The Southern Progress Corporation is a Birmingham-based publishing company. Originally known as the Progressive Farmer Company, it was renamed 14 years after the successful launch of its most popular regional lifestyle magazine, Southern Living, which reaches an estimated 15 million readers. The company has become one of the nation's largest lifestyle publishers, with specialized magazines, books, programs, and products that reach more than 50 million people around the world. The firm, now a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., has offices throughout the United States, with a total workforce of about 1,100 nationally and 800 in Birmingham.

Around 1964, publisher Emory Cunningham proposed an idea for an additional magazine that would focus on regional attractions, homes, gardens, and food. He envisioned content that would allow increasingly urban southerners to connect with their rural roots. At the time, many national magazines were failing; television was competing with the remaining publications for advertising dollars. As a result, initial inquiries in the advertising market in New York regarding the potential for Southern Living were met with little enthusiasm. But the new magazine, which launched in 1966, turned a profit in 18 months and boasted a readership of 250,000. Within two years, circulation had doubled. Rapid financial success was attributed to high subscription rates, high advertising rates, an affluent audience, and an underrepresented yet rapidly growing region.
One major hurdle faced by the Southern Living executives was overcoming the negative perceptions and cultural stereotypes presented in popular views of the South, particularly those arising from the civil rights protests taking place in Birmingham. The executives' goal was to counter these negative perceptions by creating a publication devoted to celebrating the region rather than portraying the South and southerners in a negative light, as many national magazines had been doing. Although for some, the magazine appeared to reinforce segregationist attitudes and perpetuate race and class division in the region, for the magazine's readership, however, progress meant economic prosperity rather than overcoming societal inequities.
In 1969, the company looked to expand its focus and began developing books based on cooking, crafts, gardening, and travel articles from their magazines. The following year, Progressive Farmer formally established Oxmoor House Books, which operates a highly successful direct-mail program. In 1980, the Progressive Farmer Company changed its name to Southern Progress Corporation in an effort to reflect its wider focus. By this time, Southern Living had a subscription rate of two million and was among the top 15 U.S. magazines in monthly advertising revenue. In recent years, the company has broadened its appeal to more diverse audiences by providing content for the many ethnic and cultural groups that make up contemporary southern culture. Always aware of the changing market and social trends, Southern Progress executives added a monthly "Cooking Light" column to Southern Living in response to the growing trend toward lighter, more nutritious cooking. In 1983, Oxmoor House published a cookbook by the same name that has since become an annual publication.

In 1987, in response to the popularity of the cooking column, Southern Progress launched Cooking Light as an independent magazine; it has a current readership of more than 10 million. Three years later, Time Inc. purchased Sunset— considered Southern Living's western counterpart—and soon shifted publication to the Southern Progress division. Southern Progress then purchased Coastal Home and after retooling the content, launched it as Coastal Living in 1997. Coastal Living features content from the East, West, and Gulf coasts and focuses on homes, gardens, food, and travel; it now serves about 4 million readers.
Health magazine joined the Southern Progress group in late 1999 when it was shifted out of the Time Inc. group and under the control of Southern Progress. Launched in 1987 under the title Hippocrates in Sausalito, California, it targeted both medical professionals and consumers but failed to lure laypeople. The magazine published a second edition under the title In Health ("Health" was already in use by another magazine), Time Inc. purchased the magazine, moving its office to downtown San Francisco, and secured the rights to the name Health in 1994. In 1999, Time Inc. rolled the magazine under the Southern Progress umbrella, and, in 2001, the magazine's editorial offices were moved to Birmingham. Under the primary Southern Progress roof, the magazine has benefited from the proximity to food and fitness experts at the company's other health-oriented titles such as Cooking Light. Three years later, Southern Progress launched Cottage Living, a bimonthly response to the growing popularity of small homes and simple decorating which ceased publication in December 2008.

In 2000, AOL bought out Time Warner, creating AOL-Time Warner Inc. Later in the decade as the parent companies laid off employees, Southern Progress cut back on its work force in Birmingham. Since 2000, the company has had annual sales in excess of $75 million.
Additional Resources
Lauder, Tracy. "The Southern Living Solution: How The Progressive Farmer Launched a Magazine and a Legacy." Alabama Review 60 (July 2007): 186-221.
Riley, Sam G. Magazines of the American South. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Additional Resources
Lauder, Tracy. "The Southern Living Solution: How The Progressive Farmer Launched a Magazine and a Legacy." Alabama Review 60 (July 2007): 186-221.
Riley, Sam G. Magazines of the American South. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Taft, William H. American Magazines for the 1980s. New York: Hastings House, 1982.
Reed, Roy. "Birmingham Publisher Propelled by Regionalism." New York Times, September 7, 1976, p. 40.
Reed, John Shelton. "Southern Living." In The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, edited by Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris, 973-4 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989).
White, Erin. "Southern Living Gets Northern Publisher." Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2000, B5.