A great one remembered… SOUTHERN MAGAZINE

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 1, 2003 by Mark A. Newman

Byline: Mark A. Newman

The South may not be rising again, but a Southern magazine is: Oxford American. Promoted as "the Southern magazine of good writing," OA early this year was plucked from the jaws of extinction (as well as from its Mississippi home) by a new investor, Little Rock, Arkansas-based At Home Media Group. However, John Grisham's literary pride and joy (he's part owner of OA) is not the first Southern-fried magazine to spring out of Little Rock: Southern Magazine blazed that trail almost two decades ago.

Southern Magazine aimed south, to readers not interested in pumpkin pie recipes, flower arranging, or where to buy the best doilies. "The magazine accomplished a lively interchange of stories and ideas honestly reflecting the richness and the humor of the region where we lived," says founding editor Linton Weeks, who's now a reporter for the "Style" section of The Washington Post. "We were dog-tired of reading about the South in highfalutin, condescending magazines from the Northeast. It was a South we hardly recognized." He and Alan Leveritt, both Little Rock newspapermen, wanted a magazine of, by, and for the South. "We billed it as the voice of the Real South," Weeks says. "The Old South stood for the status quo at any price. The New South stood for change at any price. The Real South stood for good bourbon at any price."

Southern Magazine launched with the October 1986 issue and an initial circulation of 200,000. Its pages were filled with provocative and often controversial stories about culture and politics. From Birmingham, Alabama's gay Mardi Gras ball to replacing the Confederate flag, Southern did not shy away from topics that would almost certainly piss off readers and guarantee subscription cancellations. Which they did receive, according to Leveritt, especially after the Confederate flag controversy.

Leveritt, who is currently publisher of the Arkansas Times, came to realize that there were probably about 100,000 moderate or liberal Southerners who would have subscribed and stayed with the magazine no matter what. "But we needed to deliver a circulation of 350,000," he says. "To do that we had to go way beyond our natural audience, and it became too expensive to support."

When it became apparent that the magazine was running out of money in 1989, in stepped Southern Progress (publisher of Southern Living and Southern Accents) with a $7 million infusion. The book relocated to Atlanta, changed its name to Southpoint, and refocused the editorial on business and finance. The efforts failed: In only nine months the $7 million evaporated, as did the magazine.

Over the years, Weeks has had several offers from individuals wanting to start a new Southern magazine, but he always declines. "I had my chance," he says. "It's someone else's turn."