WORDS: Gabrielle Versmessen
Eight years and now 50 issues later, Nextgen Family Magazine has been a massive success right from the start! Beginning as the brainchild of our late CEO, Paul Sharff, after seeing a small publication at his son’s orthodontist’s office that was full of advertisements, he wanted to create something that not only would advertise businesses and events but be a vehicle to showcase what the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County was doing – and feature everything good in our local community.
New CEO of the ELC, Darrell King, was in journalism in the UK for 21 years before moving to the US in 2012. Thinking he might like a career change, he perused the Sunday edition of the Bradenton Herald only to find that a small ad looking for a project manager to start a magazine was what caught his eye. He then applied, interviewed, and met Paul.
“Once I met him, it was an easy decision. He and I just hit it off. He told me what he wanted to do with the magazine, and I saw immediately that he was going to be so committed to making it happen. When Paul went at something, he went 150% to make it the best it could be, and I liked that. I had this instant good feeling that it was something that would be really cool. We had a lot of support from the then then Office of Early Learning at State level, Manatee County local government, and many of our funders to help get it up and running,” Darrell says.
Nextgen was initially supposed to launch in August of 2014, but with so much interest in it, Paul and Darrell launched the magazine in May after just five short months. Darrell wrote most of the content for the first issue, and the two freelance photographers, Wendy Dewhurst and Whitney Patton have contributed from the beginning and are still working with Nextgen. Kelly Harbour is also part of the original team as one of the designers for the magazine. Nextgen partnered with PCI Communications to handle some design work, the printing, and all the distribution. Valerie Longo and Mara Stork are two employees from PCI who have been assisting Nextgen from the start, making them another integral part of the team.
According to Darrell, they got approval from the school district to put the magazine in kids’ backpacks, which was a “game changer,” and Nextgen still has that partnership today. The bulk of the 30,000- copies are distributed to elementary schools, but the school district also allocates some to middle schools, high schools, and administrative offices. In fact, many of the partners who helped the magazine get up and running are still with us today.
With contents like “Children’s Champion,” “Beyond Generous,” and “Manatee’s Got Talent,” readers have access to learning about local people or organizations that are making a difference in Manatee County or reading about local kids who are excelling in all different fields.
After only being published for a year, Nextgen Family Magazine won the Silver Charlie Award, named “Best New Magazine” by the Florida Magazine Association. Other publications with 25-30 staff were going up to Darrell, with only 4-5 staff members, asking, “How do you do this?”
According to Darrell, there has never once been a challenge to fill the content in eight years. He explains it’s because Manatee County is such a ‘vibrant, cool place’ where things are always going on, new nonprofits and people are coming in, and there is exponential community growth. In all that time, they’ve only missed one issue during COVID for the 2020 June/July issue.
Another prominent feature of Nextgen is that it’s not a profit-making magazine. Any money the magazine does make gets spent on ELC programs which is a good feeling for its partners and advertisers. They’re getting the chance to advertise but then also have the opportunity to support the Coalition.
“We’re eternally grateful for all of our partners and their support over the years. They know what the magazine is about and that every revenue we make comes back to the ELC,” Darrell says.
“Nextgen has helped the community, children, and families by generating revenue for the ELC. The main thing is that it’s allowed us to showcase what the ELC does because we have our own pages in there. So, whenever anything good is going on that we want to get our programs out there, or we want to promote our reading program, or want to talk about when we handed out sanitizing stations during COVID, the magazine has become a vehicle for us to tell the community what the ELC does. I think that’s really important when you’re funded by state and federal dollars, and people can actually read and see where their money is going.”
It saddens Darrell deeply that Paul will not be here for the 50th issue. He reminisces, “We had a launch party for the magazine at his house, so he would probably have had some big party to celebrate this landmark! It’s kind of weird doing it with Paul not being here, but it’s a big thing to me to make sure we carry on the magazine the way he wanted, to really make it a part of the community and help people.”
Since Darrell became the CEO, his position at the ELC has changed quite a bit. “The magazine is still very important to me. I like to be as heavily involved with it and the editorial team as time permits. That will never change. That will always be a part of what I do here because the magazine means so much to me. Sometimes it adds a little extra to my day, but it’s worth it.”
So, what’s next for Nextgen? We hope to still be producing a great magazine by the 100th issue in another eight years. It’s the ELC’s publication but has become part of the fabric of Manatee County that the whole community owns. With a very special thanks to everyone at the schools for passing out our magazine, our partners, our readers, and everyone that’s been involved from the start, we wouldn’t be where we are today without all of you!
