FRESNO – With the recent acquisition of Visalia publication Lifestyle Magazine, the owners of Fresno-based Root Creative Marketing are excited to expand their presence in the South Valley.
Root, co-founded and owned by Stephanie Steelman and Sam Justice, officially took over the magazine in October. With their debut issue of Lifestyle coming out in November, Steelman and Justice hope to bring their company’s passion for the people and communities that feed the world to the well-loved publication while maintaining its vision of “inspiring life in our community.”
For Justice, Lifestyle Magazine is about sharing the good of the community and amplifying it — especially in a world where negative news cycles seem like a constant.
“Lifestyle is a beacon of light,” Justice said. “It’s sharing stories about people or organizations that are making an impact, and also, there’s an element of entertainment to it. It’s giving readers an opportunity to maybe try something new or to have a new experience or to learn about something that they hadn’t thought of before.”
A monthly 52-page publication, Lifestyle Magazine has traditionally centered each issue around a season or theme word like “growth” or “serenity.” Inside its pages — previously produced by now-shuttered Visalia marketing agency Topograph — readers could find recipes, trends, local history and features on area organizations and businesses.
“What we’re really focusing on is upholding the current legacy of the magazine,” Steelman said. “Working with the same writers that have been contributing to the magazine, bringing in some new ones, too – but (we’re) really trying to understand exactly what Lifestyle is about and trying to continue that moving forward.”
What Lifestyle brings to readers is also what it brings to the Root team — new opportunities to not only make an impact on their communities but also expand their understanding of them and exercise their creativity.
As a creative marketing agency, Root specializes in marketing and brand awareness for agriculture and lifestyle brands in Central California. Steelman and Justice started the company four and a half years ago after working together on other projects and seeing a need in the agricultural industry for modern marketing tactics, Steelman said.
As long-time admirers of Topograph and its culture, when the chance to take over the magazine presented itself to Steelman and Justice, they saw it as the perfect opportunity to grow their brand south of Fresno, fill in the gap left by Topograph and build strong relationships with the community of Visalia and the surrounding area.
Alongside their acquisition of Lifestyle, Root will be opening a new office in downtown Visalia in mid-November to serve as Lifestyle’s hub and as a secondary location for their marketing staff and clients to visit.
“It just all fell together, and we were like, ‘this makes sense,’” Steelman said. “Opening up a secondary location to help our employees that are currently community (and) to really embed ourselves with the community down there as well with this publication that so many people love.”
To help with this goal, Root hired Visalia local Lauren Walters to be Lifestyle’s new managing editor. The November issue of Lifestyle Magazine, “the food issue,” will feature a look at one of Visalia’s oldest restaurants, as well as some of the local Root staff’s favorite places to frequent in the city.
While keeping the traditional elements of Lifestyle alive, Root also plans to incorporate more of its agriculture-focus content into the magazine through a new section called “good ground” that highlights local agriculture and the people and companies that are “essentially helping feed the world,” Steelman said.
The regular feature will emphasize how big agriculture is in the Central Valley by “trying to tell some of those stories and to help readers understand that their neighbors are contributing to the food production at large,” Steelman said.
Justice said Root also plans to expand Lifestyle’s online presence and bring their expertise in social media and passion for digital content to the publication and the community. Even with that goal, however, the Root team is ecstatic for their first foray into this form of print media and is eager to share their work with Lifestyle readers.
