Editor's Note: At Your Service

Why make an issue based around new magazine launches and re-launches?

For one, it's a sign people are still investing their blood, sweat, and greenbacks in magazines. That's good news, right?

The other reason is that the slew of magazine launches we covered in this issue typify what we're seeing from thriving publishers at large: They're getting social media right, they're putting mobile front-of-mind, and they're extending their brand from the printed magazine to new avenues for reader engagement-events, e-learning and webinars, and ecommerce.

These six launches also indicate a movement toward quality. Nobody here is saying, "Meh, we'll do the bare minimum with our editorial content" or "Print it on the cheapest stock." They're putting quality journalism into quality formats in pursuit of a quality audience. As Active Interest Media group publisher Gary DeSanctis put it: "The philosophy here at AIM is that the print experience has to be an exceptional experience...We wouldn't put out an inferior product and then hope we could grow it into the product we knew it could be."

These publishers are intensely focused on a core audience that is engaged and invested. And I know the term engaged gets thrown around too often, so let me define: An unengaged audience is like your fair-weather friends that disappear on moving day. Engaged readers will help you move when it's time to launch an event. Or they'll comment on a web page. Or share your content. They'll be there for you. Engagement is over-used but it is still important.

Above all, these publishers-at least for now-have their eyes on serving an underserved audience. For Eight by Eight, it's the sleeping giant that is U.S. soccer fandom. For Craft Beer & Brewing, it's an economic and cultural groundswell embodied in craft beer enthusiasm.