20 Years of Benicia Magazine
That’s right, Benicia Magazine is turning 20, and has produced 230 magazines to date! The magazine was founded in 2004 when Margaret and Gerald Bowles and Jeanne and Mike Steinman got together at the Steinman home to discuss the idea of creating a monthly magazine. They wanted to create a lifestyle magazine that included things that were important to Benicia residents like schools, education and city activities.
At first, the magazine was called Inside Benicia and it was a tabloid size publication printed on newsprint.
After a few years, the size was changed to regular magazine size and the paper that it was printed on was upgraded. The name was changed to Benicia Magazine, and finally, simply Benicia. During this time Jeanne Steinman was editor and Margaret was art director with her husband Gerald doing much of the photography.
In 2019 the magazine was purchased by Scott and Christina Strawbridge, who owned it for a year.
With my background in publishing as well as extensive advertising and marketing experience, the Strawbridges asked me to be editor. I was editor of the magazine in 2019 and Margaret continued as art director. I purchased the magazine in 2020, right in the thick of the pandemic. Good times!
My daughter Genevieve came on as editor of the magazine while I assumed the publisher role.
Today, we co-own the magazine. Undaunted by the financial distress that faced all businesses, we temporarily reduced ad prices to help Benicia businesses to sustain their advertising. We created a business spotlight to highlight different businesses in Benicia, regardless of whether they were an advertiser or not. We then created a newsletter that was bi-weekly and included current events as well, to help keep Benicians in the loop about what was going on through the pandemic.
In 2022 our long-time art director decided it was time to retire and she trained Cooper Mickelson, our current brilliant art director, in all elements of magazine design.
With businesses still reeling from the pandemic and printers raising their prices every other month, we had come up with a new business model. We created a hybrid publication by combining a print and digital magazine. Enter Benicia Quarterly, the idea stemming from when I designed Tahoe Quarterly. Benicia Quarterly is a seasonal publication that coincides with the four seasons. The digital magazine is produced eight times a year and includes click through links for each advertiser. We also added social media advertising so our clients could have a complete advertising and marketing plan.
You would think that a small town like Benicia would run out of stories to tell, but that is not the case.
With the history, art, and overall creativity that is so abundant in this town, as well as more than a few very interesting characters, the story of Benicia is never ending.
Oh, we added Porchfest this year too! It will return September 13, 2025.
