Relevant is a bimonthly Christian lifestyle magazine exploring the intersection of faith and pop culture. Its tagline is "God, life, and progressive culture." The magazine is published by Relevant Media Group with an average distributed circulation of 70,000 copies. According to a demographic study in 2012, 86% of Relevant's subscribers are between the ages 18 and 39. The magazine's companion web presence, relevantmagazine.com, launched in 2002 with the email newsletter, "850 Words of Relevant". Relevant launched its interactive iPad edition in September 2011. The website consists of daily news, reviews, and original and exclusive content from contributors, and in 2012 averaged more than 500,000 visitors a month.
History
Both the magazine and the website are products of the Relevant Media Group, founded by Cameron Strang, son of Charisma Magazine publisher and Strang Communications CEO Stephen Strang in June 2001. Prior to forming his own company, Strang held the managing editor position at Voxcorp, which produced 7ball magazine and others. Relevant Media Group published Relevant Books from 2001-2006 and released 85 titles. Its third book, released in October 2001, was "Walk On," a book examining the faith and spiritual journey of the bandU2. This book made the top 100 list at Amazon.com. Relevant magazine was first published in March 2003. From a sociological perspective, one critic has called the publication "the mass media equivalent of outreach in the skate park." It is distributed nationally at Barnes & Noble and other retailers, and is a top seller at the Family Christianbookstore chain. Similar Christian magazines available on the internet today include G-Code Magazine which focuses on entrepreneurs and the Christian business community and Christianity Today. In its early years, contributors to the print magazine included John Fischer, Dan Haseltine, Don Chaffer, and Dan Buck. Relevant runs articles about faith, life in your 20s and 30s, social justice, and interviews with musicians and authors such as Donald Miller, Bob Goff, The Avett Brothers, Rob Bell, and The Civil Wars. In 2005, Relevant Media Group created a women's magazine, Radiant, which published 12 issues from 2005-2007. In 2008, Relevant Media Group launched a magazine for church leaders, Neue. In 2011, Relevant launched a free semi-annual social justice magazine, Reject Apathy. It is included with Relevant subscriptions, and has a total distribution of 150,000 copies. Relevant launched its interactive iPad edition in September 2011.
RelevantMagazine.com
The website is updated daily and is a counterpart to the magazine. It includes daily features, news, columns, reviews and features such as "The Drop" and "RELEVANT.tv".
Relevant magazine posts a podcast on iTunes every Friday. Its weekly listenership topped 100,000 in 2012. From May 2018, the Relevant Podcast moved to a twice-weekly schedule, with a new episode every Wednesday & Friday.
