About Us

Welcome to LIVE Lee.

This is your local magazine, here to cover everything in our county —
Auburn, Opelika, Smiths Station and Lee County.

This magazine was born as a product of The Observer (https://opelikaobserver.com)
in March 2020. The first issue to be released was a remembrance issue for victims of
the 2019 Beauregard tornadoes (Lee County Strong).

Soon after a graduation issue was published for graduating seniors, the first issue to
use the LIVE Lee title.

The first official issue — Issue 1 — was born in September 2020, a food and entertain
ment issue. Since then we have been proud to offer our community a variety of topics
and coverage. We hope you enjoy.

LIVE Lee is published 8 times a year.  Every other month with two special issues (graduation
and veterans/holiday) It is well received in our area and advertisers have reported that cust
omers have commented on seeing their ads.

LIVE Lee started with a graduation issue in 2020 as a way of doing something special for the
Class of 2020 – the Covid class.  They had lost much of their senior year,  we wanted to do
something extra nice for them and we created LIVE Lee.

It was so well-received that we decided to keep it going and here we are 3 1/2 years later. We
have won awards from the Alabama Press Association better media contest during the last 3
years.  We’ve won awards for our advertising  (1st place for best ad campaign 2022, 2nd place
for best ad campaign in 2023), plus editorial and photography awards including first place
awards. I can look up specifics if desired.

We are a member of the Alabama Press Association, Auburn chamber of commerce,  Opelika
chamber of commerce and Opelika Main Street.

Our very first magazine was called LEE COUNTY STRONG and was a tribute to the victims and
survivors of the massive tornadoes that killed 23 people on March 3, 2019. We complied photos
and our news coverage along with stories of survival into a 140-page publication.  We won
awards for that publication as well.

“We love our county, our people, our businesses and all that makes our area
unique.If you haven’t yet explored Lee County, we’re here to help.”

Hannah Lester – Editor of LIVE Lee

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