Beginning in 1993, founder and owner, J. Michael Gaffney established locally-based PixelWorks Corporation (PixelWorks) as a graphic design company with $20,000 and two Macintosh computers. PixelWorks has evolved to become the city’s largest publisher of San Antonio-informed magazines, launching 19 magazine titles over its 15-year history and today, delivers eight full-color magazine titles that generate nearly one million full-color magazines in annual distribution. The company is proud to tell the San Antonio story one business leader at a time as it provides perspectives on San Antonio’s compelling citizens, its business and industry leaders, the city’s arts & culture, booming residential real estate industry, and the growing health and fitness arena.
Success, niche by niche…
Residential Real Estate
PixelWorks plugged into the publishing business in 1995 with the launch of bimonthly New Home Neighborhoods for Living, a comprehensive guide for those looking for homes in South Texas. This guide was later followed by the 1999 launch of Austin Neighborhoods. By 2000, the company sold these Neighborhoods publications and simultaneously purchased and took over the publishing of San Antonio’s combined arts programs, guides for the city’s various performing arts organizations including The San Antonio Symphony, ARTS San Antonio, Carver Cultural Community Center and San Pedro Playhouse, among others.
Medical Industry
In 2001, PixelWorks began a relationship with the Bexar County Medical Society (BCMS) and struck a contract to publish the organization’s 48-page magazine, San Antonio Medicine, which is distributed monthly to the organization’s 4500 physician members.
Women
PixelWorks soon followed San Antonio Medicine in 2002 with the launch of the lifestyle publication San Antonio Woman, a bimonthly full-color glossy magazine aimed at upscale women. The magazine was launched with 64 pages and a circulation of 15,000 and is now consistently printing at more than 200 pages with a circulation of 30,000 each issue. The publication garnered the 2005 Magazine Of The Year Award and won the Best Editorial Gold Award in 2006, both from the Women’s Regional Publications Of America, among other editorial and graphic design honors.
Fitness & Health
The company launched South Texas Fitness & Health in Fall 2005. South Texas Fitness & Health, acquired from Prime Time Media, is a full-color monthly glossy publication aimed at men and women 25 years and older that features editorial for those interested in active lifestyles. San Antonio Sports Foundation, San Antonio Metro Health District, and Bexar County Health Collaborative – Fit City are strategic editorial partners for this publication.
New Business In Denver
February 2006 marked the launch of paid bimonthly magazine - Denver Woman. Similar in structure to San Antonio Woman, Denver Woman features city-focused content overseen by Denver based-editor Judy Taylor and advertising generated by a Denver-based sales staff. As part of its strategic launch, the magazine has already forged relationships with Denver’s Women Chamber of Commerce, the city’s National Association Of Women Business Owners chapter, The American Heart Association, Susan G. Komen Foundation, The Junior League, and others. The magazine won the coveted 2006 Magazine Of The Year Award from the Women’s Regional Publications of America, an accolade received in its first year!
Back At Home
San Antonio At Home is PixelWorks’ most recent launch when it arrived on newsstands in July 2006. The stand alone magazine promotes stylish living in San Antonio. Readers learn about a unique home lifestyle in each issue as well as get great tips on remodeling, home technology, gardening and landscaping. Targeted to homeowners, 35-years and older, San Antonio At Home is a bimonthly full-size, full-color glossy magazine.
Relationships and Community Service Are Keys To Success
Like its founder, the company reflects an entrepreneurial spirit and strong interpersonal lasting relationships with advertisers, community organizations and civic groups. Building relationships by listening to our client’s needs and working together to meet these needs has become a staple of PixelWorks’ approach to its niche-targeted publishing, a growth market for the publishing industry as a whole.
Living in San Antonio all his life, Michael Gaffney developed a great appreciation of the relationship between work and community and now today, the role media have in helping organizations get their messages out to their constituencies. Through its work in its special sections, PixelWorks readers stay connected to important health-related events, experiences and lifestyle updates that are happening in San Antonio.
PixelWorks creates special 16-page supplements and recurring columns that reflect its partnerships with the National Association of Women Business Owners and The American Heart Association’s ‘Go Red For Women’ campaign. The current issue of San Antonio Woman features The Susan G. Komen Foundation breast cancer awareness section for its Race For The Cure. PixelWorks also counts its membership in the North Chamber of Commerce as critical to establishing and building meaningful business relationships (the magazine has served for the past two years as a sponsor of the Chamber’s Annual Enterprising Women’s Conference).
