The 82-year-old Arizona Highways magazine will feature sponsorship advertisements for the first time since its inception.
The venerable periodical known for its travelogues and breath-taking photographs of the Arizona landscape is struggling to break even, said its publisher Win Holden.
“It’s fundamental mathematics,” he said. “We have no intention of making advertising a run-of-the book feature.”
The nonprofit magazine, which is overseen by the Arizona Department of Transportation, has experienced declining readership since 1981.
But rather than traditional advertisements similar to those seen in mainstream magazines, Holden said Arizona Highways will only devote one page each month to a commercial sponsor and the messages will be similar in nature to the kinds of ads sold on National Public Radio and television’s Public Broadcasting Service.
“As long as the tonality and the content of the messages are appropriate for the magazine, were fine with it,” he said.
