Madison Park magazine to make its debut

It may be 'old media' but it's new to the local scene

Billed as an exclusive "social magazine" for Madison Park and its enclaves, Madison Park Living will soon be arriving in neighborhood mailboxes, no subscription required. A totally advertiser-underwriten publication, MPL is just the latest monthly magazine to join the local fold of publications from N2P (Neighborhood Networks Publishing), which entered the region in 2008 with a magazine for Newcastle. Since then, N2P magazines have been added in Mill Creek, South Mercer Island, Redmond and at least six other Puget Sound-area communities. In addition to Madison Park Living, N2P will soon launch magazines for Laurelhurst, Snohomish, Sammamish, and Issaquah, according to the company's local "Area Director" Eric Redfern.

The magazine's premier issue, for September, features Broadmoor's photogenic Oaksmith family on its cover, along with an inside feature story on the family (including details of their favorite everythings). There's also a pet of the month, a yard of the month, a kid of the month, an athlete of the month, a non-profit volunteer of the month, a business owner of the month (this month it's the State Farm Insurance agent), a home of the month (meaning a house currently for sale), and coverage of a past event or two (the Madison Park Kids' Parade and the Madison Valley Bastille Bash make the pages of this first issue).  Well, you get the idea.

N2P has developed a time-tested and apparently very successful template for these neighborhood publications, which are aimed at high-net-worth communities. All of the production and distribution work is handled by the North Carolina-based headquarters staff, while all of the local ad-selling and content creation work is done by the Area Director, who is essentially an independent franchisee of N2P's.

For those who follow the trials and tribulations of print media, it may seem a bit surprising that a new magazine can be entering the local scene.  But as Redfern pointed out when we met with him last month, N2P has clearly found the formula for content generation and for attracting advertisers. "By highlighting the people who live in a community, their kids, their charitable interests, their events," these magazines are "a little bit different" in their focus from other media, he noted. "This is the face-to-face component" that can only exist when you're dealing with a neighborhood.  The goal is a magazine that's "warm, personal, and intimate."

Madison Park Living, by its very nature, is not a news publication: it's effectively social media in a very old format.  But this is a very old neighborhood--and one with a relatively old demographic that still sometimes reads things published on paper! Madison Park households, all 1,575 of them, will get the chance to read or not read when Madison Park Living makes its debut during the last week of this month.