What Is a Community Magazine Franchise? How the Model Works

Short answer: a community magazine franchise is a local media business in which a franchisee, called a publisher, owns and operates a monthly magazine and its digital presence for a defined community, while the franchisor handles the production behind it. The publisher's revenue comes from local businesses that advertise to reach the magazine's readers.

How the product works

Each City Lifestyle magazine is mailed monthly to homes in the affluent neighborhoods of its market, so it lands on the coffee table without anyone having to pick it up or subscribe. The same stories live online at CityLifestyle.com, alongside a directory of local businesses, and the magazine's social channels carry them to readers' feeds. Print gives the content a shelf life measured in weeks. Digital gives it daily frequency.

How the business makes money

Local businesses buy advertising partnerships that cover print placement, a business page and articles on CityLifestyle.com and social media marketing. Most partnerships are annual, which means a publisher's book of business renews rather than resetting every month. The publisher works directly with each business owner and owns those relationships.

Who does what

• The publisher knows the community, finds the stories, meets the business owners and builds the partnerships. Publishers work from home in a protected territory, one publisher per market.
• Headquarters in Kansas City handles design, editorial, printing, distribution and the technology behind CityLifestyle.com, for every market.

Who reads it

Residents of the neighborhoods where the magazine is mailed: families, homeowners and the local business owners who are often also the readers. City Lifestyle magazines reach 2 million homes a month in print, with a digital audience of more than 4 million.

How City Lifestyle fits

City Lifestyle has run this model since 2009, starting with a single magazine in Kansas City. Today there are more than 250 magazines in 39 states, each owned by a local publisher, with new markets launching every month.

Frequently asked questions

Do publishers write the magazine? No. Publishers are connectors, not journalists. They find the stories and know the community; the editorial and design teams at headquarters produce the pages.

Is print still a viable business? A mailed magazine stays in the home for weeks, and pairing it with digital gives advertisers both shelf life and frequency. That combination is what keeps local businesses renewing.

Details about the City Lifestyle franchise, including current market availability, are at future.citylifestyle.com.