So there I was, in my jammies, curled up with my laptop, exhausted from working
the Lake George Jazz Weekend. Someone had suggested I check out The Free
George’s coverage of the event, so I went to thefreegeorge.com. Up came an
article on the concert and I started to read – good writing to be sure, but then I
saw the box George TV. I clicked on the link and there I was – in the front row of
an amphitheater – experiencing the Lake George jazz musicians from the
comfort of my bed. We certainly live in amazing times.
Right away I was impressed, after all how could you not love a full-fledged
rendition in the comfort of your bed? I decided to do what anyone would—I
checked out the magazine further. What I found was this: not only was the
magazine easy to navigate, fun, upbeat, and done in this great retro style, but it
also covered a huge spectrum of the community (Albany on up to Lake Placid,
including Saratoga, the Lake George region & many parts of the Adirondacks). It
was also largely arts and entertainment based, which for me was a great thing.
But in addition to that, the magazine includes local interest pieces, interviews
with artists, musicians and entertainers from around the area or visiting the area,
coverage of events, dining, articles on the outdoors and history of the area, along
with a casual dose of news and politics, including their most recent addition—
exclusive interviews with US Congressman Scott Murphy and Chris
Gibson. There’s even a food column on the mag. How fun is that.
So after all this, I took the next step and met with publishers Dave Bower and
Monica Sirignano. I wanted to know who was behind this fun and exciting online
mag.
The two, a couple who were previously living in NYC, before they moved to the
area a little over a year ago, both had an extensive background in writing, editing
and design. Upon their move, which stemmed from, like many of us, needing to
escape the drain of city life, they noticed a lack of this kind of coverage
particularly in the Adirondacks. Since both are also artists, they particularly
wanted to focus on art-centric elements in the area, but knew as well that they
would need to cover a large variety of things to make the magazine successful.
“The video element is particularly important, we think,” said Monica Sirignano,
“and we’re really hoping to grow with it in time, to have some true area
programming.”
Since the magazine first launched in June, it has continued to grow in both local
and national, as well as international readership. “We have a lot of international
readers,” said Dave Bower, “which at first kind of surprised us. We even have
readers in Estonia, Kabul, places like that. It’s all pretty interesting.” As for their
reasoning in starting this, they both agreed that originally it was meant to cover
five counties in the Adirondacks (Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Hamilton &
Essex), but they’ve expanded now to cover Albany and “at times southern
Vermont as well.” “There’s a lot going on in the whole area and the magazine is
really a great resource for anyone interested in the whole Upstate NY scene, so
to speak.”