5280 Publishing

If you’re new to Denver, it may take a second or two to figure out that 5280 takes its name from the city’s mile-high elevation. Five-thousand, two-hundred and eighty feet above sea level. It’s an unusual name for an out-of-the ordinary magazine. We began 5280 in 1993 with the simple but unprecedented step of asking 75,000 area residents what they wanted to read about in a magazine about the Mile High City. Denver, they told us, is a place of contrasts. It’s hot jazz at El Chapultepec, dry martinis at the Cruise Room, and high tea at the Brown Palace. It’s the man-made beauty of the City & County Building at Christmas and the natural splendor of the Rocky Mountains. It’s wild Friday nights at the Grizzly Rose and lazy Sunday afternoons at the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Denver’s people are no less eclectic. In responding to our survey, they enthusiastically shared their interests in everything from the arts to the environment, and from fitness to historical articles on Denver and the West. We took their answers and translated them into a combination of high-quality journalism and eye-catching graphic design. The result was a new magazine that captured Denver’s unique voice like never before. Our hard work paid off. 5280 stories like “Denver’s Top Doctors,” “Denver’s Best Bargains,” and our annual restaurant guide quickly became the focus of discussions at cocktail parties and water coolers all over town, not to mention frequent coverage in other area media. Today’s 5280 has more readers than any local magazine in Colorado. In fact, in Denver, 5280 outsells most national publications, with a readership that exceeds such well-known national magazines as Time, People, Oprah, and Martha Stewart Living.