Brian Rowland

As the year comes to a close and another begins, our publisher shares his thoughts on the season.

  About 20 months ago, I received a call from Aaron Ball, principal, with Ballpoint Communications in Pensacola. Aaron wanted to talk about a project he had been working on for about a year and a half: a legacy book…

photo by scott holstein Days after the Parkland, Florida, killings in February, thousands of young people descended on the Old Capitol in Tallahassee to demonstrate and to express their anger and disappointment about our nation’s gun laws and gun culture.…

The winds of change have stirred.

Children’s hospital motivates people of all stripes to pitch in

Over the 18 years since it was first conducted at the historic Gulf View Hotel in Okaloosa County, our Best of the Emerald Coast event has grown to become one of the most anticipated and consequential happenings in the region.…

In June, I had the privilege of attending the culminating event in the series of activities that made up the 2017 edition of the Emerald Coast Top Salon competition. About 60 people gathered at Brotula’s Seafood House, a Top Salon sponsor, to…

Recently, I watched a show on HBO hosted by Bryant Gumbel, who was joined by an Ivy League psychologist. Jointly, the two men interviewed two accomplished individuals — a retired Navy SEAL and a former professional football player. The interviewees…

After 25 years in the advertising and marketing business, I am never surprised when a phone call goes unreturned. Rather than becoming offended on such occasions, I let them roll off me like water. Recently, however, I found myself counseling…

Twenty-five years ago, a mentor and friend shared with me his approach to assessing the level of care and concern that a business owner or corporate manager has about his or her enterprise and where that business is in its…

Giving opens many doors, creating new and numerous opportunities along our life paths. In my line of work, I interact with a wide range of people representing countless organizations, passions and fields of endeavor. For some, I have noticed, giving…

For the past six months, we’ve had an Emerald Coast Magazine redesign in the Rowland Publishing incubator. It’s been five years since we overhauled the look, feel and content of the magazine and, in today’s world of publishing, five years…

I have always said that people cannot fully appreciate their good health until they experience illness or injury. The difficulties may be a simple one like a cold or sinus infection or an acute, chronic or even life-threatening physical challenge.…

It’s early October as I write this and tomorrow the annual Gulf Power Symposium will be underway. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Think Big,” and that is precisely what the entire Rowland Publishing staff is doing these days.…

It is late August as I write this and I hope that by the time you read this the Walton County Commission will have come to its senses and made the wise decision to remove the Confederate “Stars and Bars”…

One of the absolutely great parts of doing our jobs is the opportunity to collaborate as a team to come up with new ideas and bring them to fruition. Ideas may come in the form of an innovative story concept;…

I was recently sitting at a meeting with a group of people, many of whom I didn’t personally know, who represented a cross section of our community. When it was brought to their attention that I worked with Tallahassee Magazine,…

America eats out to the tune of more than $680 billion a year, and in Florida the restaurant industry is expected to report $34.7 billion in sales for 2014. At the beginning of the year, there were approximately 899,000 Floridians…

Over the past several years, I have heard plenty about the death of the print industry and how the world of media and advertising will shift totally to the digital world — basically saying to a publisher: “Fold your tent,…

Brian Rowland recognizes how far The Emerald Coast Magazine has come.

Whether it be your business or personal life, there are situations and experiences that often occur that can either bring a chuckle and smile to your face or a disappointed frown.  After running through the many such experiences that have…

It is almost a lost art … to take responsibility, to be transparent and to deliver an apology to a person or a group that you have done wrong. I have always told my sales staff that when a mistake…

I have, for the past year or so, had the opportunity to serve as a community advisor to the Junior League of Tallahassee (JLT). When asked to participate, I had no concept of what my role would be or what…

An article from Brian Rowland, publisher.

Scott Holstein Brian Rowland It’s time to salute women as we approach Women’s History Month. In 1969, women comprised about one-third of the workforce. Today, their numbers make up close to half the paid workforce in this country.  A point…

In an average month I’m asked several times if I feel printed magazines are fading away … or are dead and don’t have the sense to lay down. Based on very firsthand experience, print magazine publishing in Northwest Florida is…

It is the “Best” time of the year again, and on Oct. 19 at Grand Boulevard EC Magazine and the Junior League of the Emerald Coast will host a community gathering where the businesses that you have chosen as the…

In our world there are people who lead and those who take direction from leadership. Both groups are valuable and needed to create maximum results. In a well-run business, strong leadership with a strong team of individuals who follow and…

I proudly traveled to the Emerald Coast to celebrate a major milestone with one of our finest.

A letter from the Publisher of Emerald Coast Magazine

A letter from the Publisher of Emerald Coast Magazine

A letter from the Publisher of Emerald Coast Magazine

Northwest Florida, emerges as a region ripe with assets