How To Pitch: American Way

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Circulation: 3.5 million readers worldwide
Frequency: Biweekly, published on the 1st and 15th of each month
Special issues: The "Road Warrior" issue (Jan. 15) is a mainstay for American Way. It's a contest where frequent travelers try to compete and to see who has the best tips, and who has traveled the most.

Background: American Way is a general interest in-flight magazine for American Airlines that began in the winter of 1966. Fort Worth-based AA Publishing prints American Way, along with Celebrated Living, a luxury in-flight magazine for its first and business class passengers, and Spanish-written Nexos. "We make our stories appeal to a wide range of travelers," says executive editor Adam Pitluk. "Our readers are a 50/50 male to female ratio, so we try to be something for everybody."

The magazine had a major redesign with the January 2011 issue; "It got a whole new face lift," says Pitluk. The pub combined the "Upfront" and "Downlow" sections into one section called "Itinerary," which is now the front of book. They also added "Brief," which contains a Q&A and "Go" (a destination-based story), both around one page in length.

"We're the only in-flight magazine that publishes twice a month, and we actually interact with our readers, not just in the pages and letters with rewards, but we blog, tweet and [are on] Facebook," says Pitluk. "We're trying to entice people to stay with American Way and use it as a go-to source for travel info even if they're not on a plane. You can still go to the website and get useful information."...

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