Launch Layouts and Concepts

Launch Issue 1 - 25 Pages of Content

Anchor Content

Pages: 6 total (1 page each)

Cover
Lifestyle Letter from Editor + Masthead
Table of Contents
City Scene
Business Monthly
Events

Note: If City Scene, Business Monthly, or Events are not provided, the National Content page count will be increased.

Local Content

Your launch issue has set article topics and assigned layout designs to maximize the impact of your introduction to your community.

Pages: 18 total (Evergreen / National content can be reduced as needed if ad pages increase)

Article 1: 01 Launch Month - Food or Home (4 Pages)
Article 2: 01 Launch - Advertiser Feature (3 Pages)
Article 3: 01 Launch Month - Publisher Feature ( 1 Page)
Article 4: Evergreen Food & Drink (4 Pages)
Article 5: Evergreen Home & Design (3 Pages)
Article 6: National Content (3 Pages)

Note: Only one client feature will run in the first issue. Do not guarantee or commit to a specific issue month for any client feature; always work from a target month in an “upcoming issue” with flexibility.

Cover (1 page)

The cover is the first thing a reader sees when looking at the magazine. When choosing a cover image, ask yourself these three questions as you evaluate your cover photo:

1. Does it say “luxury?”

2. Does it meet the theme requirement?

3. Will it resonate with readers?

HELPFUL TIPS & REGULATIONS:

• Must be related to one of your articles and the monthly theme of the magazine.

• Consider negative space and make sure your subject won’t be covered up by the title or address label.

• When choosing a person (or people) for the cover: the image should be stylish, artistic, or charming, consider diversity of age, gender, and skin color - show a variety of members of your community!

• Form a “Cover Committee” or a group of several trusted “advisors” you can send cover options to each month and get feedback/have them vote on their favorite!

Specifications:

MAIN TEASER: 0-4 WORDS

SECONDARY TEASERS: 0-6 WORDS

Photography Guide (1 Photo):

8.5" x 11.125" (2550px x 3338px)

Lifestyle Letter (1 page)

Lifestyle Letter: Your most powerful page of the magazine! Make a personal connection with the reader.

Masthead: The masthead lists the magazine’s staff and contact info, establishing credibility for who’s responsible for the publication.

HELPFUL TIPS & REGULATIONS:

• The letter should be written by the publisher.

• The Lifestyle Letter should preview the content in the magazine and reference the monthly theme.

• Use our Lifestyle Letter templates in ARC as a jumping off point, but add in your own unique voice!

• Include a professional headshot.

• Sign off in style with a PNG of your signature.

Please provide a high-quality signature on a white background for the design team to cut out. Your signature only needs to be provided once.

Title: 0-10 words

Body Copy: 100-400 words

Photography Guide (1 photo):

2” x 2” (circle)

Table of Contents (1 page)

This section gives navigation information for anchor and local content and provides cover image information.

HELPFUL TIPS & REGULATIONS:

• Select your major stories to be featured in the 4 photo slots.

• Include a blurb about your

cover photo and photographer information.

Specifications:

City Scene (1 page)

A place for residents to see their "neighbors" (and potentially themselves!) in the magazine. City Scene is a section in our magazine that highlights local past events with photos, captions, and photo credits. It celebrates community moments and helps connect residents to the vibrant lifestyle of their city.

HELPFUL TIPS & REGULATIONS:

• Source these photos from MULTIPLE different events around town (NOT just one single event)

• Get a variety of images and

event types: Art openings, industry events, performances, concerts, sports and outdoors, awards shows or competitions, races, more!

• The layout is designed to facilitate a smaller image size.

• Be sure to request permission from the owner to print in the magazine, with a tag/credit to their account.

Specifications:

Word Count for Photo Caption: 0-15 words

Photography Guide: All images must be at a minimum size of 2.5" inches x 2" inches

The images will vary in size depending on where they are placed. You are requesting to obtain a photo agreement, providing you with the rights to use the original image.

