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What's Good Local — The Quarterly (Mockup)
What's Good Local · The Quarterly Concept Mockup
What's Good Local · The Quarterly Edition
The people
behind the
places you love.
Issue No. 01 — Summer 2026
A local's-eye view of the Emerald Coast.
Flip to read →
In This Issue
01The Chef — Merlin's PizzaFood
02On the Water — surf the Emerald CoastActivities
03The Maker — a local lensArts
04Hidden Gems locals keep quietGuide
05The Vacationer's KeyInsider

A note from us — every season we hand the mic to the people who actually make Destin worth the drive. No ads dressed up as articles. Just real stories from real locals, and a key to experiencing it all like one. — The What's Good Local team

Two
The Chef · Feature 01

Life is too short to
eat corporate pizza.

Merlin's Pizza

For 25 years, Merlin's has done one thing and done it loud: hand-tossed, locally loved pizza on Airport Road. We sat down with the owner to find out why the locals never left.

"We're not the biggest. We're the one your neighbor tells you about."
What made you open here, in Destin?
Because this town shows up for its own. You feed people well once and they bring their kids, then their kids' kids. That's the whole business.
The order locals get that visitors miss?
The BBQ chicken, every time. And ask for it well-done — that's the secret handshake.
📍 1251 Airport Rd, Destin · ⭐ 4.7 Google (7,212) · 4.5 TripAdvisor
Find them: merlinspizza.com · Order online · (850) 650-3000
Feature 01
On the Water · Feature 02

First light,
first wave.

Surfing the Emerald Coast Photo: the featured surf school

Every issue we ride along with one of the locals who lives on the water. This season: the surf school turning first-timers into wave-chasers before lunch.

"The Gulf is gentle until it isn't. We teach you to read both."

Lessons, board rentals, and the kind of patience only a local has — if the wind's right, they'll find you a wave.

🌊 Lessons & rentals on the Emerald Coast
Book & follow: their links here
Feature 02
The Maker · Feature 03

Through a
local lens.

Featured photographer's shot Featured photographer's best shot

We give an up-and-coming local photographer the cover treatment — their eye, their story, their booking link. Because the people who make Destin beautiful should get found.

"Golden hour here doesn't ask for much. Just don't blink."
📷 Prints & sessions: their portfolio here · Featured free, linked forever.
Feature 03
Locals Keep These Quiet

Hidden gems

🦪

The raw bar with no sign

If you know, you know. Ask for the chargrilled with extra garlic.

🌅

The free sunset spot

Skip the crowded pass. There's a quieter stretch two accesses east.

🍦

Old-Florida ice cream

Cash only, paper cups, a line that's worth it. A 30-year institution.

🎣

Where the captains eat

The breakfast joint by the docks that opens before the boats leave.

Guide
Experience Destin Like a Local

The Vacationer's Key

Beat the bridge

Cross to the beach before 10am or after 4pm. The middle of the day is the traffic.

Read the flags

Check the beach flag before you swim — our live page updates daily.

Eat off-peak

5pm dinner = no wait, sunset views, and you still catch the band.

Tip the locals

Mention "What's Good Local" — half these spots have something for you.

Every issue carries a fresh Key — the stuff that turns a good trip into the one they talk about all year.

Insider
How This Works

Your story,
told. Free.

Each issue we feature the people behind the Emerald Coast's best — a chef, a band, a maker, a hidden gem. It's not an ad. It's a story locals actually want to read, and it reaches 5,000 of them a month.

✦ Featured free — your story in your words ✦ A permanent home in our archive, forever ✦ Shared to our audience in every category
Restaurants · Bands · Photographers · Artists · Shops · Guides
What's Good Local
Stop scrolling.
Start enjoying.
mag.whatsgoodlocal.com
What's Good Local · The Quarterly — The Opportunity
A New Revenue Channel for whatsgoodlocal.com

A magazine that
pays for itself.

Turning our 5,000-a-month audience into a quarterly digital magazine that features local businesses — and turns those features into paying customers and placements.

The 30-Second Version

We stop selling ads and start telling stories. Each quarter we feature local businesses — a chef, a surf school, a hotel — for free. Every feature lives on our site forever, sends them traffic, and they share it to their own followers. After a free 6-month placement, the ones who see results renew and pay. The content is free (they make it), the distribution is free (they share it), and we own the audience.

The Core Idea

We flip the conversation.

What we do now
"Will you advertise on our website?"

A cost the owner weighs — and usually declines.

What we do instead
"We'd love to feature you in our magazine — free."

