Summary:  Can two magazines targeted specifically to women survive in the Kansas City market. Stay tuned...
06-05-2007

IN KANSAS CITY MARKET: SPARKLE! VERSUS FLOURISH!

     Don't look now, but a magazine war is shaping up in the Kansas City market aimed at the highly sought female target.  In one corner is the highly-respected Flourish! Magazine which was founded in 2004 and says it is "Celebrating Local Business and Professional Women." On the other side is upstart Sparkle! Magazine which is being published by former sports publication founder Jim MacDonald.  
     Flourish! is bi-monthly while Sparkle! is a monthly.
     Sparkle! was announced in Hearne Christopher, Jr's column (5/29 below).   Christopher has frequently featured the exploits of publisher Jim MacDonald, who founded the Kansas City Sports & Fitness publication and ironically often focused on pin-ups.  Through a series of personal/professional setbacks MacDonald was forced to unload the publication.
     At this stage Flourish! founder Sheridan Sechter says she is not panicing with the introduction of a magazine that mirrors hers all the way down to the exclamation point in the name.   Sparkle! has a column of �Men We Admire� that sounds very similar to Flourish!'s "Guys Who Get It" column.
   "A few people have mentioned the publication and some of the similarities, but I haven't seen it yet," says Sechter.
    Sparkle!  was initially set to be launched in March and still does not have a Web site or email address, which might speak to an initial lack of funding.  Flourish!'s Web address is: http://www.toflourish.com/    
    Sechter, whose publication was named a "Small Business of the Year" by the Small Business Administration in 2005, says Flourish! is cruising right along by "building loyalty" and "focusing on our readers." 

    

Sparkle! gets its day in the sun