Austin Woman

I am a woman who loves magazines and Austin, so you’d think I’d naturally be in lust with Austin Woman magazine.
To be honest, I’m on the fence about this local publication. First, the positives. I applaud Austin for supporting print media that highlights the successes of our hometown heroines, and I applaud founder Melinda Maine Garvey for breaking ground in a competitive market. Austin Woman began in 2002. In less than five years they’ve established a circulation of over 25,000 with distribution at over 600 Austin hot spots. Nice.
My other positive? They generally select pretty cool women to highlight. I was delighted with their recent feature on Natalie Maines, and they’ve been discerning (in a good way) with their broad range of picks.
Unfortunately, the articles are not wholly impressive. The quality of the composition is mediocre and the writing style is plain olé vanilla. I often spot grammatical errors and run-​on sentences (this isn’t one, is it?) I suppose this is nit-​picky, but I like Austin Woman. I worry that these minor issues lower their credibility within the community and present less-​than-​stellar essays on some of our most notable and notorious.
I grab an issue of Austin Woman each month. Hopefully I’ll pick it up one day and be blown away by the copy.