From Movies to Mags

Lawrence Business Magazine publishers have a unique past that has led them to where they are today.

LEFT: Ann and Steven in younger days RIGHT: Steven & Ann with Baron Wolman

Susan Tate, then CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center, was on the cover of the first issue, which highlighted an exhibition from Rolling Stone’s founding photographer Baron Wolman. “Steve and Ann brought their personal and professional influence to the Lawrence Arts Center. Their son enrolled in our arts-based preschool, they celebrated and supported the successes of the entire place. Because of them, we brought … Wolman himself to Lawrence, and our exhibitions director, Ben Ahlvers, gained access to Wolman’s entire archive and curated an extensive show of his work.

“In Steve and Ann’s definition, ‘Lawrence business’ includes facets of Lawrence beyond the traditional, corporate or small business world,” Tate continues. “They bring joy and curiosity, and a keen sense of inquiry to stories about art-making processes, the business of selling art and bringing performance and arts education to the community. Steve and Ann ask the best questions, and they generously connect people of Lawrence through their magazine, as well as their involvement in so many civic organizations. I remember when they decided to make Lawrence their home, and it was a very good day for all of us.”

On the surface, it may sound like any other story of supply and demand. However, it is the history of the Hertzog’s that makes this story a bit different. Their background in the business of art has led to the success of this publication.

From the Beginning

Ann was born at Lawrence Memorial Hospital when her father was in law school, grew up in western (Kinsley) Kansas and received her degree from The University of Kansas (KU) in computer science. Her first jobs were in sports. During college, she was a tri-chair of the Kansas Relays student committee, which led to her first job after KU—a sports coordinator for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles. Eventually, she oversaw all of the personnel logistics at the main Olympic event at the Coliseum. After the Olympics, Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the 1984 Olympics, became Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB). Ann moved to New York City for a couple of years to work for the MLB Commissioner’s Office in the media relations office, then in the newly formed Corporate Marketing Department, before returning to Los Angeles to work in the motion picture industry.

Steven was born and raised in New York City and New Jersey. He graduated from Emerson College, in Boston, with a fine arts degree in film and photography. After working on documentaries and with local news teams in Boston, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he started his motion picture career by editing national commercials and the Hollywood film trailers for the motion picture industry. He worked his way up through the business to become an in-demand editor for trailers on key Hollywood films.

Steven and Ann met while working in the motion picture business in Los Angeles, and both have fantastic stories. Ann became a vice president of motion picture marketing and advertising at Universal Studios. She worked on the print end of the business by directing the creation of movie posters and print campaigns. She has several stories about photographing “A list” actors as well as stories that involve traveling to Australia to photograph the perfect pig for the “Babe 2: Pig in the City” movie poster.

Steven continued to work as an editor on movie trailers and became partner in a creative boutique. He crafted the movie trailers and worked on the marketing campaigns for such movies as “Spinal Tap,” “Willow,” “The Princess Bride,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Last of The Mohicans,” “What Lies Beneath,” “Cast Away,” “The Terminal” and others.

“In a time when local news is shrinking nationally, Steven and Ann have succeeded in bringing local business news to Lawrence in a way that makes you anticipate the next issue. You cannot go into any professional office in town and not see the Lawrence Business Magazine proudly displayed,” says Brad Finkeldei, Lawrence mayor.

Ann and Steven’s careers were the ideal prerequisite for eventually putting out a magazine like Lawrence Business Magazine (LBM). As Steven puts it, “When working on high-end commercials and film, you can never send in mediocre work. If you do it just once, you might not be asked back.”

Ann explains that her trigger words are “that’s good enough.” From their more than 20 years in the highly competitive film business, they have learned the importance of looking for different and creative ways of doing things. “Creating a movie poster is like trying to solve an ego,” Ann maintains. She knows she is crafting a piece of art that will hang on the walls of producers and directors for years to come.

Steven looks at things differently when editing movie trailers. Studio producers used his version of the “Nell” trailer because of his ability to flip the story and look at the narrative differently. He championed the idea to edit in the love story between Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt in the trailer for “Cast Away,” wanting to give the trailer heart and substance. And he fought to put Wilson the volleyball in the trailer. The studio executives told him, “Nobody is going to want to watch a movie with Tom Hanks talking to a volleyball for two hours.” But luckily, he was able to change their minds.