A gift. Almost everyone says yes.

Same businesses, same end goal — a completely different conversation. People connect with the person behind a business far more than any ad, and an owner who loves to talk about their place becomes our best content and our best salesperson at the same time.

Why Us, Why Now

An open lane on the Emerald Coast.

The area already has magazines — Emerald Coast, VIE, Destin City Lifestyle — but they're glossy luxury books or stuffed with ads, they charge $1,000–$6,000 a page, and not one of them can tell an advertiser how many people actually saw their ad.

We can. Every view and every click in a digital magazine is measurable. And nobody out there is featuring the up-and-coming locals — the new chef, the surf school, the photographer building a name. That's our lane, and we already own the audience to fill it.

How It Works

Free gift today, paying customer later.

1

The feature — free, forever

We interview a local owner — their story, their photos. It runs in the quarterly magazine and stays in our archive permanently, ranking on Google and sending them traffic for years.

2

The placement — free for 6 months

On top of the feature, they get a featured spot on our site for six months. No cost, no obligation. It's how we introduce them to our audience.

3

The renewal

At month five we show them the numbers — views and clicks straight to their business. The ones who see it working keep the placement, now paying. The data does the selling.

Why Businesses Say Yes

We're already their customers.

Every business we feature already pays Facebook and Instagram to reach customers. Our audience IS their customers — locals and visitors in Destin. We hand them exposure, a permanent link back to their site, and proof it worked — for free.

Then they share their feature to their own followers, which brings their audience back to us. Every single feature grows both sides at once.

Why It Costs Us Almost Nothing

Low cost, low risk.

  • The content is made by the people we feature — their answers, their photos.
  • It's digital — no printing, no postage, no inventory.
  • It runs on the website and audience we already have.
  • We launch quarterly (4 issues a year) so we nail the process before we ever scale up — no drowning in deadlines.
The Upside

Where the money is.

  • Renewals turn free placements into recurring monthly revenue.
  • We can sell ads with something no competitor offers: proof of reach.
  • Later, a printed edition stocked in hotel lobbies becomes the premium product — a local guidebook visitors keep.
They charge $1,000–$6,000 a page and can't prove a single reader.

We undercut them with measurable results — exact views and clicks. That's the whole pitch to an advertiser, and we're the only ones who can make it.

Issue No. 01 — The Summer Edition

Built from relationships we already have.

The Chef
Merlin's Pizza — a 25-year local legend
On the Water
A local surf school
The Stay
The Destin Inn — also our launch partner
Family
Bass Pro · Uncle Buck's
The Maker
A local photographer
On the Bench
Helicopter tours + more relationships ready
How Simple It Is to Run

We email a nice letter. They reply. We publish.

No staff writers, no big production. The business tells their own story; we polish it and lay it out. Here's the entire operating kit:

The Outreach Letter

Subject: We'd love to feature you in What's Good Local

Hi [Name], I run What's Good Local, a local guide for Destin and the Emerald Coast with about 5,000 readers a month. We're launching a quarterly digital magazine that features the people behind the places locals and visitors love — and we'd love for [Business] to be one of our featured stories.

It's free, and it's not an ad — it's a behind-the-scenes profile, your story in your own words. On top of the feature, we'll give you a featured spot on our site free for 6 months. Just reply with answers to the questions below and any photos you'd like included. We'll write it up, send a preview, link back to your site, and your story stays in our archive permanently.

No cost, no catch — we just love showcasing what makes Destin special. Want in?

The 7 Questions

The same simple formula for everyone

  1. What made you start your business here on the Emerald Coast?
  2. What's the story most people don't know about it?
  3. What's the one thing you'd want a first-timer to experience?
  4. What does Destin mean to you — why here?
  5. Who are your people — who do you most love serving?
  6. What's next for you?
  7. Where can people find you, and what should they do after reading this?
The Month-5 Renewal Email — where it earns

The numbers close the deal

Hi [Name], your feature has been live almost 6 months — here's how it did: [X] views and [Y] clicks straight to your website. Your story stays in our archive forever either way, but your featured placement is wrapping up its free run. To keep it going it's [$X/month] — no pressure, no auto-charge, just let me know.

The Ask

Green-light Issue No. 01.

Everything is already built — the magazine, the templates, the tracker, the lineup. All we need is the go-ahead to run the Summer Edition this season with the relationships we already have. The cost is our time. The upside is a brand-new revenue channel that no one else on the coast can copy.

What's Good Local
Stop scrolling. Start enjoying.

via GIPHY