Former Journal-World journalist and executive Ralph Gage was inducted into the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame on Friday at the Kansas Press Association’s annual convention in Overland Park.

During a 43-year career with the Journal-World and its parent company, The World Company, Gage has served in multiple roles including managing editor, general manager and chief operating officer. Gage also served as a reporter covering KU, and was part of the team that covered the 1970 burning of the Kansas Union and the civil unrest on campus. Gage retired from day-to-day operations with the Journal-World in 2013, but continues to serve as a member of The World Company’s board of directors.

Gage said he was honored by the induction, but gave much credit to those he worked with over the years.

Ralph and Martha Gage

“It is more about the institution and the organization than it is about Ralph Gage,” he said. “And no accomplishment would have happened without the brilliance, vision and just plain hard work of so many talented colleagues.”

Gage, 74, is the fourth Journal-World executive to be inducted in the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame. He joins former Journal-World publisher W.C. Simons, former editor and publisher Dolph C. Simons Sr. and current Journal-World editor and chairman of The World Company Dolph C. Simons Jr.

“Ralph Gage is a superb newspaperman and a delightful business associate,” said Dolph C. Simons Jr. “He is a hard worker, he demands top performance and would be a valuable asset to any newspaper, television or radio station, no matter how large or small.

“The Journal-World, Lawrence and the university all are better and have benefited from Ralph’s knowledge, hard work, commitment and vision. He believes in the importance of an informed citizenry and the obligation of those in the information business to perform their jobs in a professional manner.”

Gage, a native of Ottawa, first worked as a reporter at the Salina Journal. He later served as city editor for the Metro-East Journal in East St. Louis, Ill., before he came to the Journal-World in 1969.

“I just enjoyed reporting and writing and meeting people,” Gage said. “When I landed here, I had the opportunity to get into the management side, and then ultimately into corporate management. One thing led to another and 43 years flew by. Writing and reporting, though, are still the most fun, I think.”

During his time in management at the Journal-World, Gage said he was particularly proud of the efforts to bring together the newsrooms of the Journal-World and 6News, a cable news channel that previously was owned by The World Company. The “converged newsroom” attracted national attention from The New York Times and drew media executives from across the country to tour the operations.

Gage said he was fortunate to have worked for a media company that was willing to take chances and that had a leader who always guarded against complacency.

“I’m tremendously flattered to be going in the hall, but nothing attributed to me would have happened without the vision and encouragement of Dolph Simons Jr.,” Gage said.

Gage said changes in newspaper audience and technology have made the business proposition of newspapers “enormously more difficult for everybody.” But he said the demand for information remains strong.

“I think the things that we do are vital to having a good community,” Gage said. “That gets back to Dolph Jr.’s mantra of serving the community. He wants us to be a better newspaper every day. He wants the community to be a better community every day. He wants KU to be a better university every day. Our role in that is providing accurate information so people can elect good leaders and make good decisions.”

Also inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday was Joe Berkely, the founding publisher of the successful, Kansas-based agricultural publication the High Plains Journal.