Inc. (magazine)

Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is an American monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc. 500."

History

Inc. was founded in Boston by Bernie Goldhirsh, and its first issue appeared in April 1979. Goldhirsh was an MIT-trained engineer who worked at Polaroid and on ballistic missiles before becoming an entrepreneur and founding Sail magazine, which he sold for $10 million, using the profits to found Inc. Paul W. Kellam, who had joined Goldhirsh's company as editor of Marine Business, was tapped as the first editor. Goldhirsh kept a low profile, and longtime editor George Gendron was the "public face" of the magazine for two decades. Though long considered the younger upstart compared to most business publications, Inc. suffered following the dot-com era as titles like Fast Company seemed to grab more attention, but the tech crash and subsequent retrenchment saw the magazine stabilize its circulation and image. In 2000, widowed and battling cancer, Goldhirsh sold the magazine to Gruner + Jahr for a price reported over $200 million. The magazine was purchased in 2005 by Morningstar founder, Joe Mansueto, and Inc. and its sister magazine Fast Company constitute the publishing arm of Mansueto Ventures. The magazine is now based in New York City, and its editor-in-chief is Eric Schurenberg. In December 2013, Schurenberg was appointed as President of Inc., replacing the long-tenured Bob LaPointe. In late January 2014, Inc. announced that Reuters Opinion editor James Ledbetter would take over as editor of the magazine and Web site.