Steven looks at each issue of LBM as a minidocumentary. He started out working on documentaries in Boston. He loves meeting new people, talking with people and photographing their stories. This focus on storytelling is something both Steven and Ann learned from their years in Los Angeles. Ann recalls a time working with Jim Carrey on the poster for “The Grinch.” She showed Jim a mock-up of the teaser poster for the Christmas movie, a photograph of the Grinch’s hand holding a Christmas ornament. He liked the idea, but it wasn’t his Grinch hand in the picture. The person holding the ornament wasn’t holding it right. “He needs to be holding it like it is poisoned; he doesn’t want to touch it,” Jim said while illustrating the movement. “He picked up an ornament from the set and, grabbing the tiniest part of the ornament as possible, he fanned out the rest of his fingers, keeping them as far away from the ornament as possible,” Ann describes. “It was beautiful.” Working in an industry with this level of detail and precision, and their experience with pulling emotion and interest from a scene or poster influences the Hertzogs and each issue they create of Lawrence Business Magazine.

“Ten years ago, the Lawrence Business Magazine began to provide timely and relevant business news to our citizens,” says Bonnie Lowe, president and CEO of The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “Ann and Steven have successfully crafted the magazine with articles and photos to effectively tell the story of area businesses, while encouraging others not familiar with Lawrence to pay us a visit. We look forward to many more decades of this publication displaying the spirit of our community.”

Make a Positive Impact

To Kansas

In the mid-2000s, Ann and Steven made a decision to move to Lawrence. The decision to move was made for several reasons. Most importantly, their son, Sam. They wanted to be hands-on parents (Sam was 2½years old at the time). The LA lifestyle and the commute alone would have made it difficult to spend time with Sam. So in 2006, they moved to Kansas and started their next chapter.

While most of us might think twice about working so closely with a spouse, Ann and Steven wouldn’t have it any other way. They can work together because they have trust in one another. What particularly works well for them is that they complement one another. While they might have the occasional disagreement, they share the same sentiment for the creative process. “We problem-solve well together and feed off of each other’s ideas when solving a problem,” Ann explains. Steven adds, “Ann and I are very close, and I value her opinion on anything.”

With Lawrence Business Magazine, the Hertzogs wanted to put out a publication that would highlight business and showcase how businesses were positively impacting the community. They wanted to talk about business holistically by finding ways to educate the reader and highlight diversity, a word one will often hear when talking with the Hertzogs. As Steve puts it, “Diverse communities are not dying out, they are growing.”

When the Hertzogs took over sole publication of the magazine in 2015, a major goal was to make sure it was accessible to everyone. They wanted to expand what the word business means to people and try to cover a wide range of what business is and how it impacts Douglas County. In recent years, LBM has featured issues on health care, sports, the arts, nonprofits, multimodal transportation, essential workers and the impact of diversity. “Every issue, we discover something new about Douglas County,” Ann says.

The Hertzogs come up with issue ideas both together and working with the magazine’s writers, then together they flesh out the ideas and focus of each issue. “We have wonderful writers,” Ann brags. “They are talented and dedicated professionals who are very vested in telling the stories and working to make sure we create as complete an issue as possible on the subjects we focus on each quarter. The mantra of the magazine is to ‘Make a Positive Impact,’ and we can’t emphasize enough the positive impact that our writers have on writing and creating each issue.”

An overarching goal of the magazine is to highlight businesses that are giving back to the community and those businesses that have shown success. “To have a business survive for five years, 10 years, takes a lot of work,” Steven says, “and our writers showcase that hard work.” In the last 10 years, Ann and Steven have marveled at the high level of strategizing they have seen from businesses. They see a youth movement in Lawrence with entrepreneurs starting their own business and taking care of their employees. They are happy to see a younger generation of business owners adding to the quality of businesses in Douglas County. They relish in a more diverse community with entrepreneurs using technology to expand their businesses.

“Lawrence Business Magazine is a true institution in our community. We are so fortunate to have this resource that provides a unique and necessary perspective on local commerce. Ann and Steven are simply wonderful folks, and I salute them on the magazine’s 10-year anniversary,” says Derek Kwan, executive director of the Lied Center.

In addition to writers and businesses, the Hertzogs can’t say enough about the support they have received from their advertisers, “without whom we certainly wouldn’t be able to publish the magazine,” Ann explains. “It is their support and dedication to this community, supporting us, a local business, telling the stories of local businesses that make it all possible.”

One of the unique elements of Lawrence Business Magazine is that it is not only locally owned but committed to telling the stories of the local community. You won’t see stories in the magazine about businesses in Missouri. The Hertzogs believe we have more than enough great stories to tell locally. Even more distinctive, they do not place ads in the magazine from outside of Douglas County. “You won’t see ads in our magazine about shopping in Missouri and taking your money outside of our community. We are dedicated to local Lawrence and Douglas County businesses, and that includes only accepting advertisers with a vested interest in our community.”

The biggest joy Steve and Ann receive is when they run into someone on the street who thanks them for a particular article. They get a big kick when someone reads one of their issues and says, “I didn’t know that.” As for the future, the couple has no intent on stopping anytime soon. They both still very much enjoy the magazine. Ann views it as their love letter to Lawrence. And they are two admirers that Lawrence is lucky to have.

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