Better Tennessee Magazine

Better Tennessee Magazine

Most healthcare publications communicate information. Very few earn attention.

At the time, the category was dominated by clinical language, stock wellness imagery, and cautious editorial choices that rarely reflected the realities of people navigating addiction, mental health, access to care, and the everyday complexity of staying healthy.

The insight was that people change through stories, not statistics.

Better Tennessee was designed as an editorial publication first and a healthcare communication platform second. The magazine intentionally rejected the visual language of traditional wellness marketing in favor of something warmer, more human, and more emotionally honest. The print format was part of the strategy. Distributed through doctors’ offices, curated mail distribution, and digital subscriptions, the magazine met people in moments where they were already thinking about their health and open to reflection rather than interruption.

The creative direction pushed against the safety and polish typical of healthcare communications. The stories addressed addiction, suicide prevention, community health access, and the lived experiences of Tennesseans with the same care, emotional weight, and visual ambition expected from editorial journalism rather than corporate publishing.

Better Tennessee later earned First Place for Best Print Publication at the Ragan Content Marketing Awards, recognized nationally for its storytelling, design, and editorial vision.

More importantly, it proved that healthcare communication could feel human without losing credibility; laying the creative foundation for future platforms including WellTuned and Healthy Conversations.

The Result Better Tennessee won First Place for Best Print Publication at the Ragan 2015 Content Marketing Awards beating entries from Fortune 500 companies nationally. Judges called it "content marketing at its best" and "a superb magazine, conceived and executed with passion and skill, demonstrating over and over the supreme power of stories well told."

It ran for three years. Not because it was easy or cheap to produce but because it worked. It also laid the foundation for WellTuned and Healthy Conversations.

Creative Director: Courtney Cochran, BCBST in partnership with Parthenon Publishing