American Profile to Launch in April 2000

Posted on October 20, 1999

American Profile, a four-color national magazine with regional editorial content celebrating the interests, values and events of life in America's hometowns, will launch in April 2000 as a supplement for hometown and community newspapers. Publishing Group of America (PGA) will debut American Profile with a Midwest launch followed by consecutive expansions into the remainder of the U.S., segmented into five geographic regions. PGA has hired a launch staff of 20 and initiated a direct marketing campaign to reach newspaper publishers and major national advertisers.

Each edition of American Profile will include a broad range of regular features, including regional selections of Hometown Heroes, regional calendars of events, as well as national stories on celebrities with hometown ties, health trends, entertainment, and important current issues. A special regional editorial feature of each issue is a profile of one of America's great hometowns.

American Profile Publisher and CEO Dan Hammond co-founded the publication. Its board of directors and advisory group include: W. Pendleton Tudor, creator and co-founder of Adweek Magazine, and Richard Irvine, former president and COO of Straight Arrow Publishing, owners of Rolling Stone Magazine. Bob Atkins, a veteran of the newspaper publishing industry and former publisher of eight suburban and community weekly and daily newspapers, as well as two national publications, Music City News and The Gospel Voice, is also an advisor to American Profile.

"A and B markets are well-served with the existing national Sunday magazine supplements. We wanted to focus our efforts solely on C and D markets. Until now, there has been no truly efficient means to deliver these smaller markets. American Profile is a completely new vehicle that delivers those people who make buying decisions in hometowns and communities across America everyday. Because it represents virtually unduplicated circulation, it is a logical extension for brands that are already advertising in the national Sunday magazine supplements," said Hammond. "It also offers advertisers a new, simple and effective method to reach this market segment that has previously been difficult to reach."