A Naperville woman saw the need for a specific type of publication in her community, so she created it.
Naperville already has media outlets that cater to its residents, but Ashley South wanted to find a unique way to highlight the community.
South is the founder and editor & chief of Main & Luxe magazine. She said the Main refers to a community’s main street and the Luxe part speaks of luxurious things.
“Luxe may mean high end services, it may mean a high-end bag, it might mean education,” she added, “it might mean a sense of community.”
South said when she was in college, she was the social chair on student council. She loved this appointment because she had the opportunity to connect people with each other.
“So, when I decided to start this magazine, I really wanted to lean into what that looked like,” South explained, “and weave that piece of my personality into our business model.”
Starting a magazine wasn’t the future South saw in her deck of cards. She worked for J.P. Morgan but decided to leave corporate America when the pandemic hit.
“A lot of people became disillusioned with corporate America and their particular experience around working from home, and some of the conditions," she said, "and decided to make a lot of changes.”
South said this was a daring move. She reached out to some people to find out what they thought. She then reached out to someone who had a magazine and suggested they partner. That person didn’t see her vision. South said after that she decided to start her own publication.
“Little did I know that starting your own company that means, you know, business attorneys, trademark attorneys trying to find pages,” she added, “getting your website, buying all of the assets.”
Although the one magazine owner didn’t see South’s vision, many others did.
That included Catherine Ross, the design director at Ross Creative Works.
“She told me when I first started, she was like, so you can't do what you're talking about doing. And it wasn't in this bad way of like crushing dreams,” South explained. “She said, ‘Ashley, you have to note that this doesn't line up.’”
Ross said she became a sounding board for South. She also offered her technical expertise. She said South’s magazine offers a hyper-local focus to Naperville.
“She has a very creative approach in the way that she puts photographs with stories and the stories that she tells,” she said. "She seeks out stories that might not be at the forefront but are still really important or interesting stories.”
The first issue came out in September 2021.
Main & Luxe magazine is broken up into 10 sections. A few are Community, Luxe Life and The Library.
“The library became something that I wanted to feature in every issue, because the Naperville library is so strong,” she said. “And we have so many resources here that people just don't know about.”
Besides the library, South said the magazine uncovers other hidden jewels in the community.
“We also were really focused on our ‘Give Back’ section,” she explained. "So that was an opportunity to highlight folks who are doing good works within the community, or the immediate surrounding area.”
The magazine has grown tremendously. South started out writing all the articles on her own. Now she has several freelance writers, a graphic designer, and many other staff members. Not only is the print version gaining traction, but the digital magazine is also catapulting.
“We upped our distribution numbers 5%. But our digital flipbook that you're talking about, you can flip through — is literally up 1,670%. social media is up 300%, our interactive website is up 500%.”
The magazine started out monthly but is now bimonthly. South explained that this was changed to ensure the magazine's quality remained high.
South said the next focus is on in-person events. Copies of the magazine can be found in select Naperville outlets and at the Naperville Public Library. The digital flipbook can be downloaded.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.