About Us

Attraction was founded in 1979 by Louise Hawkins.  Louise graduated from the University of MD School of Journalism and she began Attraction as an insert in the Howard County News, primarily covering social and sporting events in Howard County. It was published every other week and was just a couple of pages long. At that time, the magazine’s tagline was “The bi-weekly arts, leisure and entertainment magazine.”  In the early ‘80s, Louise and her family were living on the Eastern Shore and she also wrote for the Star Democrat and Daily Times. Sometime around 1983, she decided to move the magazine to the Mid Shore. She kept its shape and feel as a newspaper insert, which is why it is the size that it is, but it changed to a monthly publication of its own.  The tagline also changed at that time to “The Good News Magazine.” Louise was a one-woman show who did all aspects of the magazine publication, before computers, and then delivered all the issues herself, which at that time was around 4,000 copies per month.  She did all of this well into her 70s. In 1997, after leaving a very successful career in broadcast journalism, Richard Slaughter became partners with Louise. At that time the magazine only published 6 issues each year.  He worked with her for 5 years until she retired and he purchased the magazine from her. For 15 years, from 2002-2017, Richard was the second owner of the magazine.  It was during that time that Attraction really blossomed into what it is today.  More issues were added, the page count continually increased, the overall look of the magazine improved – stapled, trimmed, perfect bind, glossy cover – and the magazine began to have a large presence in the local community, spreading beyond just Talbot County. Richard worked as Publisher until his death in May 2017 when his wife, Harriett, took over ownership for the remainder of the year. On January 1, 2018, Richard’s daughter, Allison Rogers, became the owner of Attraction magazine. Today the staff includes: