News: Parenting magazines vie for readership

FORT COLLINS – First it was business newspaper wars. Now parenting magazines will compete head to head on the Northern Colorado battlefield. American Parent Communications LLC has been formed by Maureen Regan Smith and other investors to publish parenting magazines not only inColorado, but across the nation. The company already has acquired Colorado Parent, which will serve as a base for Northern Colorado Parent and Southern Colorado Parent. Thenorthern magazine will serve Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland. It will compete with the newly-established Front Range Parent magazine being published by Scott Titterington of Poudre Canyon. He also ownsPoudre Canyon Press. Smith, long a powerhouse in Denver publishing, served for several years as publisher of The Denver Business Journal. She also is an owner of the
Fort Worth Business Press. Smith and financial partners Jill Hess and Rockmont Value Investors Ltd. intend to acquire select parenting publications throughout the United States
and develop them into a national chain. “We’ve already started discussions with owners of parenting magazines,” she said. “There are over 100 individually owned parenting publications
across the country. We will look for ones where they dominate the market. “Our goal is to consolidate them and bring them to a level of professional management,” Smith added. One of the goals will be to secure regional and national advertising throughout the new chain. “We’re absolutely committed to the market,” Smith said of Northern Colorado. “We have a proven track record, and we are not afraid of
competition.” The company likely will have 10 publications under its belt within two years, said Joe Mivshek, who will be publisher of Northern Colorado Parent. The magazine will be published at the first of each month and distributed in locations where parents are likely to spot it – Target stores, schools,
preschools, restaurants, doctor’s offices and other similar locations. The three Front Range magazines will have a total distribution of 110,000. Likewise, Titterington will try to reach a specific audience. “We send them out through elementary schools,” he said. “Teachers will hand them out in class.” Additionally, he has more than 100 drop sites in the Fort Collins/Loveland area. Titterington’s magazine, which recently published its second issue, currently has a circulation of 25,000. “Our goal is to serve the parents of this area and to promote programs and activities that help kids and their parents,” he said. Titterington said he will not focus on the competition, but rather zero in on his magazine’s mission of becoming an indispensable part of parenting in
Larimer County. However, he did note that he “has a lot personally at stake” in the venture. Titterington has been a writer, editor and publisher of various publications, including national and local magazines, a literary journal and business
newsletters. Before forming Poudre Canyon Press, he was majority owner of Fairfield Communications Inc., a custom publishing business
communication company. Titterington’s wife, Kristin, will be calendar and activities editor for the magazine, and Ann Carr is the graphics designer.