Yoga Journal

Yoga Journal

October 2009 cover of Yoga Journal
Type yoga magazine
Owner Active Interest Media
Publisher Bill Harper
Founded 1975
Language English
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
Circulation 350,000 [1]
ISSN 0191-0965
Official website www.yogajournal.com

Yoga Journal is an American based media company that publishes a magazine, a website, DVDs, and puts on conferences all devoted to yoga, food and nutrition, fitness, wellness, and fashion and beauty.

Contents

Beginnings and Growth

Yoga Journal was started in May 1975 by the California Yoga Teachers Association, which included William Staniger, Chairman (aka William Golden since 1982), Rama Vernon, President, Janis Paulsen, Secretary/Treasurer, and board members Ike and Judith Lasater, Rose Garfinkle, and Jean Girardot. William Staniger was Yoga Journal's founding editor. Judith Lasater was Copy Editor, Janis Paulsen, Elmer Brunsman, and Jean Girardot were Assistant Editors, and Ike Lasater was Business and Advertising Director. Their goal was to create a magazine that would unite the growing yoga community and provide "material that combines the essence of classical yoga with the latest understandings of modern science."

By the mid-1990s, as yoga's popularity in America grew, circulation for Yoga Journal reached 66,000. During these years, key figures at the magazine included former publisher Michael Glicksohn, former editors-in-chief Stephen Bodian and Rick Fields and former longtime managing editor Linda Cogozzo.

In the fall of 1998, John Abbott, a former investment banker at Citicorp and an avid yoga practitioner, bought the magazine, and brought in Kathryn Arnold as editor-in-chief. In January 2000, they redesigned and relaunched the magazine. Since their arrival, the paid circulation has grown from 90,000 to 350,000; the readership is now over 1,000,000.[2]

Yoga Journal has won five consecutive Western Publications Association's Maggie Awards for "Best Health and Fitness Magazine," and in 2007 won the Award's top honor for "Best Overall Consumer Publication."[3]

In addition, the magazine has won four Folio Editorial Excellence Awards for "Best Health and Fitness Magazine " in the country.

In September 2006, the magazine was bought by enthusiast publisher Active Interest Media which publishes Vegetarian Times, Black Belt Magazine, and other consumer enthusiast titles.[4]

In 2006, Kaitlin Quistgaard became editor-in-chief.

Forbes magazine has called the Yoga Journal website "the Web's most expansive and impressive Yoga site."[5]

Editorial Focus

Each issue of Yoga Journal contains several in-depth feature stories that touch on the themes of yoga, food and nutrition, fitness, wellness, and fashion and beauty, as well as the following columns

  • Basics — Yoga Journal's most popular column.[6] Presents yoga asana and philosophy in an easily accessible format for people who are new to yoga.
  • Eating Wisely — This award-winning column examines the connections between health, spirit, and food.
  • Home Practice — Tools for doing yoga in the privacy of your own home.
  • Master Class — In-depth instruction for the serious practitioner. Written by authoritative master yoga teachers.
  • Media — Reviews and discussion of the latest and most noteworthy books, music, DVDs, videos, and audiotapes.
  • Om — Covers trends, news, fashion, people, places, and things that make the world of yoga fun and rewarding.
  • Wellness — Information on herbal remedies, Ayurvedic medicine, nutrition, bodywork, and other modes of natural healing that can be part of a yogic lifestyle.
  • Wisdom — Meditation teacher Sally Kempton shows how yoga philosophy can provide modern practitioners with a road map for living a more evolved life.
  • Travel — Features writers who explore themselves while exploring the world.

Yoga in America

Yoga Journal's 2005 survey, Yoga in America found the yoga market to be worth nearly $3 billion per year. The data, collected by the Harris Interactive Service Bureau (HISB) shows that 16.5 million people practice yoga in America.[7]

In 2005, Yoga Journal brought B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's foremost teachers of yoga, to America to teach an extensive workshop.[8] Mr. Iyengar's book Light on Yoga, first published in 1966, has become a classic and is considered the ultimate reference manual of asana practice.

Yoga Conferences

Yoga Journal hosts several major conferences a year with top yoga teachers in the United States, including Rodney Yee, John Friend, Tim Miller, and Judith Lasater.

2012 Conference Dates

  • January 12-16: San Francisco, California
  • April 12-16: New York, New York
  • July 12-16: San Diego, California
  • September 30 - October 7: Estes Park, Colorado

2011 Conference Dates

  • January 14-17: San Francisco, California
  • May 12-16: New York, New York
  • July 7-11: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
  • September 18-25: Estes Park, Colorado

2010 Conference Dates

  • January 28 - February 1: San Francisco, California
  • April 6–11: Boston, Massachusetts
  • September 19–26: Estes Park, Colorado
  • November 11–14: South Florida

2009 Conference Dates

  • January 16–19: San Francisco, California
  • March 26–29: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
  • May 15–18: New York, NY
  • September 20–27: Estes Park, Colorado

2008 Conference Dates

  • January 18–21: San Francisco, California
  • May 16–19: Boston, Massachusetts
  • September 21–28: Estes Park, Colorado
  • November 14–17: South Florida

2007 Conference Dates

  • September 24–30: Estes Park, Colorado

Non-USA Editions

Yoga Journal has several international editions which are published in China, Italy, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Brazil.

Notes

External links