Living Naturally/Truly Alive Magazine - A Little History
1990 - Living Natural Magazine was born
In 1990, Jan Hammers (then 64 years young) lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico and had a passion for natural health and spiritual solutions to living a better life. Jan felt that people were unaware of the wonderful practitioners and businesses located right in their own central New Mexico communities and decided to create something that would help “get the word out”. And so, the original Living Natural Magazine was born.
Over the years, the publication changed its look and content somewhat, but the soul of the magazine remained true to its original essence. In the summer of 2006, Jan was about to turn 80 years old and was ready to retire.
2006 – Living Natural Gets New Owners
In August of 2006, just a couple of weeks shy of Jan’s 80th birthday; she sold the magazine to the partnership of Karen Larre and Betsy Morgan Coffman (who was a friend and one of Jan’s advertisers). With a background in marketing, advertising, public relations, management and sales, Karen assumed the responsibilities of running the magazine and Betsy used her contacts in the community to attract new advertisers and increase awareness of the magazine.
2008 – Living Natural become Living Naturally and Prepares for Expansion
Since that first issue of Betsy’s and Karen’s, the magazine has grown from 32 pages with 14,000 print runs to over 40 pages, and up to 22,000 print runs. Its design, content and distribution have been improved greatly. In early 2008, the name was changed from Living Natural to Living Naturally Magazine. Advertisers are now enjoying wonderful response to their advertising and readers appreciate the true educational value of the articles, written mostly by the advertisers.
From the beginning purchase, Karen had a vision for the magazine…something beyond being a wonderful central New Mexico publication. In the summer of 2008, Karen purchased Betsy’s shares of the magazine and is now pursuing her dream of franchising the magazine.
2009 - Living Naturally becomes Truly Alive Magazine
As the first step in the plan to franchise Living Naturally Magazine, an attempt to trademark the name was made and found to be unsucessful. Living Naturally, and any variation of the name would not be approved due to already existing trademark approvals. So after much thought and suggestions from friends and advertisers, the name Truly Alive was applied for and appears as of the date of this writing to have sailed through the trademark process.
The idea of having an alternative/natural health and conscious/spiritually and green/environmentally-oriented magazine available in cities around the country is not a new one. There are several good publications that have community versions (franchises) of the original magazines operating in many US cities already. What will set Truly Alive Magazine apart from the others includes several factors:
Glossy covers featuring nationally-known authors of hot new books in the fields of natural/alternative health, consciousness/spirituality or the environment/sustainability
Feature spreads on the authors and the featured books
Paid editorial – every advertiser has the opportunity to write their own articles (or have articles written for them) that are guaranteed to be published, running above or alongside of their ads, logos and pictures
A proven formula for success – With nearly 20 years in print, Living Naturally Magazine is operating with the most efficient, workable, and easy to use systems for every task involved in running the business. Purchasing a Living Naturally Franchise will be like buying a business in a box – a new franchise owner will be able to hit the road running, and enjoy incredible support all along the way. (More franchise information coming later in 2009. Please check back for the new “Own a Magazine” button to appear over the next few months.)