Publishing is getting a very interesting boost in the Truckee Meadows from the recent proliferation of neighborhood magazines. Lakeridge, Reno's first gated subdivision, is Laurie-Jo Pettyjohn's territory. As she told us, "I consider myself the first inaugural publisher here."
Last year, she began “Lakeridge Lifestyles” magazine, a free glossy monthly that's mailed to, and focuses 100% on, the residents around Lakeridge Golf Course. Pettyjohn says it's an interesting neighborhood, “They're very social people. They tend to do a lot of traveling and enjoy life to its fullest."
They’re so interesting, she now makes it her career writing about her neighbors, their vacations, their homes…where they work and what they do. As she told us, "Our regular features stories are going to be athlete of the month, family of the month, precious pets..." There's also a regular “home of the month”. There's an article about a brother and sister golfing team that lives at Lakeridge and play in tournaments, and another on a Reno mom who happens to be a talented artist. There's a recipe column, written by Pettyjohn herself. January's “athlete of the month” wrote his article himself. Residents write about their trips, and Pettyjohn's husband Robert is the magazine's photographer.
Lakeridge Lifestyles is part of a new trend, called micro-publishing. Pettyjohn says, "The actual residents themselves enjoy it because it’s about them. It's their stories, their families and their pictures."
Across town, Richard Moore and Chris O'Sullivan publish five separate "Good Life" magazines for five local neighborhoods from their computer. Moore calls their magazines, “Social media here in print form that connects neighbors and connects businesses with those neighborhoods."
Add them all up, there are over a dozen neighborhood magazines in the Truckee Meadows. Nationwide, there are thousands. Moore says they pay off with advertisers: “A salon that has a 5-mile that they do business in, we can really put them in the middle of that 5-mile radius, in that neighborhood."
“Good Life” has ads for handymen...neighborhood insurance agents...home cleaners. There are stories on things like families who just moved to the neighborhood, and free classified ads. Things that are so local, the Good Life guys coined it best... "Social media...in print form."
If you live in west Reno, south Reno, Wingfield Springs or in Old Southwest Reno, we have a link to your neighborhood magazine. Just click below:
