By Andy Roberts
The Daily Record

      It began more than 20 years ago with the idea of focusing on the Omaha area’s philanthropic efforts.

    It nearly ended on a frigid night last January after a fire started in the Bagel Bin and roared through the building housing the magazine’s old offices near 119^th and Pacific resulting in the destruction.

    Now publisher Andrea “Andy” Hoig and her metroMAGAZINE team can celebrate their selection as the Greater Omaha Chamber August Small Business of the Month.

    But that January 7^th fire was a brutal piece of bad news for a group that focuses on good things in the community. Hoig could see the flames from her home as the fire burned near 119^th and Pacific streets.

    “It wasn’t in the business plan and it certainly wasn’t in the plan for our 20^th year,” Hoig said. “I honestly had a lot of things going through my head.”

    That ranged from concerns about recovering data to making a decision on whether or not to continue. They are continuing at 168^th and Francis through the generosity of E-Frame, the magazine’s IT partner, using some available space for what has turned out to be a much longer recovery period than initially anticipated.

    “We’re just literally living out of a suitcase,” Hoig said. Replacements for what was lost will be acquired when she settles in a new space in the old Ronald J. Palagi law offices on 72^nd Street between Cass and Western.

    “We’re so excited to be making this kind of move given the challenges we’ve had to overcome to get here.”

    Given those challenges, the Chamber award could hardly have come at a more appropriate time.

    “I love the Chamber,” Hoig said. “I was just so honored and pleased. We’ve worked hard for 20 years and it’s just nice to be recognized and to know that the work we’re doing is making a difference.”

    For a publication that has spent two decades recognizing other organizations, Hoig also found the honor “humbling.”

    Hoig got her start in the publishing business as a photographer for the Omaha Metro Update, the original model of metroMAGAZINE, which had been founded in 1990 by her father, Bob, and included business and political elements in addition to charity.

    In 1991 the magazine turned into Metro Monthly and in 1996, she bought it from her dad. “When I bought it from him it was still a black and white tabloid,” she said.

    How things have changed! Today metroMAGAZINE is a visually stunning publication featuring major philanthropic events throughout the community, along with engaging and stimulating human-interest features and a variety of lifestyle departments. The publication, accompanied by a robustly    featured   website, SpiritofOmaha.com, is widely viewed as among the media trendsetters in the region. Hoig’s numerous inventions, implemented through her publishing house, ALH Publications, Inc., have garnered a very faithful readership and widespread respect for innovation and a standard of artistic and journalistic excellence. The mission of Hoig’s enterprise is in harmony with, and embraced by, many of Omaha’s leaders and movers.

    A Burke High School graduate, she first worked for her father’s publishing interests, focusing on photography. At first, she admits, there was something to be desired in the quality of her work.

    “I finally took a class at Metropolitan Community College because I was so bad at it,” Hoig said. Photography has grown to be something she loves and remains her strength and focus. Covering the community’s philanthropic efforts is now her “passion.”

    “The core of [the vision and mission] has always been to highlight the business and individual organizations in the community that do make a difference,” she said. “In a sense we’re selling the community to the community.”

    Two decades is a good run for a local publication, and Hoig admits it hasn’t always been easy.

    “In the first 10 years of it, I really, literally, did it all by myself,” she said. “I didn’t have a staff.”

    Using “determined” and “driven” to describe her approach is appropriate.

    “I’ve weathered a lot of ups and downs,” she said, then adds, “I can’t imagine doing anything else.

    “I admit to sometimes running it more with my heart than my head,” Hoig says, adding at times that has required making some lifestyle adjustments.

    “You keep moving forward.”

    These days she is no longer alone, and the fire and subsequent recovery has demonstrated the dedication of her staff. Vice President Rob Killmer has been with Hoig for nearly a decade.

    “I give him credit for really elevating and reshaping the design and the layout, and our commitment to a standard of beauty and excellence” she said. “He does such a great job. Rob definitely helped me take this publishing house to a different level.”

    Francesca Peterson is another key staff member in her role as administrator-office manager. “If you take any one of these people out of the mix during the past eight months, you take a challenging situation into an impossible situation,” Hoig said, while also praising the ongoing efforts of her print and web production and design staff.

    While the Omaha community serves up plenty of competition, she feels metroMAGAZINE’s content and mission separate it from other publications.

     “We’re really trying to impact the community and it’s not primarily about being competitive or about making money,” she said. “It’s really much more than that. Our profitability is only a means to an end.”

    Others apparently have noticed, and Hoig confirmed that she sees others following in metroMAGAZINE’s footprints and covering some of the same events, paying more attention to the charitable dimension of the community.

    “Now you hear so much more about giving back and making a difference,” she said. “I do think we’ve raised awareness about the philanthropic community and have led the way in helping make it more visible.”

    Not only has she seen a more visible philanthropic community, but a more active one as well. In 1990 the publication covered 85 events. Last year metroMAGAZINE was involved in covering more than 600 events and the number is expected to grow this year. Hoig gets an energy boost when new nonprofits step up to hold an event, and she also is excited when somebody does something really, completely different.

     “I just think anything about being innovative and new gets me excited.”

    Looking ahead, Hoig hopes to keep on the same path but grow and change as needed with the times. ALH Publications will take a big step with next month’s official launch of the Spirit of Omaha website (www.spiritofomaha.com) and an innovative new business segment of the website dedicated to having the same positive impact on local businesses that the enterprise has had on local non-profits. BuyOmahaNow!™ will help people and businesses shop smartly, with a printed version due out in October as a Special Edition section of metroMAGAZINE.

    A lot to do? Maybe, but it’s all in a day’s work for Hoig.