Magazine Concept

Magazine Title: "ME"
Derived from Maine state abbreviation and theme/message of the magazine itself.

Target Audience:
Age: 25-50
Gender: M/F
Education: College/Self Educated
Income: $35-$75,000/Year
Location: Native Mainer, Transplant Mainer, Native Mainer living elsewhere. All with concern and interest in Maine's current issues, history and culture.

I'm originally from Maine and still keep tabs on current events in the region. I'm fairly well connected with the culture there and the issues that affect the people that call Maine their home. I'd like to create a magazine about real Maine and real Maine issues with stories that are told through the lens of local perspective on issues that impact the people of Maine and the community at large while integrating photographic and illustrative imagery of the landscape that Maine is so well known and appreciated for, as many of the issues that would be covered have a connection between people and place.

Possible content:

1. (feature) Oxycontin and other prescription drug use in Maine: prescription drug addiction rates in Maine are the highest in the nation, escpecially among rural labor workers.

Possible visual for this feature: Fisherman are among those addicted, mainly because of the labor intensive nature of their work that can cause injury and pain that results in being prescribed with pain reducing meds. I would like to do an illustration to accompany this piece that would show pills as buoys in the water of an ocean scene, with the fisherman pulling them out of the water like they would a trap.

2. (feature) Fresh water aquifers tapped and water sold by bottle water companies, with no proceeds going to residents and no legislation in place to put the rights to the water in the hands of the public trust.

Possible visual: Also an illustration, the state of Maine in the shape of a well that has several pump pipes going into it and the water being all but gone, with the pipes leading outside of the state's borders.

3. (freeze) Maine's "Brain Drain"
"Maine’s “brain drain” has been well-documented. A study done by USM in 2003 showed that 50,000 young people have left the state in the last two decades, and Maine currently holds the distinction of being the most aged state in the nation, according to the U.S. Census.

Visual: I'm still thinking about this one, but I did have an idea (again, in illustration form...I like illustration) of showing a light house in the background with several younger looking figures in seperate small boats wearing their graduation gowns and heading for the lighthouse beacon.



I'm still researching other ways to visually convey the content of these topics, as this much illustration may prove difficult to pull off effectively. I'm also still considering what the department/columns sections would hold.