Business Monthly (1 page)

Business Monthly is a tool for the publisher to offer extra exposure for their existing clients. They can also use it as a "warm lead" to talk to business owners that they want as advertising partners by offering them a business monthly. Business Monthly should be used to highlight city announcements, business updates, and community news.

HELPFUL TIPS:

• Whether used as leverage to

highlight advertising partners or local businesses, Highlight happenings readers may find relevant or interesting!

• Choose the photo based on the

focus of the story. Keep in mind these are small, so zoomed-in photos translate best!

• A City Lifestyle QR code can be added as long as the account has been added to ARC

Specifications:

Title: 1-10 words

Entry Copy: Maximum of 75 words

Photography Guide (1 per entry): All photos are cropped to 2.25" inches x 2" inches

Events (1 page)

Highlight events upcoming in your local community throughout the month the issue is released.

HELPFUL TIPS & REGULATIONS:

• Festivals, art exhibits, concerts, carnivals or parades, restaurant week, film festivals, races and triathlons, food competitions, antique or collectors events, major venues, and where to find them

• Events must follow content policy guidelines

• Events can be entered in any order in ARC, and will be systematically rearranged for print in chronological order.

REQUIREMENTS:

Specifications (per entry):

Title: 1-10 words

Date is required

Location: 1-10 words

Description: Maximum of 60 words

Local Content - Food or Home Feature (4 pages)

RECIPE: 01 Launch Month - Food or Home

Content should be based on food or home. For example, feature a restaurant in your area or an interior designer.

Specifications:

Headline: 6 words

Subtitle: 15 words

Total Word Count: 610 words

Page 1 Word Count: 0 words

Page 2 Word Count: 60 words

Page 3 Word Count: 170 words

Page 4 Word Count: 380 words, Pull Quote: 12 words

Photography Guide: 5 Photos

7.8” x 6.7”
7.8” x 6.7”
7.8” x 6.7”
2.8” x 2.4”
4.3” x 3.7”

Local Content - Advertiser Feature (3 pages)

RECIPE: 01 Launch Month - Advertiser Feature

This article should feature one of your larger contracts that has editorial listed in the contractual agreement.

Specifications:

Headline: 5 words

Subtitle: 15 words

Page 1 Word Count: 315

Page 2 Word Count: 280

Page 3 Word Count: TBD

Photography Guide: 3 Photos

3.3” x 3.3”
4.8" x 5.3"
3.3" x 3.5"

Note: Practice expanding a page and using production notes. (repeating page 1 or 2 from the layout for page 3)

Local Content - Publisher Feature (1 page)

RECIPE: 01 Launch Month - Publisher Feature

This article should feature the publisher. It's an opportunity to introduce the publisher as a person, not just a publisher! The “favorite things” can be daily use items, restaurants around town, travel destinations, etc.

Specifications:

Headline: 6 words

Subtitle: 10 words

Word Count: 175 words (35 per entry)

Photography Guide: 6 Photos

2.1” x 2.1” (circle)
1.6” x 1.6” (circle)
1.6” x 1.6” (circle)
1.6” x 1.6” (circle)
1.6” x 1.6” (circle)
1.6” x 1.6” (circle)

Evergreen Content - Food & Drink

Pages: 4 pages

Title: Mixing Health and Flavor

Explanation: Delicious Mocktails to Savor Without the Alcohol.

Notes: Can be reduced as needed if ad sales go up.

Evergreen Content - Home & Design

Pages: 3 pages

Title: Finding a Touch of Glam

Explanation: HGTV star shares her secrets to make a home look both beautiful and livable.

Notes: Can be reduced as needed if ad sales go up.

National Content

Pages: 3 pages

Idea: Changes per monthly theme

Notes: Can be reduced as needed if ad sales go up.

Launch Issue 2 - 24 Pages of Content

Editorial Pages should take up approximately half of your publication, with ad pages making up the remaining pages. Include enough added content to fill your publication, leaving between 0.5-1 pages left available for the pagination process.

