Page 110 - South Mississippi Living - December, 2016

10TH ANNIVERSARY letter
10YEAR TOTALS 120 ISSUES
OF SML 1,750,000 FREE COPIES
7.1 MILLION READERS AND ONLINE READERS
21,718 PAGES PUBLISHED 3,145 LOCAL STORIES WRITTEN
84,000 CLICK PHOTOS
$550K
WINNER OF 2010 GOVERNOR’S
GIVE AWARD
FOR VOLUNTEER EXCELLENCE
DONATED TO REGIONAL CHARITIES
10th
ANNIVERSARY
ISSUE
This issue of South Mississippi Living marks an important milestone for us, 10 years
of serving the Coast as the number one community magazine.
Mary and I reflect back to our startup and our mission to create and publish a magazine that reflected the amazing tapestry of people,
dining, outdoors, shopping, homes and community events that make living on the Gulf Coast a fulfilling lifestyle.
Starting a new publication is never easy and far from a sure bet. But with our team of talented editors, writers, photographers, designers, sales reps and managers, we set out to fulfill our mission and with the outstanding support of so many friends, businesses and organizations, we have flourished and grown.
We’ve battled recessions, hurricanes, oil spills and more without wavering in our commitment to tell the many positive stories about South Mississippi that were going untold. We’ve focused our efforts and donated more than $550,000 in support of regional charities and nonprofits to help them grow their events. In 2010, our efforts were noted with the awarding of the GIVE AWARD, the Governor’s Award for Volunteer Excellence, as the best media company in Mississippi for giving back to their community.
Over the past ten years, we’ve published 1.75 million free copies of South Mississippi Living and reached more than
7 million readers in print and online, always using “local models.”
To say the least, we have been humbled by the support and growth and have enjoyed the opportunity to attend more than one thousand community events and to meet so many amazing people who call our Coast home and work so hard to make our region strong and generous.
We thank our hundreds of distribution partners who make room in their businesses and offices so that we can provide more than 15,000 free copies each month in the three coastal counties. We like to say that we were “One Coast before One Coast was cool.”
We are blessed to call South Mississippi our home, to
see our children, Kelsey and Jesse, grow up here and to have the opportunity to play a small part in marketing our Coast!
Michael & Mary Sunderman
Publishers
110 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • December 2016
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