GRAND RAPIDS – The publisher of two popular West Michigan-entertainment magazines and regional business newspaper is branching out into the area of high school sports by launching a free monthly prep magazine to fill the hole left by the demise of daily newspapers.
Revue Holding Company, which publishes MiBiz and REVUE entertainment guides, announced that it plans to launch West Michigan Preps, a new magazine covering the high school sports scene in West Michigan. The free monthly magazine, which will launch in May, will be distributed at hundreds of locations throughout Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and along the Lake Michigan shore from Saugatuck north to Muskegon. A companion website Click on WMPreps.Com will debut in April.
“The changes at local daily newspapers have created a significant void when it comes to covering high school athletics,” said Brian Edwards, president of Revue Holding Company. “While the papers and broadcast outlets continue to cover high school games, there’s less and less feature coverage of student athletes who are doing great things on the field, in the classroom and in their daily lives. West Michigan Preps intends to tell their stories with smart writing, exceptional photography and sharp four-color design.?
Several experienced sportswriters anchor the Preps staff. Kelly Hill, who has covered Grand Rapids-area high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and Advance Publications for more than a quarter-century, will serve as managing editor of West Michigan Preps. Jayson Bussa, who has covered a variety of high school and college sports for the Kalamazoo Gazette, will be the publication’s associate editor and web editor. A variety of other local writers, columnists and photographers will contribute on a freelance basis.
Preps will cover the entire range of local high school sports with a strong emphasis on so-called “niche sports” including hockey, soccer, tennis, cross country, volleyball and others. The magazine will also provide comprehensive feature coverage of high school football, basketball and baseball. Coverage will focus on high school athletes and teams in the O-K Conference, the River Valley Conference, the Alliance League, the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference, the Wolverine Conference and the Kalamazoo Valley Association.
?The student athletes at the region?s high schools deserve recognition for pursuing excellence ? no matter what sport they play or what school they attend,? Edwards said. As with the company?s other titles, Preps will revolve around a strong print publication that?s modeled after national leaders, Edwards said.
?We?re modeling Preps after the great sports magazines like Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine, but we?re doing it on a local basis,? Edwards said. ?We want it to be a fun read that appeals to all high school students ? athletes and non-athletes alike ? as well as coaches, teachers, parents and grandparents. We hope our stories will be the kind of clips that athletes put in their scrapbooks and laminate on poster boards at their open houses.?
Revue Holding Company is a niche publisher of print and online publications that cover entertainment, business and sports. The company?s REVUE West Michigan, REVUE Mid Michigan and MiBiz publications reach more than 150,000 readers each month in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Lansing and cities along the Lake Michigan shore from Saugatuck to Muskegon.
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