Lifestyle Publications Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
Formerly known as City Lifestyle
- Investment
- $38K – $46K
- Disclosed sales
- $444K
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Not SBA-matched
Data from FDD filing
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Lifestyle Publications is a franchise publishing upscale, community-focused local magazines funded by local advertising. Franchisees run a local edition selling ad space, coordinating content, and managing distribution, typically home-based.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A Lifestyle Publications franchise requires a total initial investment of $38K – $46K, including a $30K franchise fee and an ongoing 7.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average revenue per franchisee was $444K. This franchisor reports Item 19 per franchisee rather than per outlet, so the figure is not comparable with per-outlet averages[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: A (Strongest tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✓ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored5 of 6 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
- Investment
- $38K – $46K
- 1st pct Service Resta…
- Avg gross sales
- $444K
- Per franchisee, not per outletOutlet subset
- Royalty
- 7.0%
- 36th pct Service Resta…
- Units
- 210
- 34th pct Service Resta…
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Full-Service Restaurants · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Full-Service Restaurants median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $38K – $46K including a $30K franchise fee, 7.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage revenue per franchisee of $444K/year (reported for a subset of outlets rather than the whole system). Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures.
- RISKVerdict A (Strongest tier), verdict score 78/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHPositive: net +27 franchised outlets in the latest year (50 opened, 16 closed); 14 signed but not yet open (Item 20).
- FLAG16 units terminated last reporting year (7.6% of the system). Ask existing franchisees why.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Lifestyle Publications, LLC
- Parent company
- Lifestyle Media Holdings, LLC
- FDD Item 1, page 8 of the 2025 FDD
- Predecessor
- Lifestyle Media Solutions, LLC (formerly Lifestyle Publications, LLC, formerly Kingdom Holdings, LLC)
- Prior franchisor entity
- CEO title
- Chief Executive Officer and Manager
- Steven Schowengerdt
- Incorporated in
- MO
- HQ
- 514 W 26th St, Kansas City, MO 64108
- Auditor
- Emerick & Company, P.C.
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $71.0M
- vs $60.1M prior year
Independent franchisee associations
- Franchise Advisory Council (FAC)
- Independent Franchisee Association
Franchisee-led councils or alliances disclosed in Item 20. Indicates operator voice.
Overview
About
- CEO
- Steven Schowengerdt
- Headquarters
- MO
- Founded
- 2019
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 39
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 94% below the typical full-service restaurants franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
FDD Item 7 · 2025 filing
Initial investment breakdown
| Cost component | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $30K | $30K |
| Working capital (3–6 mo) | $3K | $4K |
| Equipment, build-out, other | $5K | $13K |
| Total initial investment | $38K | $46K |
Source: Lifestyle Publications 2025 FDD, Items 5 and 7[2]. “Equipment, build-out, other” is computed as total minus disclosed line items above.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $38K – $46K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $3K – $4K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $30K – $30K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 7.0%
- typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- -n/d
- Total fee load
- 7.0%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 7.0% of gross sales |
| Training fee | $1K |
| Transfer fee | $30K |
| Total fee load | 7.0% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 72% below the full-service restaurants norm.
Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures
Reported for a subset of outlets rather than the whole system
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · not modelled
Returns at a glance
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit, and the operating costs that turn one into the other are in no filing. We publish no modelled return for Lifestyle Publications until someone supplies them — yours, in the models below.
—
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for ad fund rate, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
Total invested capital · disclosed
$45K
Item 7 initial investment plus working capital, as filed — the one figure here that needs no assumption.
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit, read against the 30–60% reference band · Yale SOM, Post-MBA Path Exhibit 2 (2023). Below that band a passive index fund likely outperforms; above it the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses, and it is the top line only — gross sales are not profit. No FDD discloses the operating costs that turn one into the other, so those fields start empty and nothing is modelled until you supply them from your own lease quote, labor market and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one Lifestyle Publications unit return on the cash you put in?
Illustrative category typicals — not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for ad fund rate, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for ad fund rate, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
A 25-unit return is built on a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in Model A above and this model runs on that figure, or take the whole scenario to the full ROI workbench, where the portfolio and LBO models accept your own per-unit economics directly.
