NATIVE magazine

What NATIVE magazine does

NATIVE Magazine is an independent, privately-held print and digital publication headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 2012 with a seven-person team. The magazine positions itself as Nashville's creative culture publication, covering seven editorial verticals: Food, Art, Music, Drink, Literature, Style, and Film. Content is produced in multiple formats including print and digital magazine issues (distributed via Issuu), website articles, video content, curated audio playlists, and photo galleries. The publication features local Nashville artists, musicians, chefs, and cultural figures across more than 80 documented issues.

The business operates a community-led go-to-market model centered on email newsletter subscriptions and a recurring community membership program offering exclusive content, ticket giveaways, and invite-only events. Revenue is generated through community membership subscriptions and digital magazine sales, both structured as recurring revenue. The underlying technology is a WordPress-based website, and digital management is outsourced to Come Together Create, a digital management partner. The publication maintains an organic social media presence on Twitter/X and Facebook to amplify content distribution.

NATIVE Magazine serves a primary reader segment of Nashville arts and culture enthusiasts seeking curated local coverage that mainstream media under-provides. Marketing channels include the native.is website, email newsletter, social media, and the Issuu digital platform. No institutional funding, parent company, or acquisition activity has been disclosed, and the publication operates as a bootstrapped lifestyle media entity focused exclusively on the Nashville, Tennessee market.

Name

NATIVE magazine

Legal name

NATIVE Magazine

Website

https://native.is

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NATIVE Magazine is an independent Nashville-based print and digital creative culture publication founded in 2012, covering Food, Art, Music, Drink, Literature, Style, and Film for local arts and culture enthusiasts through a community membership model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Regional Arts & Culture Magazine

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Arts, Culture & Literary Magazines (MPAJAEAN)

Keywords

• Local arts magazine
• Creative culture publication
• Music and food editorial
• Community membership media
• Nashville lifestyle coverage

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Community Membership Subscriptions: NATIVE Magazine generates revenue through community membership subscriptions that provide exclusive content, ticket giveaways, and access to invite-only events. This is a recurring revenue model targeting engaged Nashville creative culture enthusiasts.
2. Digital Magazine Sales: The magazine publishes issues available digitally through Issuu platform, allowing readers to access individual issues of the publication.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

NATIVE magazine is a Nashville-based creative culture magazine that publishes print and digital issues covering food, art, music, drink, literature, style, and film in the Nashville creative community. It complements its editorial content with a community membership, a newsletter, audio playlists, video content, and a media gallery, forming a curated local creative-culture media platform.

Product overview

NATIVE Magazine is a Nashville-based print and digital publication covering the city's creative culture. The magazine operates as a unified platform with multiple content formats including print and digital issues, video content, audio playlists, photo galleries, and email newsletters. The publication is organized around editorial sections (Elements) covering Food, Art, Music, Drink, Literature, Style, and Film. Issues are published regularly featuring local artists, musicians, chefs, and cultural figures. The magazine maintains a digital presence with video content, curated audio playlists, and community engagement through its newsletter.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NATIVE Magazine (main publication) Flagship Nashville-based creative culture magazine covering food, art, music, drink, literature, style, and film, distributed in both print and digital editions for readers interested in local creative culture.
• NATIVE Digital Issues Online, page-flip digital editions of NATIVE magazine hosted on the Issuu platform, allowing readers to access issues via web browser.
• NATIVE Newsletter Email newsletter delivering curated creative-culture content and updates to subscribers and community members.
• NATIVE Audio Playlists Curated audio playlists complementing the magazine's editorial coverage of Nashville's music and drink culture.
• NATIVE Video Content Original video content produced by the magazine to extend its creative-culture coverage beyond print and digital editions.
• NATIVE Media Gallery Online image gallery on the magazine's website showcasing photography from features and editorial coverage.
• NATIVE Community Membership Paid community membership tier that gives members access to issues, newsletter, audio, video, and behind-the-scenes content, anchoring the publication's reader revenue model.

Named customers4 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Come Together CreateminorOthersDigital management partner responsible for website management and digital operations for NATIVE Magazine.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• AFAR Media: A travel and experiential culture magazine covering food, music, art, and local culture across global destinations. Comparable to NATIVE in its multi-vertical culture coverage and experiential editorial framing, though focused on travel rather than a single city.
• Garden & Gun: A national magazine covering Southern culture including food, music, art, and travel. Comparable to NATIVE in its multi-vertical Southern culture coverage and print+digital distribution, though at significantly larger scale and broader geographic reach.
• Oxford American: A long-running literary magazine dedicated to Southern culture, with strong overlap in arts, music, and writing coverage. Comparable to NATIVE in regional culture focus and literary/arts editorial depth, though operating at a broader Southern (not just Nashville) scale.

Regional players

• The Local Palate: A regional magazine covering Southern food culture and the chefs, restaurants, and ingredients behind it. Comparable to NATIVE in its regional editorial focus and food-and-culture intersection, though with a tighter food-centric lens.
• Nfocus: A city-focused lifestyle magazine serving Nashville, covering arts, dining, culture, and local personalities. Comparable to NATIVE as a peer Nashville-based magazine covering the same cultural verticals and local audience.

Others

• Substack (culture newsletters): A platform hosting independent culture and local journalism newsletters. Comparable to NATIVE as an emerging alternative distribution mechanism for local culture content, several of which directly compete for Nashville creative audience attention.

Direct peers

• Nashville Lifestyles: A Nashville-focused lifestyle magazine covering the city's culture, dining, and people. Comparable to NATIVE as a local consumer magazine covering arts, food, and lifestyle verticals in the same metropolitan market.
• Nashville Scene: Nashville's flagship alternative weekly covering local arts, music, food, and culture. Directly comparable as a hyper-local Nashville culture publication targeting the same readers and advertisers as NATIVE, though operating primarily as a digital-first alt-weekly.
• The Bitter Southerner: An independent digital magazine celebrating Southern culture, music, food, and arts. Comparable to NATIVE in its regional culture focus, multi-vertical editorial approach, and digital-first distribution model.

Emerging players

• Southbound Magazine: An independent Southern culture publication covering music, food, and lifestyle. Comparable to NATIVE in its regional cultural focus and digital-first editorial model, though newer and at smaller scale.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/follow
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/native-magazine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NATIVE magazine