Southern Living Magazine Starts Southern Living Hotel Collection

Southern Living magazine has started to put its stamp of approval on some upscale hotels in its new, Southern Living Hotel Collection.

The publication hopes to capitalize on its relationship with subscribers who not only "read the magazine, but live the lifestyle," said Southern Livingpublisher Greg Schumann.

"You take that dynamic and marry it with the fact that three-fourths of (readers) say they get travel information from Southern Living they can't get anywhere else," Greg Schumann publisher of Southern Living said according to USA Today.

Schumann said the magazine had been looking for brand extensions that allow for a deeper immersion into the lifestyle.

"We always say that our reader doesn't just read Southern Living-she lives it. As we began to focus on the travel facet of the brand, we realized that our readers are always looking for Southern Living vetted and endorsed experience," he said to Adweek.

The collection will launch with 15 four and five store hotels in the south. "They are all hotels that we feel very comfortable endorsing and have mostly appeared in our pages," said editor in chief Lindsay Bierman to Adweek. "They represent a really broad spectrum of cultural experiences in the South." The Southern Living stamp of approval will also provide a boost for these locally run businesses, he added: "It legitimizes the hotels in a very competitive environment, especially versus larger hotel chains that already have marketing power."

Within the next five years, the collection will expand to about 100 properties and Schumann said the hotel could have Southern Living branded events including cooking classes and weddings.

"To promote the hotel collection, Southern Living will publish a spread in its July issue that introduces readers to the 15 charter members, and it plans to tap into the larger Time Inc. marketing database. A Southern Living Hotel Collection website will go live on July 1," reports Adweek.