Journalism class discovers niche market for new magazine

One day while paging through a bridal magazine, Roosevelt University student Deanna Goldstein got to talking with a colleague at work about a trend she’d noticed in which pregnant women more and more often are part of bridal parties.

“I said, ‘I haven’t seen a magazine like that for that particular group of women,’ ” said Goldstein, a senior communications major who took the course Magazine Production 357/457 last spring with journalism professors Anne-Marie Cusac and David Weissman.

The rest is history, as Goldstein’s initial observation led the magazine class to produce a 32-page publication called Bride & Baby, which students, including Goldstein, wrote, edited, designed and marketed specifically for the pregnant bride-to-be.

“I thought ‘Why not? It’s a great idea.’ There are a lot of pregnant women out there getting married today. What’s the big deal? This is 2011 and certainly from a business standpoint it makes sense,” said Weissman, who is now in his 11th year of teaching the course at Roosevelt in which students come up with an original idea for a magazine, produce it from start to finish and take away copies of the publication for use in their portfolios.

Over the years, magazines produced in the course by Roosevelt students have had catchy names like Outlandish, a 2002 publication featuring offbeat places to eat; MIC, a 2003 magazine about music for Chicago hipsters; Swerve, a 2008 publication for the urban dweller who rides scooters; Invigorate, a fitness magazine produced in 2009; and Dare, a thrill-seeker’s manual that came out of the course last year.

However, it’s the first time anyone has thought to target pregnant brides as an audience, said Cusac.  In fact, she believes Bride & Baby may have real marketing potential as students were able to sell a record number of ads for the publication.

“The concept was so much fun to work with and our marketing survey showed us that there is a market out there for this kind of magazine,” said Stephanie Corcilius, a senior English and journalism major who will graduate in December.
 
Among many magazine duties, Corcilus wrote a question-and-answer article called “Three Hats and a Veil,” which features tips from a French-speaking woman in France who is a working mother planning her wedding. Corcilius located the woman at the www.flickr.com photo site and interviewed her, with help from the woman’s photographer who translated questions from English into French and the answers from French back to English, via the image-based Internet phone service called Skype.  Other articles in the magazine focused on such topics as make-up tips for the blushing bride, confessions of expecting brides and “Does this Dress Make Me Look Pregnant?”
 
“I got to see what it’s like to be six months pregnant in a bridal gown,” said Goldstein, who went to an area bridal shop and tried on dresses with the shop’s baby bump attached to her stomach. “Everyone knows someone who’s been through these kinds of weddings,” she said. “It’s a project that was worthwhile and really a lot of fun.”