Missouri School of Journalism: Profiles in Success: Ron Wall '75

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Name: Ron Wall
Degree and Year: BJ '75 (Advertising)
Company: Ascend Media
Company Web Site: http://www.ascendmedia.com/
Title: Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing
City and State: Overland Park, Kan.

What do you do?
Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing. Ascend Media. Assignment is build revenue through multiple sources and markets.

What does your company do?
Ascend Media owns Four Trade Magazines. Plus, it produces nearly 500 Custom Publishing Projects for 100 Associations/Companies.

How did you get your job?
President/CEO Cam Bishop (also an MU Journalism graduate), and I worked at Primedia Publishing together for nearly 25 years. Cam bought Atwood Publishing and renamed it Ascend Media. He asked me to invest and join him as an owner of Ascend, which I did March 2003. I resigned as the President of Primedia Business a $350 million B2B Publishing company. It was not easy to start over again.

What has been your greatest professional achievement?
When I started at Intertec Publishing (Now Primedia Business), I was a sales representative, and we owned 15 publications with revenue at roughly $12 million. I stayed 25 years and played a major role in Intertec's growth to a $400 million including several promotions through the years which ended with me as President.

If you are not currently in your dream job, what would that be?
I'd be a Golf Marshall.

What did you learn in the J-School that has helped you in your professional life?
I was well prepared and educated which put me ahead of many of my peers of equal age.

What would be your best advice to current students?
It takes time and being a team player to reach the top. I was a Sales Rep, Sales Manager, Publisher, Group Publisher, Vice President and President of the same company. It took me 25 years of hard work with the same company to reach my goals. I see way too many impatient people in their careers and they just need to slow down and get the experience everyone needs to lead a $400 Million company with 1,700 employees.

What about you would surprise people?
I was named by Folio Magazine as one of the Top 40 Influential People in Publishing for the year 1999.

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	Revised: 23 April 2007. Copyright © 2008 The Curators of the University of Missouri \| Contact the J-School