Groovin’ On A Sunday Afternoon

By: Rich Kane

In October, some 400,000 specially-selected subscribers of the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee found something extra stuffed into their Sunday paper, a new publication dubbed The California Sunday Magazine (californiasunday.com).

It certainly stands apart from the typical editorial sections and advertising inserts one finds in the fattest newspaper of the week. No content teasers on the cover, just a logo and an eye-grabbing image that entices you to explore what’s inside (the first issue ran a robust 58 pages). The magazine is generous with big photos and compelling long-form feature writing about the rebooting of virtual reality, the strange disappearance of a Peruvian game show contestant, life along the U.S.-Mexico border, and profiles of anyone from author Anne Rice to Southern California doughnut king Ted Ngoy.

It’s a high-quality pub that’s refreshingly unexpected, something that’s been called a West Coast version of The New Yorker.

“We’re rooted in the West and the wider West,” said California Sunday founding editor Doug McGray. “I think there’s an interesting opportunity here. New York City is great, but California is huge and influential, and it deserves its own title. It may say ‘California’ in the name, but the stories are for a national audience.”

The magazine has unusual origins as a popular ongoing San Francisco live stage show McGray and California Sunday publisher Chas Edwards created called “Pop-Up Magazine,” where storytelling, photography and art combine, complete with in-performance advertising.

“If brands were going to speak to our ‘Pop-Up’ audience, then they also had to speak about their brands from the stage,” said Edwards. “We told brands that it would strike the wrong note if they stepped to the mic and read a press release, so we found a way to craft a story around it.”

That unique ad strategy has expanded to California Sunday, where Edwards helps brands figure out how to convey their story. The ads are interesting, even intellect-stroking. There’s a thoughtful email exchange on the creative process between indie musicians Ben Gibbard and Mark Kozelek, subtly sponsored by MailChimp, and extended over on the magazine’s website. A Lexus ad is presented as a photo diary of a drive along California’s majestic Highway 1.

A Google Play ad that takes up the magazine’s back cover, featuring artists and musicians telling you what music and film inspires them, invites further exploration on California Sunday’s website, where an animated video (with the artist’s own voiceover) tells their stories. Then, conveniently, you can download their picks directly from Google Play.

All of these are labeled “story advertisements” in the magazine, but they’re really a classier form of native advertising.

“Native advertising is a very broad topic,” McGray said. “Mostly, that’s been defined as really quick-produced stuff that’s trying to trick you into something. We’re doing something that’s clearly labeled advertising, but we also try to make it inspiring.”

California Sunday is aimed at young tech-savvy hipster urbanites, and for now is only being inserted in newspapers distributed in neighborhoods of the three aforementioned cities. McGray and Edwards hope to eventually publish it every other week, then weekly, and possibly partner with other newspapers in the state.