Dining GuideABOUT THE MARCO REVIEW
My husband Stephen and I used to read The Marco Review when we first came to Marco Island as tourists 27 years ago. We fell in love with Marco the moment we drove over the bridge. When the magazine came up for sale a year or so later, we jumped at the chance to buy it. We moved here with our two teenage daughters and our Marco Island vacation became a permanent state of mind.
The Marco Review was only 36 pages then and was printed on newsprint. We had limited publishing experience but we understood what visitors to Marco needed to know. We set about providing a publication which answered all their questions, and then some!
We are now printed on glossy stock and have an average of 186 pages each issue. We have around 160 advertisers and cover all aspects of what you want to know when vacationing on Marco Island. Because we publish new editions three times per year our information is always bang up to date. With maps, coupons, local tide charts, shelling guide and features on advertisers, as well as regularly updated eco related articles, The Marco Review is the only visitor guide for Marco Island you will ever need.... the island concierges call it their "bible"!
We also now have an extensive knowledge of the advertising market on Marco Island and we strive to share our experience with our advertisers. We provide them with an excellent personal service, which includes photography, design and advice on marketing. If there is one thing we'd like to impress upon businesses who are deciding where to advertise, it's the importance of distribution... they can have the biggest and most beautiful ad in the world in a good looking publication but if that publication doesn't have wide distribution, it's not going to do them any good at all. Distribution is the key!
As you can see, we have a very comprehensive website and a really well liked Facebook page, which is the perfect way for us, and our advertisers, to make up to the minute information available to our readers.
At the end of 2014 we also launched Marco's first comprehensive app which puts all the information you could ever want to know about Marco Island in the palm of your hand. It lists all Marco Island restaurants and offers turn by turn directions to them and all our advertisers as well as bang up to date calendars of events and live entertainment listings and well patronized competitions with great prizes. Our app has around 48,000 active users and can be download from the App Store and Google Play and, best of all, it's completely FREE!
The Marco Review is the island's only privately owned visitor publication run by Marco Island lovers.
Debbie Barker - Publisher
PUBLICATION DATES AND DISTRIBUTION
The Marco Review is a free publication which is published three times a year and has an annual readership of 450,000. We come out more frequently in season because we print approximately the same number of copies each edition (55,000) and we go through copies much faster in season when the island is busy. In 25 years we have only been late getting the magazine out once and that was after Hurricane Irma, in the aftermath of which we, and our advertisers, spent our energies on recovery efforts for several weeks so our publication date was put back three weeks.
Our publication schedule is:
Winter edition: November 1st to February 14th
Season edition: February 14th to May 8th
Summer edition: May 8th to October 29th
Copy dates are generally one month prior to publication.
Copies are distributed from more than 150 Marco Island locations, including:
- Marco Island Chamber of Commerce
- all major hotels - in rooms at the Hilton and Marco Beach Ocean Resort, by the concierges at the JW Marriott.
- in the rooms at Hilton Grand Vacations timeshares as well as Sunset Cove, The Boat House and Lakeside Inn
- condominiums
- rental home welcome packs
- shopping centers
- stores
- restaurants
- marinas
- Marco Island Residents' Beach
- the library and museum
We restock each location at least once a week (some twice to three times a week in season) and in some locations we restock daily when it gets really busy, with a delivery person on the island at least six days per week.
We also distribute The Marco Review to several hotels, stores and restaurants in Goodland, Port of the Islands and Everglades City.
If you are out of town or you're having trouble finding a copy please either call us at 239-642-0251 or e-mail us at marcoreview@comcast.net and we'd be delighted to send you a magazine or arrange to supply you with bulk copies if you are organizing an event on Marco.