Anchor Content

Pages: 6 total (1 page each)

Cover
Lifestyle Letter from Editor + Masthead
Table of Contents
City Scene
Business Monthly
Events

Optional Additions

National Content
Evergreen Content
City List
Custom Content

Local Content - Choose Your Layouts

During months 2 through 4, you'll have the exciting opportunity to infuse your local flavor into our monthly themes! Unleash your creativity by crafting content that resonates with your community, all while choosing from a curated selection of layout options to perfectly showcase your city’s unique perspective. Content make-up should be approximately 50% Local Advertisers / 50% Local Community.

Available Layouts

Layouts available for launch issues 2-4 to choose from for local content:

Food and Drink 1C
Food and Drink 3A
Full Text 3A
Full Text 4F
Full Text 5A
Full Text 6D
Gallery 2A
Gallery 5A
Gallery 6B
How To 1B
How To 2A
Q&A 1B
Q&A 2A
Q&A 2C
Q&A 4A
Round Up 1A

Content Ideas for Issues 2-4

Feature a realtor, builder, or interior designer for a home-related advertiser feature.
Share how an advertiser contributes to their community by giving back.
Gather a list of hidden gems in the city to feature in a round-up style article.
Spotlight something your community loves, like a popular food establishment or local entertainment.
Feature an interesting person in the community (great way to incorporate an advertiser in the magazine).

For more ideas: Monthly Editorial Theme Requirements

Optional Additions

City List (1 page)

The City List is the Publisher’s choice selection of the top local businesses by industry, curated to align with the issue’s theme. This section is designed as a tool to support prospecting and sales conversations with potential clients.

HELPFUL TIPS:

Note: Additional categories need to be approved to be added; they cannot be noted under the production notes. Only the categories under the dropdown are available unless added by the corporate team. It is best to reach out to National Support a minimum of 3 days before your editorial deadline closes for additional category approval requests.

Custom Content (3 pages)

If you cannot find a layout that fits your needs, you can use your available custom content pages to customize a layout to fit your content. The amount of custom content available to you is limited.

HELPFUL TIPS & REGULATIONS:

•The amount of custom content pages you are allotted can be found in the Custom Content Page Guidelines section of the Managing Custom Content Training Guide

• Launch issues are allotted 3 total pages throughout the publication.

Note: If you want to customize any single page in a recipe layout, the entire article will need to be entered as custom content and the entire article will be considered custom content. Custom content can be split between multiple articles, but cannot exceed the total amount of custom pages listed on the content page guidelines.

• It is best practice to use past layouts for inspiration on custom layouts. You should note in the production notes of the article which article you would like to use for custom inspiration with the magazine name, month and year, and page number(s) so the designer can reference it easily.

• All custom content must fit within City Lifestyle’s overall brand style, so not all requests will be completed exactly as requested if the request is deemed not to fit our style. The designer will adjust and make the design fit as closely as possible to what has been requested.

• Custom layouts cannot be adjusted during review rounds.

Specifications:

Maximum 300 words per page

Photography Guide:

Images should be 300 DPI

Recommended Issue Breakdowns:

Issue 2

Anchor Content (1 Page each):

Cover
Lifestyle Letter from Editor + Masthead
Table of Contents
City Scene
Business Monthly
Events

Local Content:

Advertiser Content - 4 Pages
Home Feature - 4 Pages
Local Person Feature - 3 Pages
On Theme Local Content - 2 Pages
Local Round Up - 1 Page

National Content - 3 Pages

Issue 3

Anchor Content (1 Page each):

Cover
Lifestyle Letter from Editor + Masthead
Table of Contents
City Scene
Business Monthly
Events

Local Content:

On Theme Community Spotlight - 4 Pages
Advertiser Content - 3 Pages
On Theme Local Content - 3 Pages
Local Person Profile - 2 Pages

National Content - 3 Pages

Issue 4

Anchor Content (1 Page each):

Cover
Lifestyle Letter from Editor + Masthead
Table of Contents
City Scene
Business Monthly
Events

Local Content:

On Theme Community Spotlight - 4 Pages
Advertiser Content - 3 Pages
On Theme Local Content - 3 Pages
Local Person Profile - 2 Pages

National Content - 3 Pages