GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — A new regional magazine will launch this June/July to cover culture, arts, fashion and style in the Berkshires.
Berkshire Magazine joins the five regional magazines covering parts of Connectictut and Bedford, N.Y., published by Morris Media Group. Elements of the periodicals also appear as part of www.TownVibe.com.
"They were putting out a good product and they were demonstrating there was an advertising market there," said Morris last week. "People loved the magazine. ... Advertisers and readers both want it."
Morris said his group has the administrative support and experience to operate the venture successfully. The existing five magazines have more than 150,000 readers, according to the group's website. A veteran writer and editor — he was executive editor of the National Review and did stints at Reader's Digest and MBA Jungle — Morris founded the publishing group in 2002.
"I'm very bullish on print," he said. "People want to pick it up, they want to touch, they want to look at the good quality photos."
The initial run for Berkshire Magazine will be 20,000 — 15,000 delivered and 5,000 available at newstands and other venues. Berkshire Magazine will publish eight times a year and speak, according to a press release, "with a local authoritative voice, report with an informed curiosity, and present powerful visual images."
On Thursday, Anastasia Stanmeyer was named the magazine's editor. The international journalist and her husband, a contract photographer for National Geographic, now reside in Otis, where she's working on an oral history of the town.
Morris said writers and photographers for the magazine will be Berkshires based. The magazine group is headquartered in Ridgefield, Conn.
"It's going to be a fabulous magazine and we really want to capture the heart of the Berkshires and show how great the Berkshires are," he said.
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