What makes Our State magazine special? Is it the small but dedicated staff of employee-owners who work hard to produce a high-quality publication that just keeps getting better? Is it the tales of people, history, food, beauty, and nostalgia that depict the life and times of the Old North State? Is it the multimedia content that brings the pages of each issue to life?
Perhaps, more than anything, it’s the connection that our readers have with the magazine — the stories and images that stir something within them, that elicit poignant memories, that inspire them to travel to new places. It’s this special connection that keeps our readers coming back month after month.
For more than 90 years, Our State has delivered to subscribers’ doorsteps the experiences of life in North Carolina. In 1933, newspaper journeyman Carl Goerch — a New York-born transplant to eastern North Carolina — began meeting with businessmen to discuss a new magazine that he was founding. He delivered the pitch: “Let me run an ad for you in the first four issues. If, at the end of the month, you find that the publication isn’t worth anything, you can discontinue. On the other hand, if you think it is really worthwhile, I hope you’ll continue using the space.”
Almost a dozen agreed — no small feat during the Great Depression — and the first 2,500 copies of what was then called The State were published on June 3 of that year. The inaugural issue was 24 pages, written almost entirely by Goerch himself, and sold for 10 cents.
By 1954, the magazine had reached subscribers in all 50 states and 34 countries. Goerch served as publisher of The State for 18 years and was succeeded by Bill Sharpe (1951-1970) and W.B. Wright (1970-1987), followed by Shaw Publishing of Charlotte.
But the publication was in for a big change in 1996, when Mann Media, headed up by Bernie Mann, purchased the company and relocated its offices to Greensboro. Mann had made a career of buying radio stations, improving them, and increasing their audiences. He thought he could do the same with a magazine.
“I saw an opportunity to enhance a magazine that already had a loyal and caring audience,” Mann says. “The amazing thing about this magazine was not the number of subscribers, but the unique relationship between the publication and its readers. That loyalty and caring is something I’d never experienced before.”
The challenge, he found, was how to improve an already beloved magazine. Under his leadership, the staff changed the magazine’s name to Our State to reflect the publication’s inclusive nature, added color throughout to better highlight the beauty of North Carolina, and sought out the best writers and photographers in the state to enhance the quality of the content.
Regular contributors after Mann took ownership include the late Philip Gerard, author of the Civil War and Decades series; Susan Stafford Kelly, an essayist and feature writer; Drew Perry, who often writes about exploring the state with his sons; and T. Edward Nickens, whose column “Ramblin’ Man” recounts his adventures in the natural world.
Mann further expanded the brand with the Our State Store, offering products that are made in North Carolina or that celebrate the state, and the Our State Travel Club, which guides those with wanderlust on trips across North Carolina and around the globe.
Today, many more North Carolinians share in our vision. While most magazines can expect annual subscription renewals between 21 and 24 percent, Our State has seen renewal rates of more than three times that amount — a clear indication that the love of North Carolina that Carl Goerch tapped into more than 90 years ago is alive and thriving. From about 24,000 subscribers in 1996, the number has grown to well over 162,000 today.
In 2018, Mann sold the company into an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), making its staff members the new owners of the publication and providing a path forward for the magazine. Mann sees the ESOP as a way to give back to the employees who have made Our State great.
Our State continues to celebrate North Carolina with monthly issues as well as special collections, anthologies, and collectors’ editions. From everyone at Our State, we invite you to pick up a copy, sit back, and spend some time with us. We love North Carolina, and we’re eager to share it with you.
