Carrying on a tradition

How we’ve continued the mission of a trusted community magazine

By Doug Hughey, Publisher, Allegheny West Magazine

In 1999, a public relations consultant named Pat Jennette started publishing a community-based periodical called Allegheny West Magazine out of her home in Imperial. Pat used her own money to start the magazine after she recognized a void in local news left by the closing of the Record-Enterprise in the late 1990s.

Pat took an approach to the magazine that was inspired by similar publications in other communities around the Pittsburgh area. Her mission was to raise the profile of western Allegheny County communities, specifically those in the airport corridor. She wrote about local leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners and community members doing good things in their community. Coverage of school news, community groups, local events and more also made up a big part of her content. Pat received much of her early support from other area small businesses and, almost as soon as she founded the publication, she joined the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce.

Unlike traditional newspapers, Pat mailed her publication to every home and business in a given school district. She started with West Allegheny School District and then later expanded the magazine to encompass Montour and Moon Area with their own unique editions. Today, the magazine also serves Cornell School District and, between all four editions, serves approximately 45,000 homes and businesses per cycle. Allegheny West Magazine is now the longest-running community publication in western Allegheny County and, after 22 years, is still a member of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce.

In 2011, I began working under Pat as her assistant editor. Two years later, at the start of 2013, my wife, Sarah, and I took over the magazine from Pat. As one person put it to me not long afterward, “Those are some big shoes to fill.”

That person was certainly right. For us, though, carrying on a business with that kind of established profile has come down to consistency. While Sarah took over as art director and revamped the look of the publication, I adopted a new editorial style guide and brought some new ideas to the table. However, we retained the magazine’s original concept and mission. Today, it is still mailed free to every single home and business in a given school district and operates under the same motto: "Good News Always, Mailed and Delivered Free."

The magazine’s focus also remains local. As Sarah graduated from Montour and I from West Allegheny, we maintain close connections to the area.

Over the past eight years, we’ve continued to attract a strong readership and support from the smallest of small businesses to some of the largest organizations in our coverage areas. We also have many community partners, from schools to hospitals, who work with us in a variety of ways.

While there have been many personally rewarding aspects to running this business, one of the things that I have enjoyed the most is hearing success stories from our advertisers. For example, one contractor who we began working with last year reportedly booked over $75,000 worth of work from a marketing campaign that we designed and implemented for them using an investment of roughly $1,500. Restaurants have also seen a strong return from their investment. One told me that, between billboards, digital ads and other methods, our publication proved to be the most effective. Another restaurant reported that everyone who walked through the door for two weeks had seen an article about them that we had written for the magazine. Breweries and wineries we profiled in special sections awhile back also received plenty of buzz.

A variety of other industries have also found success through the magazine, including post-secondary schools. For example, after we ran an article for a post-secondary institution about a new course they were offering, they were inundated with responses. At the same time, they had purchased a banner at a high-foot traffic location and only received one inquiry from that investment.

Yet another contractor we regularly work with told us well before the pandemic that they needed to be careful when placing an ad with us because they would receive tons of phone calls and more work than they could handle.

I’d like to say that the strategies we’ve implemented are the result of some brilliant stroke of genius on our part, but the success lies largely with our clients, our readers and the publication. Our advertisers are in business because there’s a market for what they are doing. What they offer is the result of careful analysis, smart investing and a professional skill set. We create the necessary editorial and branding materials to help establish and connect them with potential clients in our readership areas. We also work hard to put out a quality publication that is relevant to our readers.

At the same time, I’m very proud that we continue to do plenty of good in the communities we serve. One example that stands out to me is when, a number of years ago, we ran a story about a local church that was closing. That story helped connect that church with Heroes Supporting Heroes, a local nonprofit that assists veterans and seniors with home repairs. As a result, the church donated its former sanctuary to HSH for its new headquarters. Each year, we continue to publish an application for HSH for home repairs. Those home repairs are then performed by a group of teenagers who visit the area on a mission trip. The application we publish has become one of the most effective means by which HSH fields home repair requests and helps those most in need in the area. Many of those applicants are seniors who are on a fixed income and physically unable to do the repairs themselves.

Recently, another article we published helped a local family learn about a car giveaway conducted by Steubenville Pike Auto in Robinson Township. As a result, the family applied for the giveaway and an up-and-coming trade student with a bright future received a much-needed car to assist with her education and work.

I could go on, but I think these examples demonstrate the key role that our publication continues to play in the area and I’m very proud of the work that we’ve carried on from Pat. I was happy to hear from one area CEO recently who told me, “Everyone reads your magazine.” The fact that we can leverage that readership to benefit deserving individuals, organizations and our clients has made running this publication all the more rewarding.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m also happy to report that we and many other small businesses that we work with have survived. Things, though, are still a long ways off from 2019, when many of us were having a banner year.

Small businesses have enough to contend with on a daily basis, let alone being dealt the kinds of devastating blows that resulted from COVID-19. Though we appear to be moving in the right direction, the volatile economic landscape continues to make planning difficult for businesses and organizations. I suspect we will continue to feel these reverberations for some time but, with any luck, things will continue to improve and hopefully start to look a lot more like 2019 again.

In the meantime, Sarah and I are continuing to carry on the work Pat started as we help communities and businesses make meaningful connections across western Allegheny County.