The artists, cover stories and events featured in Smooth Jazz News are chosen based on a variety of factors and are budgeted in December for each upcoming year. Although this process has evolved over the 24 years of publishing this niche magazine, within the last decade we’ve followed a specific formula.

Each edition is focused on a festival or theme: February-March is the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest in Reading, Pennsylvania; April-May, the Seabreeze Jazz Festival in Panama City Beach, Florida; June-July, the San Diego Smooth Jazz Festival; August-September, current events; and in October, the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival. These are established events that attract large crowds of jazz fans, and also where Smooth Jazz News has a booth to sell subscriptions (and sometimes merchandise) and distribute thousands of magazines.

In addition, we also publish an Annual Jazz Festival and Cruise Guide (in the April-May issue), as well as a Jazz Concert Series Guide (in the June-July issue).

We then choose a marquee act from each featured festival/concert series, preferably one who has released a new CD and also has something newsworthy, unique or of interest to our readers going on. And, that’s our cover story.

So, we strive for headliners and well-established stars who appeal to the majority of our readers, which until recently, was limited to one artist feature per issue due to budget constraints. Fortunately, post-pandemic advertising increased, affording us the funds to occasionally add an additional article about other artists also performing at the featured festivals/concerts we’ve covered since 2021. And we certainly hope that trend continues.

I loved it in the early days when we could include five to 10 CD reviews, two or three additional articles with up-and-coming artists or fan favorites, and nearly every concert series, festival and cruise. However, in recent years, our editorial budgets––which are funded entirely by advertising revenues––simply couldn’t accommodate the expense or the page space. (Yes, it costs us money to publish an artist or festival feature.)

Unfortunately, we don’t have the budget or space to accommodate all of the artists and events who would like, and deserve, to be featured, so we created advertorial (a combination of editorial and advertising) packages for them to purchase. Although we no longer review CDs, our DISCover New Music campaign allows musicians and artists to promote their latest releases, tour dates and website to our nationwide readership, as well as a more in-depth “Artist Spotlight Advertorial Article” for a fee. These packages offer artists an affordable and effective way to promote themselves and their music in their own words directly to their target audience, Smooth Jazz News readers nationwide. Event producers can also purchase space for an advertorial article as well.

Due to these circumstances, we, regrettably, are unable to accept or respond to publicist pitches.

If you would like information on placing an ad or an advertorial campaign in Smooth Jazz News, please email  smoothjazzads@aol.com or call 858-541-1919.

Thank you for your interest in Smooth Jazz News.

Sincerely,

Melanie Maxwell, Publisher