing that we've been working on. And then we've made a few changes in the paper, we just started a new made in Indiana feature, one that we're really excited about that is products that are made here, whether they're things that you've heard of, or maybe things that you never knew about. And so that's a fun feature that we're just getting started.

Angela Tuell: 18:45

Yes. What do you believe are the biggest challenges for businesses in Indiana Indianapolis area?

Lesley Weidenbener: 18:52

Now I really think talent finding enough talent is, is the biggest thing. You know, and that situation has changed so dramatically with the ability for people to work from anywhere, which becomes then a big challenge for the state of Indiana. It doesn't do Indiana a ton of good to have a lot of companies who are located here because taxes are low or because the business climate in tradition, in the traditional sense is good if all of their employees live elsewhere and work remotely. And so in both businesses and the state and communities need to figure out ways to be more attractive to individuals and to workers so that they will want to come and be in Indiana and and then are easier to hire for companies who are here and you know, all of the big economic development decisions that you hear about and the companies that may choose to go to another state rather than Indiana. Those decisions are increasingly made on how companies can get talent, especially high tech manufacturing companies that do need people to work in person. So they're looking at how educated is your workforce? How trainable is your workforce? How many people do you have that are looking for a job? And, you know, when you live in a state like Indiana where the unemployment rate is, I mean that the national unemployment rates are already low, it's really low in Indiana, you know, you have to ask yourself as a business, where am I going to find my talent? So that is a big challenge facing companies and facing the state.

Angela Tuell: 20:24

Yeah. What over your career are you the proudest of?

Lesley Weidenbener: 20:29

I think I have tried very hard to be as objective as possible. And to try, I mean, you cannot eliminate what your biases are. We all live our lives. And we see things through our own lenses. What you have to do as a journalist is you have to try to take off those lenses or you have to find ways to - you have to know your vulnerabilities in terms of where you might be biased, and you have to have ways to try to attack those. I've worked really hard on that in my career. Obviously, there, there could be people who don't think I've done enough in that way. But I tried to always be very fair, I tried to listen to people. And I work really hard to keep IBJ kind of on the, you know, reporting things straight, so that people can make their own decisions. And it's very interesting, because because we all read and see things through our own lenses, you know, two different people can read the same story and come away, thinking that we were pro Republican or pro Democrat or pro business or pro labor. We can get this comments, you know, about from both sides, saying that we weren't fair. But I think, in some ways that shows that we're trying really hard to, to to be as straight and narrow as possible. And that's something that we really work hard at here. And that's something I'm very proud of.

Angela Tuell: 21:57

Yeah, it is. I mean, you all do a wonderful job at that. And I, I feel, you know, as my background as a journalist, I feel that most journalists really work that way. It's, it's hard to see that, that it's being said differently, you know, that there are -

Lesley Weidenbener: 22:12

It is. And they're increasingly it's difficult to tell, especially in other - it's easier in print - but in other media, it's really hard to tell sometimes the difference between what's what's coming out of the newsroom, the news reporters, and what's the editorial department, in his opinion, we work very hard to make sure we always label things so that people know the difference.

Angela Tuell: 22:36

Yes, yes. What mistakes do you see PR people making when it comes to interacting with you and the IBJ staff?

Lesley Weidenbener: 22:45

Well, first, we, you know, PR people are incredibly important to what we do. They give us great story ideas, they help us to put, get people on the phone. They help us meet people that we would never otherwise known about. So generally, the relationship between reporters in the newsroom and PR folks is fantastic. So anything I say is not meant to imply that there isn't a great relationship because they're almost always. You know, at some some of the things are small. Like, it's surprising how often we get a press release that has somebody's name on it to call and then you call that person they're either on vacation or not available.

Angela Tuell: 23:24

No way.

Lesley Weidenbener: 23:25

Yeah, you'd be surprised how often that happens, it happens a lot. Also, I think they're, you know, there are different kinds of PR folks. So there are people who are pitching stories a lot. And working for companies that are trying to get their name out or trying to get their column in the paper. And those, those relationships are, they're pretty easy, they're pretty good. The ones that are a little more difficult are when PR agencies or when PR professionals are representing maybe a government agency or a place where we are seeking information and that sometimes is more difficult. There are oftentimes when those folks assume that if we're asking for information must be because we're working on some negative story and, you know, most of the stories we write are non negative. We do sometimes do that. But most of the things aren't that way. And it is amazing how quickly a reporter can start to think that there's something to hide when someone acts like there's something to hide.

Angela Tuell: 24:28

Yes, yes. I try to tell clients that all the time.

Lesley Weidenbener: 24:31

Yeah, it's it's amazing. And so that - you know, I think that is is a big thing, too, is that you can't just assume that because a reporter is calling you that they are they're trying to cause a problem or trying to expose something. I mean, most of the time that's just not what it is. So those are two things that I would mentioned.

Angela Tuell: 24:51

Those are great and also the the timeliness like even though you, your print outlet is weekly you work on these daily deadlines, and calling a reporter back right away, responding as quickly as you can is very important.

Lesley Weidenbener: 25:04

It is really important. I will say we actually, we've been having a lot of discussions here about how we need to be much better about giving people more time to respond to things. And we need to be better about how we reach out to people. So we're really working on that. It's a very difficult situation, when you feel like you're in a competitive is, competitive situation, you're trying to get the news out before someone else does. But we're, we are working hard to give people as much opportunity as possible to respond to things.

Angela Tuell: 25:39

Yeah, that's good. Can you tell us - you mentioned columns - can you tell us a little bit more about opportunities for columns, how we should be pitching them, how that works?

