Bloggers Star In Project You Magazine

The name Beth Feldman is probably familiar to many bloggers and social media users.  As a network executive at CBS, she was one of the first “suits” who recognized the power of this medium, and organized events with bloggers as guests before it was a popular way to publicize.  In the meantime, she operated Role Mommy, an online community for busy moms.  Once she went solo with her own PR firm, Feldman’s activities kept pace with the growth of online content and the explosion of blogs, mommy- or otherwise.

Feldman has a family, a PR business, an online community, and several events she’s producing at any given time.  That may seem like a big workload.  Yet she’s not stopping there.  Her latest venture, Project You Magazine, launched in October with a holiday issue out now, and it’s only gaining momentum.

“I don’t sleep enough,” answers Feldman, when asked if she sleeps at all.  She credits her team of hardworking collaborators who teamed up with her to create a magazine that relies on bloggers as the source of content.  “There are so many bloggers out there who have tried to break into magazines,” including herself, she recalls.  “I went to graduate school for magazine publishing, and I kept getting turned down by magazines.  I thought, I’m just going to do it myself!”  With managing editor Jeanne Muchnick and art director Katie Schlientz, whose backgrounds are in print publishing, Feldman created Project You as an alternative to traditional, “safe” magazines.  “We use different voices,” she says.  “Our slant is irreverent, sarcastic.  We always have that bittersweet essay that will make you laugh and cry, like a romantic comedy where you need to bring tissues.”

Feldman acknowledges that bloggers are amazing resources.  “In traditional magazines, most of the writers are young singles,” she notes.  “But all of our writers are moms and dads who have real experience with what they’re writing about.”  What’s more, since bloggers are now the target market for new products, events, and services, they’re right on the edge of what’s new.  “We can discover the diamonds” with this talent pool and publishing model.

Project You is published as an online magazine with live hyperlinks for every cited source or contributor.  A network of bloggers embeds the zine on their sites in return for a featured link in each issue.  Using Role Mommy’s large membership as a springboard, the zine is already featured on over 40 blogs.  “Clicking on the image opens the issue but doesn’t take you away from that blogger’s site,” says Feldman.  “It’s added value.”

Along with articles about gifts, parenting, and celebrities, you’ll also find heartfelt and funny essays, and profiles of notable bloggers.  In the latest issue, there’s an article about pole dancing parties.  No, this isn’t your mom’s parenting magazine, although Feldman is quick to point out that there is something for moms (and dads) of every age of child.  Even her own mother read the first issue cover to cover, “and not just because I’m your mom.’”

Beth Feldman, Editor In Chief, suffers for her art

The magazine does pay for content, in case you were wondering.  “We don’t pay for existing content,” that is cross posted, Feldman says, “but we do believe that new work should be compensated.”  She also notes that one of their next goals is to work with more photography bloggers.  “We are always open to ideas and pitches,” she says.

With Project You just out of the box, it’s catching on quickly.  The holiday issue alone had amassed over 380,000 page views by last week, and counting.  Despite the virtual ink being fresh on this national version, the magazine will be branching out with hyperlocal issues, having launched a Westchester, NY edition on December 18th.