Why a Local Print Magazine Still Matters

Near the end of every month, Robert Stringfellow disappears into production mode. His wife knows the rhythm. For roughly three days, other plans give way while he and a designer assemble Nashville Christian Family Magazine.

Stringfellow began publishing the free monthly magazine in Williamson County in 2009, according to Christian Family Publications, and has since expanded its print distribution across Greater Nashville. His background in advertising sales and print prepared him for pieces of the work, but producing an entire issue demanded a new level of coordination. Contributors, advertisers, layouts, distribution, and editorial decisions all have to converge on the same deadline. Then, a month later, the process begins again.

That repetition is part of the publication's value. Stringfellow believes readers trust the magazine because it keeps returning to the places where they live and work.

People regularly ask whether he will stop producing hard copies and move entirely online. His answer is direct: “I'll never stop printing hard copies because I'll make about 5,000 people very angry if they can't pick it up and take it home.”

The number is Stringfellow's estimate, not an independently audited circulation figure, but the behavior behind it explains why print still matters to him. A reader takes an issue home, reads it, sets it down, and picks it up again. An article brings a relative, employee, patient, or friend to mind, so the magazine gets passed along. Nashville Christian Family's own advertising materials describe a six-to-eight-week shelf life, far longer than the moment most digital posts receive.

“I never know who's going to read what and how it's going to affect them,” he says.

The magazine is deliberately Christian, but Stringfellow does not treat conviction as permission to disregard the reader. He says there are forceful submissions he has declined because their tone could push away someone who does not already share the publication's beliefs. His task is to preserve the magazine's identity while presenting its ideas in a form another person can receive.

That same concern shapes his interest in business. Stringfellow enjoys helping companies and nonprofits explain their work through advertising. He also wants owners and managers to encounter ideas they can put into practice. He recalls hearing from a business leader who, after reading an article, began offering employees a voluntary weekly prayer gathering.

At 75, Stringfellow told Ignite that he had no plans to retire. His standard for continuing was uncomplicated: “If it's helping people, that's the key.”

His case for print is not that paper is better than every digital channel. It is that a medium remains relevant when it knows whom it serves. A local magazine can create value through familiarity, careful selection, and the simple possibility that one reader will place it in the hands of another. The full member edition follows that second-reader strategy beyond Nashville, into the editorial judgments and small habits that keep a mission-shaped publication useful.