Regale, a Jasper native’s dive into digital publishing
The second edition of a brand new magazine hit the digital stands this month; Regale is a beautiful tablet magazine published by a Jasper native now living in St. Louis.
The magazine is aimed at twenty-somethings who may be stumbling around looking for someone or something to fill in the blanks about how to live on their own for the first time. That is where Regale’s publisher, 23-year-old Jenna Stratman, found herself after she left Jasper and moved to St. Louis. So, she began to plan a blog for her own generation. “Like a how-to guide for after you leave college,” Jenna said. “I moved to St. Louis with nothing to help me aside from my parents; there weren’t any resources there to make the transition easier.”
This wasn’t Jenna’s first foray into blogging, the University of Evansville graduate started a blog about wedding invitations soon after arriving in St. Louis. About six months into the blog, she began to plan a blog about life after college. The magazine began to develop as Jenna spoke with her friends about the idea and some offered to write articles. Those friends include two Jasper graduates, Rachel Friedman and Nathan Wehr, and a Forest Park graduate, Logan Verkamp.
Jenna decided on the name Regale because it fit her vision for the magazine that epitomizes the fun and exciting experience of being out on your own for the first time. “I just wanted a succinct word that fit what the goal of the magazine. Regale literally means to entertain, so it fit,” she explained.
Looking at the content of the January issue, readers will find informative articles about buying vs. renting a place to live as well as an article explaining the different types of beers, along with advice on networking, DIY decorating, and, of course, fashion tips. The majority of the magazine is geared for the twenty-something crowd but anyone can appreciate a quick and easy recipe for tortilla soup found in its pages.
Although the magazine looks great on a computer, Jenna put her graphic design skills to work to create a great mobile experience by using fresh, modern fonts and great layouts to take advantage of the rapidly growing venue.
But building this beautiful publication wasn’t easy. Jenna did a lot of research by reading magazines and studying how they were laid out. “How many words per page were they using, just like the littlest things, like how are they formatting page numbers and their photos, everything,” she explained. “I love to do the graphic design work, but before I published the first issue, I did a lot of research, took notes and made a lot of pictures and diagrams. Eventually when I put together my first article it was a little rough, but it’s gotten easier.”
The quarterly magazine is not a full time job for Jenna yet, but she does spend about every waking moment outside of her regular job as a marketing coordinator working on it. She began the editorial process of the Spring issue on Sunday by sending an e-mail requesting article ideas for the next issue, a planned health issue, from her writers. The first two months of the process are a slow build up that ends in a month of frenzied work to finalize all the details of the issue.
The magazine is online and available for free to anyone that wants to read it and Jenna doesn’t plan on ever creating a subscription for the magazine. “I want it to be accessible to anyone and everyone. It’s aimed at people just like me,” she explained. “A year ago, when I moved to St. Louis, if I had to pay even $5 for that (magazine), I wouldn’t because I had to pay for bills and food. I wouldn’t want to pay that extra $5, I would rather go to Starbucks. I really want Regale to be accessible to recent college grads.”
To make money she is finalizing a media package and plans on looking for sponsorships with niche businesses. She also plans on expanding the website to have more material that won’t be found in the magazine with the goal of creating consistent traffic outside of the spikes found around the publishing of each quarterly issue.
“I have so many ideas about this magazine, I am a huge advocate for dreaming big and I am always jotting down my ideas,” Jenna explained. “Soon we will have a tab named “tools” that will feature printables like to-do lists, grocery lists, anything that will make our readers’ lives easier. Printable recipe cards, things like that.”
The first issue has had over 4900 downloads and as of Sunday night the January issue had 4550.
“It’s neat to see people from all over the country are reading it,” Jenna said. “I just want to encourage our generation to move somewhere cool, do something neat, take a job you wouldn’t think you would naturally take.”
