Accent, a magazine combining news and entertainment specifically targeting 20-somethings, will launch this summer, and eventually hit newsstands, according to its creator, second-year in the College Kai Wright.
“We strive to provide news and entertainment in a language that our target understands,” Wright said. “News sources such as Time, The Economist, and U.S. News has a median reader that is in his forties. Moreover, the ages of the median readers of entertainment magazines like People, Cosmo, InStyle, and GQ are in the 30s.” With Accent, Wright and his staff seek to make stories more accessible to student audiences. “You should not have to be an economist, political theorist, or historian to understand the news that describe the world we live. Accent Magazine strives to make news crisper, cleaner, and easier to digest,” he said.
The digital portion of the magazine will be launched in August or September 2005, with the print version coming out about a year later. Wright said that Accent will continue online postings after the first print edition hits newsstands. The website will include an interactive feature to help readers find the articles most interesting to them. The website will be updated between issues to cover time-sensitive issues. Additionally, the website (accentmag.com) will feature other news sources, serving as a general database for news. Wright considers the digital format the next step in magazine production, with readers flipping through online magazines. Wright has planned an advertising campaign that includes having the digital version of Accent delivered to “every registered member of thefacebook.com, friendster.com, and myspace.com.”
Though he says he has no experience in running or writing for a magazine, Wright will draw on the expertise of the professional publishers and writers he has engaged in the endeavor, who have facilitated his attendance at publishing conferences. Given the target student audience, Wright considers his youth an asset to the new magazine: “I truly believe that in order to produce a quality product you must have people working behind the scenes that would buy the product themselves,” said Wright.
A meeting will be held Monday, April 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the Ida Noyes Cloister Club as an introduction for any students interested in joining. Pizza will be served. RSVP is requested by the link at accentmag.com.