Relationship Marketing
The magazine often interacts with readers at events, bringing columnists and the editor to speak about the topics that are important to its readers. Event marketing strategies include magazine placement with each of the attendees, speaking roles for the publisher, editor and columnists as well as opportunities to subscribe via added value promotions.
Subscriber relations are critical to the magazine. The magazine began experimenting with added-value promotions in 2006 when it coordinated a successful bounce-back promotion with The Palm Restaurant offering subscribers the opportunity to receive a $25 dining certificate for the purchase of a new subscription.
Friendly and nimble
Described as a friendly nimble company with dedicated staff on board since its early beginnings, PixelWorks has grown to a core staff of 24 employees (19 in San Antonio and five in Denver) serving in the areas of editorial (not including magazine contributors), sales, marketing, graphic design, and administrative expertise. The company also employs 37 freelance writers, 13 photographers, and marketing staff. The magazines’ editorial decisions are headed-up by editorial director, Beverly Purcell-Guerra, formerly an editor at VOGUE and editor of Images. She is supported by managing editor, Janis Turk and copy editor, Kathryn Cocke.
The company has witnessed a growth in the quantity of competitors in recent years and counts its long-standing collaboration with prominent top culinary, decorating, health, interior design, etiquette, and sports experts based here in San Antonio as a key competitive advantage. And like many of today’s successful publishing companies, with the help of technology, has recently begun working with talent in satellite offices throughout the country.
Internet Marketing
In 2006, PixelWorks delivered its portfolio of lifestyle publications online through its strategically designed network of magazine-inspired websites. These websites are the result of readers demanding meaningful, relevant content online coupled with the call for people outside the city wanting to learn more about what San Antonio had to offer. PixelWorks’ online strategy has netted the company and its portfolio of products more than 100,000 impressions on a monthly basis, and that number is growing.
PixelWorks Online is the company’s network of publication-driven websites as well as community-based websites for women, the medical community and those interested in arts & culture and fitness & health. These websites are not only online companions to the company’s print publications but also serve to connect readers on important lifestyle topics.
The following is a list of those websites that have been launched or redesigned by PixelWorks during the past year and that are connected to each of the company’s online titles:
www.esanantonio.com:
This website is a popular site for those who want to learn more about the city of San Antonio, its attractions, restaurants, culture and more.
www.SAWOMAN.com:
The companion website for SAN ANTONIO WOMAN was relaunched in January and now offers articles and special sections online, a list of resources for women in and around San Antonio and an event calendar. This website also features a template for new subscribers to subscribe.
www.SAWOMANconnect.com:
Presented by SAN ANTONIO WOMAN, this online women’s exchange for San Antonio women, offers news, events, and resources.
www.SAatHOME.com: The companion website for SAN ANTONIO AT HOME magazine was relaunched in December 2006 and offers articles and resources for innovative home building, renovation and design.
www.SouthTexasFitness.com: The companion website for SOUTH TEXAS FITNESS was relaunched in the Fall of 2006 and features articles about fitness and health, resource links for spas, gyms and other health and fitness related companies and organizations as well as an events calendar of sporting activities.
www.SAdoctors.com: This is the companion website for the Bexar County Medical Society Physician and Medical Directory. This website was redesigned and launched Winter 2007 and offers an interactive method for doctors throughout Bexar County to become a member or update their information with the Bexar County Medical Society.
www.SAMedicine.com: The companion website for SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE, the Bexar County Medical Society publication for its membership.
www.WomensRegionalPublications.com: This publishing industry-focused website, for which PixelWorks is a member, provides an overview of women’s regional publishing throughout the United States. The website fosters the opportunity for national and local businesses to connect with readers in specific markets across the country through the organization’s magazines and directories that comprise its membership.
www.DenverWoman.com: DENVER WOMAN’s online companion website was relaunched in January 2007 and now provides articles online as well as resources, event calendars and news announcements important for women in and around the Denver area.
PixelWorks is a business innovator and looks forward to 2007 as being a breakout year for its publications, its online presence and connecting more intimately with its readers in-person, online and through industry associations and not-for-profit organizations.
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The following is a list of publications PixelWorks Corporation has launched since its inception:
Austin New Home Neighborhoods
Bexar County Medical Society Physician and Medical Directory
Bravo! San Antonio
Combined Arts Programs (San Antonio Symphony, Carver Cultural Community Center, Empire Theatre, San Antonio Playhouse and San Antonio Opera)
Denver Woman
Hill Country Parade Of Homes
San Antonio Area Private School Directory
San Antonio At Home
San Antonio CityScene
San Antonio Medicine
San Antonio MediScript
San Antonio New Home Neighborhoods
San Antonio Sites
San Antonio Woman
South Texas Fitness & Health |
