TAMPA Magazines, the esteemed corporate umbrella encompassing three premier magazine brands, joyously marks its 20th anniversary in this special edition. Over two dynamic decades, we’ve witnessed the evolution of various magazine brand names, which have culminated in our current publications:
+ TAMPA Magazine Illuminating the refined lifestyle of the city of Tampa.
+ South Tampa Magazine Representing the city’s most affluent, cultural, historical and artistic neighborhoods
+ Tampa Bay Live+Work+Play Enriching the upscale lifestyles of Pinellas County and Tampa’s satellite cities, including Lutz, Odessa, Brandon, Valrico, Apollo Beach, Wesley Chapel and more.
From name changes to brand makeovers, for the past two decades, we’ve chronicled the tales of everyone, from celebrity chefs to local heroes. Join us as we stroll down memory lane, revisiting the evolution of TAMPA Magazines from 2003 to today.
A Timeline of Tampa Magazines Evolution
From our very first magazine in 2003 to today, here we outline our important covers and milestones throughout the past twenty years.
Spring 2003 | HI Magazine (Harbour Island)
Our first neighborhood magazine, HI (short for Harbour Island), debuted in spring 2003, emanating from our Harbour Island office established in 2001. The magazine was dedicated to promoting the upscale lifestyle of Harbour Island and its surrounding businesses, including ours.
Behind the Scenes:
+ The magazine found instant success. However, the name “HI” occasionally led to confusion, as some readers interpreted it as a friendly greeting rather than an homage to Harbour Island.
Fall 2004 | TAMPA Downtown
Adjacent to Harbour Island, downtown Tampa beckoned our storytelling. We staged our cover photoshoot in front of the organ inside the Tampa Theatre.
Behind the Scenes:
+ Today, downtown Tampa is the epitome of a thriving, up-and-coming Live, Work, Play neighborhood, but in 2004 “Work” was the only thing downtown had going for it. From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., downtown was brimming with workers., but after dark and on weekends – tumbleweeds.
Spring 2006 | SoHo Magazine (South Howard and Hyde Park Area)
With the success of HI Magazine, the obvious next step in our expansion was South Tampa’s SoHo area and the surrounding neighborhoods. SoHo Magazine became the most successful expansion of our neighborhood magazine portfolio at the time.
Behind the Scenes:
+ While the inaugural cover drew praise, some readers felt it was a tad too provocative, prompting us to heed their feedback in subsequent editions.
October 2005 | South Tampa Magazine
In a defining moment in 2005, we amalgamated all South Tampa neighborhoods into one cohesive entity—South Tampa Magazine. Lightning superstar Vincent “Vinny” Lecavalier graced our first cover.
Behind the Scenes:
+ During a televised Lighting game, the announcer interviewing Lecavalier put up a photo of the cover on the screen and said, “According to South Tampa Magazine, you like chocolate.” This prompted magazine orders from across the U.S. and Canada.
+ Our first photo shoot with Lecavalier didn’t come out the way we planned. Lecavalier was gracious enough to come back in and sit for another shoot in our Harbour Island office.
January 2009 | blu Tampa Bay
Amidst the great recession, we defied conventional wisdom and launched blu Tampa Bay, a premium lifestyle magazine, during the forty-third annual Super Bowl hosted at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. Despite the economic challenges, the magazine took flight and we were designated “The Official Lifestyle Magazine of the 2009 Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee.
People thought we were crazy for launching a luxury lifestyle magazine at that time., but we spent close to a year planning and creating the magazine, so we were already invested and decided to launch anyway.
Behind the Scenes:
+ The cover photoshoot location was a pool at an upscale waterfront home in the Westshore area of South Tampa.
The temperatures were in the 30s and 40s, but the models were troopers.
+ Our senior photographer, Gabriel Burgos, was a gamer too. He joined the models in the pool holding our brand new $40,000 camera just above the freezing water.
+ blu Tampa Bay laid the foundation for what would later become TAMPA Magazine.
June 2015 | TAMPA Magazine
In December 2014, Jeff Vinik announced his plans to develop a moribund area of downtown Tampa. New condos, restaurants, bars and parks would be the catalyst for a new live, work, play lifestyle in Tampa’s urban core. Even though Tampa was still feeling the effects of the great recession that started several years earlier, we decided to make an announcement as well. We would rename our flagship title from blu Tampa Bay to TAMPA Magazine.
The decision proved fortuitous as Tampa began to experience a resurgence.
For our first cover, we decided to prominently feature Tampa’s (Ybor City’s) iconic Cuban Sandwich.
Behind the Scenes:
+ We included a tomato in the sandwich to give the cover a pop of red color. But many of our knowledgeable readers called us out loudly – a tomato has no place on an authentic cuban sandwich.
+ Since we timed our name change with Jeff Vinik’s announcement of what would eventually become downtown’s Water Street district, our biggest goal was to eventually get Vinik to agree to be our cover story in a future edition, which we accomplished a couple years later in 2017.
September 2022 | Tampa Bay Live+Work+Play
In September 2022, we expanded our reach with the launch of Tampa Bay Live+Work+Play, catering to southern Pinellas County and Hillsborough County cities.
The inaugural cover showcased Tom and Mary James and their St. Petersburg museum, The James Museum. Tom James is the former CEO and Chairman for Raymond James. He is currently the Chairman Emeritus. Raymond James stadium (home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) is named after his firm.
Behind the Scenes:
+ For our cover story, Tom and Mary James were gracious enough to take us on a personally guided tour of The James Museum.
Cheers to 20 years of TAMPA Magazines!
