By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune Columnist
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of one of the state’s premier magazines, Kentucky Monthly, my wife and I recently attended a celebratory get-together in Frankfort at The Foundry on Broadway. The food, music, and company shared with some fine individuals made it enjoyable, but having a personal connection to the magazine was most gratifying.
I’ll share reasons a little later, but I’ll always be indebted to Mike Embry and Steve Vest, two talented journalists with a love for the Commonwealth and a desire to shine light on the best things about our state. That common interest, along with their high-quality resumes — Mike from Associated Press and Steve from Bloodhorse — brought them together in 1998 to start the magazine. It was not immediately a hit, however.
Now publisher/editor-in-chief of the magazine, Steve recently discussed the startup with EKU Radio’s Eastern Standard host, Tom Martin. He and Mike were optimistic, thinking that people “are going to love this magazine, it’s going to take off—and that’s not the way it happened,” he said. “We grew outside the state faster than we grew inside, and people outside the state would send gift subscriptions back to their families in Kentucky.”
Steve, who has Northern Kentucky roots — father from Verona and mother from Latonia — noted that Mike and he opened the Kentucky Monthly office in June of 1998 with the plan to have movie star and Augusta native George Clooney as the cover story. It came close to not happening. Vince Staton, a Courier Journal reporter, was to do the interview. Frustratingly, he got the interview only three days before the first issue was to go to press. Nervously close to the deadline, but the unveiling of the magazine would, indeed, come.
It would be the first issue AND with a Kentucky icon gracing the cover… but wait, not so fast. It had to be effectively marketed, too.
“The problem was, we had only about 40 subscribers, and the first issue, we printed 50,000 copies,” Steve said. And those copies needed to “find homes. We put a lot of miles on our cars, and it completely filled our two-car garages.” The promotional race was on, and at first, they would give copies away all around the state. Even Steve’s father, then in his eighties, volunteered his time handing out about a thousand copies per month. “It was a lot of effort, but we didn’t quit,” he said.
It has paid off for a whole host of people who are passionate about the Commonwealth. The numbers show it. Kentucky Monthly prints an average of 32,300 magazines monthly, and the magazine estimates their readership to be 137,275, reaching all 50 states and Puerto Rico. And though one may read the magazine online on its web site, Steve said it’s not very popular and people want something “to hold in their hands” and are looking for “an escape,” not hardline reporting. That model has appeared to be effective, with many now happily holding the magazine in their hands every month.
The events in celebration of Kentucky Monthly’s 25th will continue through the next year. “Between now and September 2024 we plan to reach all parts of the Commonwealth and I look forward to visiting Northern Kentucky, the land of my ancestors,” said Steve. Find details at kentuckymonthly.com.
Since 2001, I’ve been a contributor for the magazine, writing feature articles early in that time and in recent years, I’ve focused on book reviews, writing well over a hundred of the over thousand published since Kentucky Monthly was established. The reading and writing process for my reviews have spawned a great number of ideas for the Kentucky by Heart column and has enriched my overall knowledge of the state.
Mike Embry and Steve Vest gave me a chance as a fledgling young writer who was also a full-time educator. As a fourth-grade teacher, I now taught about Kentucky and wrote about Kentucky on the side; most would say I was a better teacher than writer, but Mike and Steve allowed me time to grow into the craft.
As I’m doing a little sub teaching these days and quite a bit of writing about the state; the best of both worlds is mine. I am grateful for Kentucky Monthly’s help. I’m excited about their next 25 years!
Within the same week, we also attended another arts event related specifically to Kentucky. The premier showing of the movie, Bluegrass Spirits, took place at The Kentucky Theatre, in downtown Lexington.
The independent film is billed as offering “a heartfelt and authentic lens into the worlds of bourbon distilling and ghost-hunting in Kentucky.” Much care is taken to provide a technically correct presentation of bourbon distilling, with Tim Knittel, founder of Distilled Living, a company which provides education and experiences on the subject, giving expert consultation.
The writer/director is Kentucky native Jonny Walls, who recently moved back from Los Angeles. He has two other films to his credit, Couch Survivor and All about the Afterglow. The movie is generally set in Paris at the Hartfield & Company Distillery, with some sights of other places in Central Kentucky also shown.
Suzanne and I enjoyed the movie, a character-driven film which combines both light and powerfully dramatic moments. Mostly, it satisfied our always needed “Kentucky fix.” For more information, visit the Bluegrass Spirits Movie Facebook page and the IMBD web site, Bluegrass Spirits (2023)