We began talking about the 100th issue of Evansville Living about a year ago. It would not have escaped us; our circulation software keeps tab of the count for us.
It was more than a year ago we began talking about the likelihood of local swimmer Lilly King winning a gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. We realized the timing would be in our favor to feature an Olympic gold medalist on our cover, but we didn’t dare plan far in advance or even discuss it. We could have been working ahead; Lilly was confident. She flat-out told her parents she intended to not only qualify for the Rio Olympics but also win the 100-meter breaststroke at the time trial on June 26 to July 3, 2016, in Omaha, Nebraska. Once she knocked that out and also qualified for the Olympics in the 200-meter breaststroke, Lilly told her parents she intended to win the gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke.
We couldn’t be more pleased to put 19-year-old King on the cover of the 100th issue. We began helping tell King’s story when she was a 12-year-old swimmer on the same team as my sons. My husband Todd connected right away with Lilly, her brother Alex, as well as their parents Mark and Ginny; swim team families spend a lot of time together. (The King family can give my husband back some serious smack talk.) Lilly was winning frequently in age-group swimming; in Indiana that’s really tough because of the high caliber of swimmers, resulting in very fast times. Recognizing a good story for us as well as other media colleagues, Todd took Lilly to a local television news program on his regularly scheduled appearance.
In the May/June 2013 issue, writer Mark Mathis profiled King for Evansville Living in a story with the headline, “Swimming to the Top: Local high school standout is on her way to greatness.”
For our story, “Our Golden Girl” (page 32), Creative Director Heather Gray, Managing Editor Nicole Neff, and Senior Writer Trista Lutgring wanted to go beyond the narratives being written about King. The magazine team, along with freelance writer Mathis and freelance photographer Jason Titzer (read about Titzer on page 16), talked to Lilly’s parents, friends, and swim coaches to bring you a portrait of the Olympian exclusively seen here.
While reviewing 100 issues for the feature, “100 From 100” (page 38), was a monumental task for our staff (everyone participated, offering suggestions for inclusion), the process illustrated how the magazine we create has reflected our city for 16 and one-half years. (Evansville Living is bimonthly.)
It’s a mission we intend to carry on.
Picking up the publisher’s pen, no doubt you have noticed the size of this issue — our largest ever at 216 pages. To celebrate the 100th issue, Tucker Publishing Group took a very successful campaign among city magazines and created the special advertising feature Faces of Evansville, a striking collection of black-and-white portraits and stories of the city’s people and its businesses and organizations. We learned so much about our community producing the Faces of Evansville (page 49); we hope you do, too.
I would like to thank our advertisers for the ongoing value they place in Evansville Living. More than a few have been represented in advertising in all 100 issues! Of course, without the readers of Evansville Living, the magazine would not have achieved this milestone. Thank you for reading Evansville Living!
As always, I look forward to hearing from you.
Kristen K. Tucker
Publisher & Editor
Keep up with Kristen with her sometimes weekly blog, “300 Words,” at evansvilleliving.com/blog, and follow her on Twitter: @KristenKTucker.
