Providing teens with solid information about career, educational and life choices is one of the reasons we decided to publish an annual teen magazine, Florida Trend's NEXT: Your Future After High School in Florida (tm).
The premiere issue, published last fall, received an overwhelming response from both students and educators. Hundreds of teachers and counselors have told us about how last year's magazine has made a difference in the lives of Florida teens. A West Palm Beach guidance counselor commented on our premiere edition that "virtually every article and advertisement is relevant." As a magazine publisher, I couldn't ask for a stronger, more meaningful compliment than that.
So what did we do for an encore this year? We created a bigger, even better magazine and expanded our distribution to 750,000 copies for 9th-, 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders in 1,200 Florida public and private schools -- free to the students and the schools.
Connecting with young people can be challenging. So what's the secret? We've filled the 148 pages of Florida Trend's NEXT with informative stories about the issues teens deal with whether they're heading to college, the military, the workforce or still undecided. But more important, under the direction of our 25-year-old editor, Jamie Cataldo, the stories are fun and are written in a language to which teens relate. For instance, "Car Buyin' Boulevard" leads teens through the process of buying their first car, while "Teens in Real Jobs" profiles young Floridians working in part-time jobs that could lead to future careers.
The magazine's online complement, www.FloridaNext.com, gives tech-savvy teens an online place with even more resources, polls, contests, links and articles that are also translated into Spanish. The website expands the focus on Florida as a key education and career destination far beyond our state's borders.
Thanks to the sponsors and advertisers like Walt Disney World, Busch Gardens, BellSouth, Toyota, Dillard's, Publix Super Markets and Dairy Farmers, Inc./got milk?, just to name a few. We also appreciate the support from Education Commissioner Charlie Crist and the Department of Education staff. The broad spectrum of advertisers includes Florida educational institutions, companies marketing their products and services to teens and others that are recruiting teens as employees.
By continuing to give our young people the information they need to make the best choices, we know that the new edition of Florida Trend's NEXT will continue to make a positive impact on the future of our teenagers and through them, the future of our state. Now that's an encore!