Lesley Weidenbener: 25:48

The best opportunity for columns that IBJ is on our Op Ed page, which is where we run two viewpoints every week. That's what we call them, we call them viewpoints. And they always, they require someone to take some kind of position. So we do get column pitches or viewpoint pitches, where people kind of want to just write about how the awesomeness of their organization or something like that, and there's nothing wrong with those, but they don't fit very well in that spot. What we're really looking for is people who want to take a position, maybe they want to advocate for legislation for a particular reason, or advocate against legislation for a reason. Maybe they want to encourage the mayor's office to do something, or the business community to take a stand. Those are the kinds of things that we're typically looking for, for a viewpoint column. Those are about 580 words. We often get pitches where the columns are much, much longer, and people say they just can't cut it down. And could we just please run it longer. But the format of the page really doesn't allow for that. That is the that's the most common spot where people would like to have columns run. And in any way they anyone can send them to me personally, I usually do all of the choosing of the columns and work the most on the editorial page. And my email address is Lweidenbener@ibj.com. If you just Google that it's a hard name, but you'll, you'll you'll find it easily.

Angela Tuell: 27:21

That's great. Do you prefer for the column to already be written or, Hey, we have this idea for what the column would be, here's the topic?

Lesley Weidenbener: 27:29

Both things happen, and it doesn't matter to me. It's totally up to the person whether they want to do it, you know, some people are writing columns, for websites or for - that they've something they might send internally, so they're writing it anyway, so they can send it to this after. But it, I'm absolutely fine with getting a pitch on an idea, that's fine, too. Then we also have letters to the editor. And we're always looking for good letters, those are up to 300 words. And they're it's, we like them the best when they comment on something someone else has written or a story that's in the paper, maybe in response to a column. We also run them for people who are just advocating for like their senators to do something. And so we're always we'd love having those. Then in the Focus section, we have something called Viewpoints from the Industry where - business journals are interesting, we have these, this was something I was not familiar with before I came to IBJ but it actually happens all across the country. Business journals have Focus sections, and there's like a calendar in advance. So you can know that this week that the focus is going to be about hospitality. Next week, it's going to be about residential real estate. You can find that calendar on our website, you can email me and I can send it to you as well. But the Viewpoints from the Industry is an opportunity for an expert in the field of the focus section to write a column of about 700 words, 750 words, that is offering some insight into maybe a new law that affects people in that industry. Or maybe it's a new way of thinking about doing business in that industry. So those can be less opinionated and more industry focused. Those are the primary opportunities for writing for us. So another thing I should mention is that inside Indiana Business, which of course is part of our organization, also accepts prospective columns. And I think there's a lot more flexibility there in terms of length, and opportunity. So that would be another option is to send in things for Inside Indiana Business.

Angela Tuell: 29:32

Great. That's super helpful. What's ahead for the IBJ?

Lesley Weidenbener: 29:36

Well, as I mentioned, we just put out this issue all about downtown Indianapolis. And we are going to be spending quite a bit of time over this year writing about issues related to downtown. You know, we started about, a few stories about downtown and it just felt like it was impossible to put them into context without doing more so we did a whole issue and then we got into that and decided that wasn't enough. And so over the next year you'll see us writing a lot more about downtown and both its challenges and its opportunities because there are a lot of both. As a company, you'll be starting to see us do more statewide things. So we'll have some announcements soon about, about how we might be reaching out to other communities. So we think that is very exciting. And then, you know, pretty soon we'll be starting on our next Indiana 250 list. So we'll be eager to hear from people about who they think are the most influential people in Indiana.

Angela Tuell: 30:29

Exciting. I'm assuming with all of this, you don't get much free time. But when you do, what do you enjoy doing?

Lesley Weidenbener: 30:37

I recently have started doing a lot more going out and listening to music. You know, we did a story recently about the American Pianist Association via the Jazz Piano Competition. And, and I really was not very aware of that all of a sudden, I've gotten a little into that we've been going, my husband and I have been going to quite a few shows. I like to pretend that I'm a little bit creative and crafty. And so every now and then I'm working on something like that. I used to spend quite a bit of time doing reupholstery and some projects like that, but I have not had a lot of time for that lately. I would say my the major thing I do is spend some time with my husband and my nieces and other family, members of my family.

Angela Tuell: 31:20

Great. Well, how can - you mentioned your email address - but how else can listeners connect with you online?

Lesley Weidenbener: 31:25

So on Twitter, I'm at Lweidenbener. And so my last name is W-E-I-D-E-N-B-E-N-E-R. So Twitter, it's LWeidenbener and on LinkedIn, it's LesleyWeidenbener. I'm pretty easy to find you and we have a really unique, right, people can find you pretty easily. So I'd love to hear from folks.

Angela Tuell: 31:46

Yes. And they can also subscribe to the IBJ sign up for the newsletters too.

Lesley Weidenbener: 31:50

Absolutely. We have a lot of our newsletters are free. Eight at 8, the Daily, our Breaking news and News update emails are all free. We offer lots of subscriber deals and so if you send me an email I can I can send you an offer for a little bit off of the IBJ subscription. And if you're a subscriber not only do you get everything in IBJ you also get everything Inside Indiana Business and we have now we have some subscriber only email so you get the emails about real estate, healthcare, the After hours, arts newsletter we talked about all of those, come with being a subscriber.

Angela Tuell: 32:30

Yes, I can vouch it's all fantastic. So -

Lesley Weidenbener: 32:33

Oh - thank you so much, Angela. I appreciate it.

Angela Tuell: 32:35

Thank you so much, Lesley. It's wonderful talking with you.

Lesley Weidenbener: 32:37

Great to talk to you too. Thanks so much for having me.

Angela Tuell: 32:42

That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think. You can find more at CommunicationsRedefined.com/podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.