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view of the West
Lifestyle title for folks who like their spaces open
By Jeff Bercovici
Residing as they do in the publishing capital of the world, New Yorkers tend to consider themselves pretty magazine savvy.
But in a town where every cab driver and hot dog vendor knows Tina Brown from Anna Wintour, one of America's biggest and oldest monthly magazines is virtually unknown outside of industry circles.
It's no less true in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C., all major media towns.
The magazine is Sunset, and with a circulation of more than 1.4 million, it is a familiar name only to those who dwell in the nation’s fastest-growing region: the West.
The predecessor of today's in-flight magazines, Sunset was first published in 1898 as a diversion for passengers riding trains on the Southern Pacific Railroad line.
Jack London and Mark Twain were among its early contributors.
In 1929, Lawrence Lane, a former Better Homes & Gardens advertising executive, bought Sunset and remade it in more or less its current form: a lifestyle magazine with cooking, gardening, travel and decorating advice for Westerners. It remained a family-owned business until Time Inc. bought it in 1990.
Nowadays, in the 15 states it serves, Sunset has a greater circulation than any other monthly magazine except Better Homes & Gardens--greater even than People or Time, according to publisher Chris Kevorkian.
Seeing as these states comprise more than half the country's landmass, one could almost think of Sunset as a national magazine that just missed a couple of time zones with its circulation strategy.
But that doesn’t work.
Westerners, though by no means all alike, lead a lifestyle that is distinctly different from the one you'll find on this side of the Mississippi, says Kevorkian.
"I think there's more balance in the West," he says. "My experience, at least, has been that on the Eastern Seaboard there has historically been a culture that says working hard is virtuous."
Out West, he says, even the hardest workers try to leave the office at a reasonable hour, if for no other reason than to enjoy the nice weather. They’re more likely than residents of the Northeast, Midwest or South to participate in activities such as hiking, skiing, mountain biking and tennis.
"We're talking about states where for 12 months out of the year you can recreate after work," says Kevorkian.
With so much to occupy them outdoors, Westerners tend to be lighter consumers of magazines, and they watch the least TV of any region’s residents, according to research from MRI.
The differences between East and West are also reflected in more concrete ways in Sunset, says editor in chief Katie Tamony, a fourth-generation San Franciscan and lifelong Bay Area dweller.
Many of the home design styles showcased in New York-based shelter magazines don’t reflect the Western taste for what Tamony calls an "indoor-outdoor feeling"—open spaces that make a room’s interior feel like part of the landscape. Nor do they place as much emphasis on things like recycled materials and energy-conserving features.
"If you're a Westerner, they just don't resonate," says Tamony. "People in the West don’t just garden so they have a pretty picture to show people—they live out there. We enjoy light, greenery, a sense of place that is unrivaled elsewhere."
While New Mexicans and Oregonians may share a love of naturalistic design and a penchant for knocking off early, there’s plenty of ground separating them, both literally and figuratively.
Flowers that thrive in Oregon’s perennial rains wouldn’t stand a chance in the desert, and vice versa. Similarly, a Texan may not wish to read extensive suggestions for day trips to Sonoma wineries.
Sunset’s answer to this is to publish five zoned editions, each with a significant proportion of unique editorial: Northern California; Southern California; Pacific Northwest, comprising Alaska, Washington and Oregon; Southwest, comprising Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and part of Nevada; and Mountain, comprising Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and the rest of Nevada. Residents of Hawaii get the Southern California edition.
Tamony, who joined Sunset as a copy editor in 1994 and was named editor in chief last year, has already started introducing changes to the magazine, including a "Best of the West" section that will debut in the June issue.
February 12, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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