A drive along the coast can do wonders for a clouded state of mind. It can even inspire a career.  Such was true for Mayté Rodriguez Cedillo, who owns and publishes Baja Traveler: Mexico's Ports of Call. Cedillo operates the annual publication, which has a circulation of 40,000 and sales last year of $325,000, out of her Chula Vista home.

In 1997, Tijuana-born Rodriguez Cedillo had recently returned home from traveling in Europe and was considering her career path. Before Europe, she left her sales job at NBC in Los Angeles, where she had worked for four years. As she drove along the coast of Ensenada, she was struck by the beauty around her. At the same time, she recalled the many harsh news stories that she had seen about visiting Baja California.  At that point, Rodriguez Cedillo decided to start a magazine that would focus on the positive side of Mexico's tourism.

Annual Deadline Approaches
Now, four years later, Rodriguez Cedillo and her publication are heading toward a December deadline. She's trying to sign the last ads while the magazine's art director continues to design the issue. She's planning to distribute it the last week of December. Jorge Gamboa-Patron, of the Mexican Tourism Board, has watched the fledgling magazine evolve. "The quality has been improving very much," Gamboa-Patron said. "The second one was much better than the first one, and I believe that this one, the third one, is going to be much better."

Roots Dig Into Business
Rodriguez Cedillo recalled the effect her roots had on her business. From the time she was young, Rodriguez Cedillo crossed the border from Tijuana each day to attend school in San Diego.  After high school at the Academy of Our Lady of Peace, she attended SDSU, where she studied advertising through the university's journalism department. She worked sales part-time at a local tourist guide.

After college, she worked behind and in front of the cameras, first at KGTV Channel 10, then at KNBC, the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles where she started as a page. She got a lot of experience during a strike by writers and production workers. Her tasks ranged from running cameras to monitoring the audience for Johnny Carson and Wheel of Fortune, she recalled. At night she attended UCLA where she attained a Master's Degree in Journalism.

At age 26, she had tired of the lifestyle and driving home to San Diego every weekend so she took a job as a correspondent in Spain and then took a year off. She traveled and pondered her future.

In early 1997, soon after she made the decision to start the magazine, Rodriguez Cedillo began approaching clients and examining media kits of other publications, looking at what they offered advertisers as well as what they charged them.

First Edition Budget
A year later, she began production of the first edition of Baja Traveler. Working out of her parents' home at the time, Rodriguez Cedillo invested $30,000 of her own savings into the magazine. As she does now, Rodriguez Cedillo works mostly with Mexico-based clients.

"It was tough," she recalled of the learning process. Among her lessons were production and the balance of being a publisher and editor at the same time. Baja Traveler has two large distributors, one that covers the United States and Canada, and another that covers Mexico. Rodriguez Cedillo supplements the two with her own efforts, sending thousands of copies to Europe, through Mexican consulates and various travel agencies affiliated with American Express Co. of New York. She also finds additional distribution spots in North America, she said. Of the 40,000 circulation, 80 percent is in the United States and Canada, 10 percent in Mexico and the remaining 10 percent in Europe, she said. “The magazine's distribution to high-income consumers, through distribution in upscale hotels and yacht clubs, is particularly important,” Gamboa-Patron said. With the current annual schedule, editorial work picks up each year in August, with design taking place in November.

Culture Affects Production
Sales and deadlines are particularly difficult with the laid-back Mexican culture, she said. She finds herself making calls upon calls to remind and follow up with clients. "That's simply a challenge that I just have accepted and I have to live with it," she said.

"Personality, knowledge and persistence is what sells." Sales may not be the easiest job in the world, but in this case, it's a 'win-win' situation. I'm confident that both travelers and advertisers have a lot to gain in this venture!"  Rodriguez Cedillo travels frequently to tourism trade shows and makes personal calls for distribution locations, she said.

Nov 13-19 2000