by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
If you fly Southwest Airlines in February or Delta in April, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find the in-flight magazines will feature Jacksonville.
Thanks to a deal finalized by Visit Jacksonville and several other area economic development organizations, Pace Communications is making Jacksonville the focal point of 30 pages of primarily tourism with some business aspects on Southwest and 24 pages of primarily business with some tourism aspects on Delta.
According to Visit Jacksonville Director of Corporate Communications Lyndsay Rossman, the magazines will reach about 23 million people over two months. It’s also the first foray into Jacksonville for the publishing company.
“They have had an editor living at Casa Marina (in Jacksonville Beach) since October,” said Rossman.
She also said the media value of the two magazines is $2.5 million. Visit Jacksonville’s annual advertising budget is only $1.4 million.
At Thursday’s Tourist Development Council meeting, Visit Jacksonville President and CEO John Reyes revealed the news.
“This is not paid advertising,” said Reyes. “This is unique because Pace usually only offers one (publication). We got two.”
The deal actually goes back to last spring when Rossman met representatives from Pace and pitched the idea of featuring Jacksonville in one of their in-flight magazines.
“They had never featured Jacksonville,” she said.
The next meeting included Jacksonville Airport Authority Executive Director John Clark and representatives from the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and Cornerstone, the economic development arm of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Collectively, the group pitched stories and ideas to the editors at Pace.
Eventually, 23 million travelers will read about Jacksonville’s higher education, health care industry, major industries, top neighborhoods, real estate, events and personalities.
Visit Jacksonville and others may have some influence on the stories in the magazines and may work with local businesses from an advertising perspective, but Rossman stressed Visit Jacksonville has no oversight of the content.
“It is not an advertorial but it is an opportunity for local businesses to advertise,” she said. “They will focus on tourism and growth. We are not in control of the advertising. We are not in control of the content.”
Rossman said Visit Jacksonville recently hosted a launch party at the Times-Union Center and during the event, representatives from Pace were able to meet with well over 100 local business owners and executives.
Rossman said the two magazines will help create a sense of pride in Jacksonville and area schools and businesses can use the magazines as a recruitment tool. The magazines will be in print for a month, but on-line for a year.
In other news from the TDC meeting, the TDC approved $72,500 worth of grants for six events ranging from rugby to soccer to team roping.
• Rugby will be back at the University of North Florida in late January when two teams from the United Kingdom — the Leeds Rhinos and the Salford City Reds — square off in an international friendly. Last year, Leeds played the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which are owned by actor Russell Crowe, who heavily promoted the match during a Jaguars game on Monday Night Football and once during “The Tonight Show.” The match drew 12,500 to UNF’s 9,500-seat Hodges Stadium.
Organizer Daryl Spinner Howland said the current world economy doesn’t make it conducive to bringing a team from Australia.
“It has taken about 12 months to fully understand the impact of last year’s event. This year, we are asking for a lot less,” said Howland, who received a grant for $5,000 from the TDC. He said Salford City and Leeds have already started marketing the game in Great Britain.
• The TDC approved $20,000 to help the City of Jacksonville Beach put on the “Springing the Blues Music Festival”, which has been held the same weekend for 19 years.
• Cheerleading will be back at the Osborn Center in late March. The TDC approved $10,000 for the All-Star Challenge Clash of the Titans, which has been coming to Jacksonville for seven years. Dennis Worley, legal counsel and business development director for the event, said he expects 4,000 people to come to Jacksonville for the event.
• The First Coast Soccer Association received $25,000 to help host dozens of soccer teams from all over the country and Canada in mid-February. The games will be played at Patton Park, Earl Johnson Park and Davis Park and organizers expect a $1.5 million economic impact.
• The Jacksonville Juniors Volleyball Association got $5,000 to help host two, two-day tournaments – one in February and one in March.
• Finally, the National Team Roping Finals will be at the Equestrian Center Jan. 28–Feb. 1 thanks in part to a TDC grant of $8,500. This is the fourth time the event has been in Jacksonville.
“We like Jacksonville and we like the facility,” said Rianna Elliott of the National Team Roping League. “We are contracted through 2010.”
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