citylifestyle.com Reviews 3

**A word of caution**
As a small business owner in the Cedar Park/Leander area, I feel it’s important to share our experience with City Lifestyle so others can make a well-informed decision.

What is presented upfront sounds polished and promising, but in reality, this has been an extremely expensive investment with little to no return.
One of the biggest concerns is how the contracts are structured versus how they are presented. While it is said that contract length is flexible, the pricing strongly pushes long-term agreements by making shorter terms financially unrealistic. If you try to cancel, the “discount” is reversed and recalculated using higher “current” rates, making it very costly to exit. That is not true flexibility.

We were also encouraged to “adjust strategy” or “work with the publisher” to improve results. But that assumes there are results to improve. In our experience, there has been no meaningful return to build from. In addition, “adjusting strategy” often meant being encouraged to spend even more money, which only adds to the concern rather than solving the problem.

Another major issue is the lack of meaningful, publication-specific data. You may be shown general statistics about magazine readership that look impressive, but they do not reflect the actual performance of this publication. There is no clear way to measure how many people are actually engaging with your ad or becoming customers because of it. We actively ask every new customer how they heard about us, and over the past year, we have not seen any results from this advertising.

The distribution is also limited to certain neighborhoods and businesses, which further narrows your reach. Without real engagement data, it is difficult to justify the cost.

Overall, this has been a very costly lesson with little to no value in return. For small businesses, especially those working hard to grow, this type of investment can be difficult to sustain.

My advice is to proceed with caution. Make sure you fully understand the contract terms, especially cancellation. Ask specifically for performance data tied to this publication, not general industry statistics. And take the time to compare other marketing options that offer measurable results and flexibility.

There are more effective ways to invest in your business growth.

As a small business owner launching a new-concept restaurant in our city, we believed City Lifestyle would be a smart investment to build brand awareness with our target audience. Instead, it has been an extremely expensive lesson in what feels like a “smoke and mirrors” sales model built around contracts that are nearly impossible to escape.

City Lifestyle required a three-year agreement. The monthly ad rates are enormous compared to other local marketing options, but they present a discount structure that makes it look like you’re getting a deal. Even with the “discount,” it’s still outrageously expensive, especially for the results, which in our case have been essentially nonexistent.

After nine months of advertising, we can directly attribute four customers to City Lifestyle four people who specifically said this is how they heard about us.

When we requested documentation to understand the cancellation terms and fees, we were provided figures that would cost 60%+ more than simply continuing to pay for the remaining 27 months on the contract. That number is inflated by adding back the “discount” we supposedly received and then recalculating the cancellation amount using “currently applicable” monthly ad rates. Conveniently, those “current” rates appear to be far higher than what we were shown when we signed, so high that the cancellation penalty ends up nearly double what the non-discounted rates would suggest. The math doesn’t align, and the structure feels designed to punish you for even asking to leave.

Adding insult to injury, they also want to charge us for editorial/feature content that was originally presented as complimentary. We did not request these features. They were offered to us because of the uniqueness of our business, and the local franchisee even wanted to feature us on the cover. We were led to believe this was the publisher/editor’s choice and part of the relationship, not something we were “buying” with an unspoken price tag. There was no invoice presented with a stated amount and a corresponding “no charge” credit. Now, those same features are being priced at full rate and added as a cancellation penalty.

It’s also hard to ignore that many of the glowing multi-star reviews appear to come from franchisees—the same people who earn commission for every advertiser they sign. At these rates, it’s easy to see why they’re happy.

The bigger issue is this: there’s no meaningful proof the publication is being read by the people who receive it. It’s delivered free to higher-income neighborhoods, but in my own home it goes straight into the junk pile with most of the rest of the mail. That’s not “targeted engagement”. It’s mass delivery and hope.

In my opinion, this is a scam. If it weren’t, they wouldn’t need to lock small businesses into long-term contracts that guarantee their income while offering no realistic, reasonably priced exit.

Do your due diligence. Ask for hard proof of performance. Get cancellation terms in writing before you sign. And compare alternatives—because there are far better ways to promote your business for a fraction of the cost.

Good luck.

After a year as a publisher I had a very negative experience that left me scratching my head and speaking with several other publishers since this company took my publication away from me, I have come to the conclusion this would not be a business I would recommend to someone I actually cared about. It is not a true franchise model you are no more “your own boss” but more of a glorified 1099 sales person working for their bottom line at the end of the day.
Update: Told me my forecast didn’t look good for the NBTX publication in Texas but other magazines that started same time as me are STILL 36 pages even after a year of my publication being stolen out from under me. SHADY BAD COMPANY! And every advertisement partner I signed up has been fed more lies, and I can only think of one that has actual ROI and I was told not to talk to my friends and advertisers I signed up to be in the magazine. Buyer beware as an advertiser and as a publisher. Some of these 5-star reviews are laughable, considering they as an “advertiser” are using the same terms the “publishers” use when trying to sell you.