Colors Northwest

Award-winning diversity magazine defies the odds

	By: Heidi Dietrich Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) June 9, 2006 Bucking the odds in a town known for magazine flops, a local diversity magazine has hit its five-year mark. ColorsNW Magazine also has launched a diversity job Web portal and wants to expand to two additional West Coast cities, beginning early next year. The Seattle magazine recently won 12 Society of Professional Journalists awards -- the most of any Western Washington magazine.
Minty and Robert Jeffrey, publisher and CEO of ColorsNW
"No one really gave us a chance to be successful," said Robert Jeffrey Jr., publisher and CEO of ColorsNW. "There was a belief that the market we were tapping didn't have value." Jeffrey has proved doubters wrong, growing the magazine to 13 employees and a monthly free circulation of 25,000. ColorsNW has expanded in part through an unexpected reader base -- Caucasian readers. To Jeffrey's initial surprise, Caucasians make up 22 percent of ColorsNW's readers, second only to the African-American community, which makes up 30 percent of readership. "It surprised me because we weren't marketing to Caucasians," Jeffrey said. "But Caucasians really want to know and understand their neighbors. That's a good surprise to have." Michael Verchot, director of the University of Washington Business and Economic Development Program, said the publication is useful to people like him, a Caucasian who works with minorities, because ColorsNW is comprehensive. The magazine goes more in-depth and has higher-quality writing than many local ethnic publications, Verchot said. "For white folks, trying to read two African-American publications, two Hispanic and two Asian is a lot of additional reading, so the idea of one publication is attractive," Verchot said. Jeffrey launched ColorsNW to tell stories about local communities of color because he felt coverage was not adequate in the mainstream media. The magazine includes social issue reporting, political stories, small-business features and reviews of restaurants owned by people of color. Unlike many publications geared at communities of color, Jeffrey said the magazine does not cover just one ethnic group. "I thought it would be great, especially in this area, because no one minority group is dominant," Jeffrey said. Jeffrey is particularly proud of the magazine's coverage of the Northwest connection to Hurricane Katrina. ColorsNW sent an editor and a photographer to Louisiana to document the efforts of Northwest relief groups and individuals. Jeffrey believes Katrina illustrated the importance of giving attention to minority issues. "Katrina really brought home that we have a long way to go and need to have discussions of access and race," Jeffrey said. Other recent topics covered include the gay community of color and mainstream media coverage of minorities. Selling advertisers on ColorsNW wasn't easy at first. The initial year, ColorsNW brought in just $95,000 in revenue, and as Jeffrey said, "you can't buy a lot off that." Many potential advertisers initially doubted the concept, Jeffrey said. "We're in an area where being direct about race is not the norm, so we never had an advertiser say this is not a good market," Jeffrey said. "They'd come up with other reasons why it wouldn't happen." When advertisers saw ColorsNW was consistent in quality and was produced every month, many came around. Whereas some early advertisers came on for the feel-good aspect of advertising in a diversity publication, these days advertisers see it as a business purchase, Jeffrey said, as companies realize they need to market to minorities or risk falling behind. ColorsNW has grown revenue through its appeal to mainstream advertisers, including Group Health Cooperative, Seattle University, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Macy's. Macy's Senior Vice President of Marketing Jack Arndt said his company has bought a full page ad in each ColorsNW issue since its inception because the retailer wanted to target the African-American customer. "We felt it was a good publication because they were hitting an audience we needed to hit," Arndt said. Growing interest from advertisers has spurred yearly revenue increases of 40 percent, and Jeffrey projects the magazine will bring in more than $1 million this year. The magazine has grown from 28 pages in its first issue to an average of 48 to 56 today, and is distributed for free in 626 locations stretching from Tacoma to Everett. Jeffrey is now scoping out West Coast cities as targets for expansion, but won't disclose which market he plans to enter early next year. He also plans to expand the magazine's services, which currently include a diversity training program with King County and the newly launched diversity job portal on the Web. The portal, ColorsNWCareers.com, went up March 1 and now attracts 650 to 700 unique visitors a day. Currently, 479 jobs are posted on the Web site. Jeffrey decided to start the site after advertisers told him that since they were marketing to communities of color, they wanted to recruit diverse employees. Employers pay to post ads on ColorsNWCareers.com and job hunters can search for free. While all content is in English so far, Jeffrey wants to consider Spanish translation. "Spanish would be the logical move because of the growing Latino market," Jeffrey said.