A seasoned magazine pro and writer, Tova Gelfond is the former Editor-in-Chief at Blush magazine, Associate Editor of Atlanta Sports & Fitness magazine, Assistant Editor of JEZEBEL magazine, Contributing Editor of Tuxedo Road magazine, and the Assistant Editor of Women’s Health & Fitness magazine. She has written for numerous publications O: The Oprah Magazine and Brides and interviewed stars such as Kristin Davis, Kevin Costner, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Piven, Ludacris and Gavin DeGraw (to name a few), and continues to write for several local and national publications.
However, Tova’s current primary venture is as Founder of Eidé Magazine, which launched in Atlanta in order to celebrate design talent brewing in the South. These days, Eidé is a nationally distributed publication through retailers like Whole Foods, Barnes and Nobles and several international airports.
Name: Tova Gelfond
Media outlet: Eidé Magazine
Title: Editor-in-Chief/Creative Director
Circulation: ~100,000 and growing exponentially
Twitter/Instagram: @eidemagazine
Eidé is THE Fashion Magazine of the South — seriously, the only magazine covering fashion and style of the South on a national level. Our mission is to share a new and enlightened narrative about culture focused on life, passion, style, people and truth – with a heavy focus on aesthetics. Since the magazine’s debut in November of 2011, the Eidé brand has produced a highly curated body of work, inspiring artists, fashionistas, health-nuts and music-junkies alike through its charismatic reporting and graphic appeal. It creates a balance that is intelligent, funny, sometimes simple and purely entertaining through a multi-dimensional, highly aesthetic platform.
Our approach to distribution was a very surprising one — as in I was surprised how fast it happened! We started off as an online publication, and that was truly our goal. But the photo shoots, design and attention to detail really lent itself to a print medium.
I didn’t even think of going into print until I had an inundation of readers asking us to provide the magazine in print. I was surprised. At that point, we started doing smaller print runs at around $25 an issue. It was so much money, I thought no one would buy them. But we sold out!
That’s when we decided to do large scale print runs, and truly Whole Foods picked us up so fast and it’s like I blinked and we were in Barnes & Noble nationwide. Now we have a deal with airports pending. It’s been a great experience to see Eidé in the homes of people across the nation.
I love getting emails full of ideas and passion for a product or project. The best way is to email me, be succinct, but be inspiring!
On average, we work two issues ahead of publication.
Probably first thing in the morning. My afternoons are always spent in meetings, and it’s hard for me to break away.
Anything about fashion, design, culture, food or beauty. We like an emphasis on Southern-made brands or brands with Southern ties, but we do not limit ourselves to that.
I really want to have a relationship with most of the people pitching me, so a few emails back and forth works at the beginning. I usually can catch a few publicists at events and gatherings around the city, which is the perfect time to network and connect with publicists.
Never hear back? If they are rude. That’s my deal-breaker.
YUP! We have Tian Justman, who is the fashion director. She oversees all things fashion. Everything else gets funneled through Jaime Weinstein, senior editor, before I assign it out.
Senior Editor – Jaime Weinstein: hello[at]eidemagazine.com
Fashion Director – Tian Justman: tian.justman[at]eidemagazine.com
