Changing the Narrative About York, Pennsylvania

They said print was dead & we told them they just didn’t understand how to use it.

YRK Magazine was launched by a group of local developers in 2013 with two main goals: to serve as a human resources tool to attract and engage talent from around the world to emerging and growing enterprises in York, and to highlight the good news happening throughout York County to change perceptions. Everything would be custom from design, photography, and copy writing, and the ads would take on an editorial format, so much so that readers would not realize they were reading advertisements. Each quarterly issue would showcase stories of emerging entrepreneurs, long-standing goliaths giving back, world class talent relocating to York, and arts & event highlights. While the initial issues were well received by the community, something was missing. 

When LUMI’s founder was brought on board, she made it her mission to truly engrain herself in the York community to understand what it really needed from a print publication. When we asked community members what they wanted from their local publication, they didn’t hold back and we did our best to deliver!

Scope of Work

  • Renaming
  • Rebranding
  • Brand Toolkit
  • Brand Messaging Strategy
  • Content Strategy
  • Copywriting
  • Social Media Toolkit
  • Graphic Design
  • Campaign Development: Donations
  • Photography
  • Videography

The needs were clear: a greater focus on the arts community, solopreneurs, minorities, and generally a focus on the people who already call York home vs focus on attracting transplants.

While York boasts an industrial and factory centric history, in recent decades the arts community has grown exponentially and the stories of these artists needed to be front and center to encourage collaboration and show York as a haven for artistic expression. Due to low cost of living and an emerging central business district in downtown York, entrepreneurs of all walks of life were thriving on a budding mainstreet and needed to get their products and services in front of people county-wide. In an area where minorities were becoming the majority, it was important that the pages of the magazine clearly represented the diverse nature of York and painted a picture of opportunity for all. And, finally, with our focus switched from attracting new residents to lifting up and supporting existing York Countians, YRK would champion it’s local community and shed light on the endless opportunities and reasons for our local community to stick around, share their talents and grow their businesses and families. The undeniable underlying theme for what we needed to be: the aspirational vision for who York County was becoming while celebrating diversity and homegrown talent.

Moving forward, the publication made a conscious effort to highlight diversity in ads and editorials and pushed our clients to embrace this diversity, too. We introduced the concept of “corporate karma” and our clients were onboard with highlighting causes they cared about, highlighting client stories and sponsoring ads for local nonprofits. Over the course of 9 years, YRK highlighted hundreds businesses and individuals, and inspired countless entrepreneurs and creatives alike to chase their dreams, embrace their community, and build business. Two of the largest employers in York County, Wellspan Health and York College of Pennsylvania use YRK to recruit top talent in the country. The LUMI team went on to rebrand and manage two other local publications with the York County Economic Alliance and Downtown Inc, and is embarking on a rebranding initiative with the County of York. 


BUSINESSES PROFILED: ~475

READERSHIP: 45,000 readers per issue

DISTRIBUTION: 10,000 copies per edition

SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS: 10,000+

AWARDS: 6 TIME HERMES AWARD WINNER FOR CREATIVE EXCELLENCE (AMP)