Brent Alexander LLC
1501 North State St.,Jackson, Miss. 39202
http://www.southmagazine.com
601.714.4545
The Wind-Up
There's an old saw that north, east and west are directions while the south is a place. Although they are plenty of metro titles that cover southern cities soup-to-nuts, a
Mississippi couple is betting their new magazine, South, will be able to capture the essence of the entire region. The bi-monthly publication, which launched in September
following a four-year development process, covers the entire southeastern United States. Of the title's 70,000 initial circulation, 15,000 will be distributed on newsstands in
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
South's editorial runs the gamut: business, politics, lifestyles, sports, travel and entertainment. Two of the biggest magazines centered on the south, Time Inc.'s Southern
Accents and Southern Living are successful shelter titles. But South wants to paint a broader brush. "While researching we saw that no one was talking about the people of the
south," says Jane Alexander (ex-Mississippi), editor of the new publication. (Her husband, Brent, is publisher). "We want to be about people and personalities, whether its
celebrities from Hollywood [with a southern connection] or people who are defining southern culture."
In addition to covering lifestyles, Alexander is targeting national and regional advertisers in the home furnishings, liquor, automotive, luxury goods and retail, financial
services and medical specialty markets. Alexander is encouraging stories about business magnates rooted in the south, such as an upcoming piece on Viking Range CEO Fred Carl, who
is helping to refurbish his small town of Greenwood, Miss. with his profits rather than relocate to a bigger southern city. That type of story plays into all of the corporate
social responsibility efforts that communication execs are constantly grappling with. "We want to cover businesses [in the south] that are unique, and something about them that
sets them apart," Alexander says: "We're all very nosey down here."
The Pitch
Alexander describes the publication as a mix between Town & Country and Vanity Fair laced with a sprinkling of InStyle, but with a southern accent. "We want to know who's
on top and what they're accomplishing; what's new and what's hip," she says. "We don't want to be too offbeat but we're not beyond the unusual." Alexander is hungry for pitches
from PR people familiar with the region's movers and shakers. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to reside in the south, though (read: agencies with clients based in the south
and/or corporations with a strong, southern presence).
Alexander is the point person for most story pitches, [email protected], since she steers all of the copy to the proper
correspondent. She prefers e-mail first and snail mail second. She also loves rummaging through press kits. "I like to go through the slush pile," she says. You could also contact
travel editor Lynne Jeter, [email protected]. "We're looking for a sense of place about great destinations," Alexander says. Leave three
months out for pitches. There are several special reports coming down the pike with a PR appeal: The January/February issue is 'The Man' issue, with pieces that, for example,
compare the southern gentlemen to the so-called metrosexuals proliferating up North; March/April includes a look at southern beach resorts and spas; May/June tackles southern sex
appeal while July/August offers a premium on entertainment coverage. "The Metro books are the starting point, but they're geared toward a specific city," Alexander "We want to run
the highlights of southern states and cities without getting bogged down in the minutia."