Coast magazine and coastmagazine.com announce new design, format and interactive elements

Newport Beach, Calif. – Oct. 1, 2009 – Monthly coastal Orange County lifestyle magazine Coast and coastmagazine.com are offering a more interactive experience for readers of its print and online editions, starting with its October 2009 issue.

The new format includes the same quality of profiles, columns, feature sections, fashion spreads and home tours, but with a more modern twist: an opportunity to interact with and experience what they’ve read in the magazine or seen on the site, said Erin Zilis, publisher of Coast.

“The new theme of Coast transitions from passive reflection to hands-on involvement,” Zilis said. “It is a new way of publishing that better connects our readers with local advertisers, businesses, and organizations.”

Coast’s mission statement has been the same for 19 years: To create a sense of community and to promote and vitalize the local economy. But where once it was status quo to present stories for readers to enjoy by aspiration, Coast now offers readers a more inspirational experience, one that will hopefully motivate them to take action and become even more involved with the people, places and events that breathe life into coastal Orange County.

“Whether that’s volunteering time at a local nonprofit building homes for the underprivileged, walking for a cure, donating used clothing, trying out a new dish at a local restaurant, visiting an art exhibit, helping to clean up a beach, shopping at a neighborhood boutique, taking a class, attending a world class event, or watching a video, we’ll be offering it up in Coast,” said Zilis.

Another example is the popular home tour feature. Content within the feature will include information on how readers can adopt the look for themselves, from suggested home retailers to interior designers who specialize in that design style, Zilis said.

The new format follows a series of online upgrades in April, which included the addition of Web-exclusive articles, share features, better search capabilities, blogs and a user-friendly, turn-the-page platform to view the magazine exactly as it appears in print. The e-edition also includes direct links to advertisers’ Web sites through a directory in the navigation bar and within magazine pages.

To encourage additional interaction with readers, Coast also launched a Facebook page with future plans to introduce more video, photo slideshows, a Bizz Buzz e-newsletter and mobile applications.

About Coast Magazine / Freedom Communications, Inc.
The specialty media division of Freedom Communications publishes Coast, Coast Kids, Preferred Destinations and other publications supporting the arts. Its custom publishing unit has published programs for OC Performing Arts Center, South Coast Repertory, Newport Beach Film Festival, Oceana, the Anaheim Ducks, Blenheim Equisports and the U.S. Open of Surfing.

Freedom Communications, Inc., headquartered in Irvine, Calif., is a national privately owned information and entertainment company of print publications, broadcast television stations and interactive businesses. The company’s portfolio includes 33 daily newspapers (including The Orange County Register), more than 70 weekly newspapers, magazines and other specialty publications, plus news, information and entertainment websites to complement its print and broadcast properties. Freedom’s newspaper publications have a combined circulation of nearly one million subscribers. The broadcast stations—five CBS and three ABC network affiliates—reach more than 3.5 million households across the country.