by Tina Hartley

Created on: November 15, 2010

Grandparents magazine is the little engine that couldn’t. Most attempts to tap into the over 50 crowd with a grand parenting theme have had no success. Meredith Corporation, publishers of Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Baby and a host of other magazines, went up to bat in the late 1980s with “Grandparents”. According to Scott Barancik, reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, it folded after three issues.

Katrina Wester conceived the idea of Grandparents Magazine in 2003 and went as far as creating a website named Grandparentsmagazine.net. The cost-prohibitive publishing portion of the idea was never realized and the website spawned a new website named grandparents.com. The original .net website still exists but has little relevant information and many broken links.

The Grandparents.com website is formatted in webzine style and present informational articles on a variety of interests such as vacation spots, recipes, kids clothing and more. Grandparents, or other web searchers can find information on product reviews, financial advice, kids games and activity pages, or just about anything else you can think of that may hold the interest of the boomer generation.

The only magazine geared towards grandparents that made the grade was the brainchild of Christine Crosby, entrepreneur and great-grandmother. Together with her husband, Jonathan Micocci, a pair of partners and a $500,000 investment, the 58 year old Floridian launched “Grand” in 2004. Perhaps, the name itself was far more attractive to the older generation, many of which don’t like to dwell on the fact they are indeed grandparents despite how much they enjoy their grandchildren.

Crosby enjoyed previous publishing success with both book and magazine publishing ventures aimed at family interests. Her first publication, “Central Florida Family” came off the presses in 1989. After adding other regional titles over the ensuing few years the business was purchased by Chicago-based Tribune in 1995.

At any rate, “Grand” succeeded where others failed for a few years. The print version of “Grand” eventually succumbed to the high demands of print publication in the digital age. As of the date of this writing “Grand” is only available electronically. Information found on grandmagazine.com indicates the magazine expected to be printing again but to date this has not been realized.

For those interested in a magazine geared towards grandparents and grandchildren, a digital subscription to “Grand” is $19.95 for twelve issues delivered via email. The Ezine is formatted in traditional magazine-style and may be previewed here.

A digital subscription also includes the “Grand World” newsletter published twice a month.

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