40 Years From tourist guide to award-winning city magazine
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t’s been 40 years since Ocala Magazine was first published, and like the community it covers, it has gone through myriad changes – including three name changes — in becoming the area’s premier city magazine. The original name was Today in Ocala, and it started as a tourism digest. The concept originated with the wife of the manager of the Sheridan Hotel of Ocala, Mary Profitt. That publication would eventually be taken over by Linda Marks, whose husband, Bob, had made his fortune as head of a Madison Avenue advertising agency in New York before building a thoroughbred farm, now Double Diamond Farm, in Ocala. It was in Ocala where Bob and Linda met, then married. While building the Ocala Jockey Club, Bob Marks stayed at the Sheridan Hotel, where Mary Profitt approached him with the idea that she thought there was a market for a tourist magazine in Ocala. At the time, the Six Gun Territory, the Wax Museum and Silver Springs were popular attractions. “She felt there was a tourism market,
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| FEB 2021 | OCALAMAGAZINE.COM
because she worked the front desk with her husband and people would ask questions on where to go for the attractions, as well as where to eat near them,” Linda Marks said. Profitt, however, quickly found she could not afford the printing bill and, after three issues, agreed to sell the publication to the Marks. Linda Marks thought the experience of writing for and running a magazine would be good practice for when she needed to write for law school, her ultimate goal. She instantly decided she wanted to publish a city magazine, not a tourism magazine. Marks published the first issue of Today in Ocala under her name, with her new vision, in April 1981. TREND-SETTING INNOVATOR City magazines were not considered fiscally feasible for a town like Ocala. They were seen as something better suited for bigger cities. Marks determined if she produced a digest-sized magazine and charged two-thirds of the price of the ads a city magazine would command, then the Ocala marketplace could
sustain it, and the advertising would greatly enhance the advertisers’ bottom line. Another innovation that struck her as potentially successful was controlled circulation distribution. She had seen it work for some digest magazines in the northeast, whereby pick up stands are placed in high circulation centers, businesses, and organizations around town. She was the first to try it in Florida, and it proved to be a success. In October 1987, Marks made her first magazine name change from Today in Ocala to Ocala Today. At the time, Ocala Today was the only magazine in Ocala, and the only one in the state of Florida owned and operated by a woman. Over the years, Marks started 15 magazines. Some ran for a long time, like Gainesville Today, which was published for 30 years. DAWN OF THE MODERN OCALA MAGAZINE The final name change was made in March 2002 to Ocala Magazine. The magazine had also gone from a digest to a full-sized edition. It was during this time that Marks was married to her
