Courtesy of BoSacks & The Precision Media Group 

America's Oldest e-newsletter est. 1993 www.bosacks.com

BoSacks Speaks Out: Archive

Subscribe to Heard on the Web

 

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

Orson Welles


Dateline Charlottesville, VA

In This Issue

Inside The World Of TOPS News: A Magazine That Helps Members Lose Weight Sensibly. A Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Team TOPS News.

By Samir Husni

https://mrmagazine.me/

https://bit.ly/3X6Pb2L


 

TOPS News is the membership magazine for TOPS Club Inc. TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. Its motto for the last 75 years since its inception is Real People. Real Weight Loss. 


In 2025, and for the first time, the TOPS News magazine started accepting advertising on the pages of the magazine.


Through an agreement with the James G. Elliott Company, Inc., the magazine opened its pages to advertising in a move that is seen to add more help to their members.


I reached out to TOPS News president Rick Danforth, editor and publisher Barry Gantenbein, and senior designer Dave Zylstra to chat about the organization and its magazine. It was sort of a roundtable about TOPS News, the magazine’s mission, and the reason they are now accepting advertising in the magazine.

Before the interview, I should note that in a recent study the magazine found out that over 90% of the members see it as the number one benefit of membership. A quarter of the membership responded, unaided, to the study in the first two days. A response rarely heard about in the magazine industry.


So without any further delay, please enjoy this round table conversation with the team at TOPS News and what is in store for the years to come.


But first the soundbites:


On TOPS News mission: “I view TOPS News as our best vehicle to keep in constant contact with our members to share success stories and give them updated information on a healthy lifestyle.” Rick Danforth.

On why they are accepting advertising: “Because things are getting more costly and it was a way of generating some revenue.” RD


On why did you add the publisher title to the editor’s title: “One of the reasons that I became publisher was just to prevent any snags in meeting our deadlines.” Barry Gantenbein



On how is TOPS News different than the rest of weight loss magazines: “I think the one thing that really separates TOPS News is the group support, from the chapter level and also from the magazine.” BG


On how to approach the design of the magazine: “Our members are basically our core demographic, trying to think and trying to tap into their minds what they want to see.” Dave Zylstra


On the hope and goal for the design of TOPS News: “Hopefully inspire them to want to keep flipping the pages and keep reading it.”


On any challenges facing him: “There’s always challenges… But no serious challenges that we couldn’t fix.” RD


On content creation : “There’s a large element of TOPS News is the member contributions. So that does definitely affect the scope of things, and the way we approach things.” BG


On the magazine being an experience: “There has to be a reason to engage with the magazine, and that’s what I’m trying to accomplish with every issue is to engage our members as fully as possible.” BG


On what he is expected to accomplish this year: “A year from now, what I would be telling you is that it would help with our revenue stream so we can provide more services to our members.” RD


CLICK HERE for the complete and lightly edited conversation with the team at TOPS News:

PHOTO OF THE DAY