Adithya Sambamurthy photo
Over at the Bay Citizen, a fantastic new nonprofit news organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, writer Chris Colin tells the story of Rosebud, the "hydroponics lifestyle" magazine that's all about pot culture, sans pot. My old Wired and Business 2.0 colleague James Daly is editor of the print pub, backed by Advanced Nutrients, a big Canadian seller of hydroponics gear. I haven't read it, but if I must judge a book by its cover it looks like Cigar Aficionado for dope dealers. From the Bay Citizen:
Rather than fat bud close-ups, the Bay Area-based magazine (now in its seventh issue) offers travel features, extreme sports, actor profiles, buxom ladies and other airport newsstand staples, as well as a few technical articles on seed selection and better yields…
So what, exactly, is that hydroponics lifestyle?
"They're interested in do-it-yourself things, liberating things, freedom," Alex Leon, Rosebud's associate publisher, says of the demographic. "They want to be challenged, to not be governed by too many boundaries. They might live off the grid, be into the outdoors, have some disposable income."
The company is gambling that they also like to read – at least high-gloss, Maxim-ish literature. ("Charlize Theron is a great anomaly. She's tall (5'9"), blonde, smart, and a real knockout," the June cover interview begins.) In a throwback to the heyday of plush magazines like Look, several pages of each issue are devoted simply to lovely art photos, a fact that nobody ought to tell Gourmet, Portfolio, Domino, Vibe and the hundreds of other titles that have run dry in the last two years.
"We're reaching new readers, and they're happy not to be stereotyped as stoners," Daly says. "We're not putting Cheech and Chong on the cover."