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures
Reported for a subset of outlets rather than the whole system
- Avg gross sales
- $444K
- Per franchisee, per year — not per outlet
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- gross sales quartile by segment
- Sample size
- 132 franchisees
- vs category median 18 · large
- Range (low → high)
- $195K→$965KCited, not corroborated — printed on page 42 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Quartile band
- $239K→$575K
- Bottom 25% → top 25%, per franchisee
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
Compared against 801 Full-Service Restaurants brands
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
The average franchisee generates $444K/year in gross sales. Reported for a subset of outlets rather than the whole system.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 7.0% (near the Full-Service Restaurants median).
Disclosure
Transparency score 0/10 — minimal disclosure beyond the required average. Hard to judge the distribution of outcomes across units.
Operator retention
System expanding at 38.7% CAGR over 3 years across 210 units — operators are staying and new ones are joining.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Full-Service Restaurants medians
How Lifestyle Publications Compares
Per franchisee, not per outlet - the category median is per-outlet only, so no comparison is shown
Category median of published Full-Service Restaurants brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 210
- Opened
- 50
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 16
- Terminated
- 16
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 0
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 7.7%
- Company-owned
- 2
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 99%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- +38.7%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- +38.7%
- Compounded over last 3 years
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Terminated
- 16
- Not renewed
- 0
- Transferred
- 13
- Reacquired
- 5
- Franchisor bought back
- Signed, not yet open
- 14
- 0.07 per open outlet · Item 20 Table 5
- Projected new
- 51
- Franchisor's next-year forecast
- Termination rate
- 50.0%
- Franchisor-initiated terminations
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 39 states reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
39
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Lifestyle Publications presents meaningful compliance and transparency risks, with regulatory consent orders, undisclosed financials, employment classification exposure, and franchisor financial concerns offsetting moderate growth metrics.
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: the franchisor is a named party (defendant).
5 consent orders by state regulators (Washington, Maryland, Minnesota, California - twice) against predecessor LMS for operating unlicensed franchise agreements; 1 federal civil action by 11 former publishers alleging misclassification as independent contractors (CA labor law), settled August 2020 for $659,000
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Emerick & Company, P.C.
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: Yes
- Must buy proprietary products: No
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
Score breakdown · what drove the 78 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORFour consent orders from state securities divisions across multiple states indicate systemic franchise disclosure and registration compliance failures
- 02MINOR2020 class-action settlement regarding misclassification of publishers as independent contractors suggests potential employment law exposure and operational model vulnerability
- 03MINORUnit growth of 14.9% YoY is modest for a franchise system and may mask higher churn rates not reflected in net unit count
- 04MINORRevenue model tied to 'Advertising Value' (7% royalty) is opaque—unclear how advertising value is calculated, audited, or enforced
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 7.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 5 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 5 years |
| Territory type | Protected territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | No |
| Territory population | 6,500 |
| Online sales rights | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Required |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 50 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | No |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 0 days |
| Termination groundsℹ | 1 |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 1 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Missouri |
| Jury trial waiver | No |
| Governing law | MO |
| Litigation count | 6 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
5 consent orders by state regulators (Washington, Maryland, Minnesota, California - twice) against predecessor LMS for operating unlicensed franchise agreements; 1 federal civil action by 11 former publishers alleging misclassification as independent contractors (CA labor law), settled August 2020 for $659,000
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 36 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 2 hrs
- Training location
- Online (virtual) and Kansas City, MO (in-person)
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Site selection
- Franchisee
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
219 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a Lifestyle Publications franchise?
The total investment to open a Lifestyle Publications franchise ranges from $38K – $46K, with an initial franchise fee of $30K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do Lifestyle Publications franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Lifestyle Publications FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $444K. Important context: Averaged per franchisee, not per outlet - not comparable with per-outlet figures; Reported for a subset of outlets rather than the whole system. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns Lifestyle Publications?
Lifestyle Publications is franchised by Lifestyle Publications, LLC. Its parent company is Lifestyle Media Holdings, LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Lifestyle Publications FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the Lifestyle Publications FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Lifestyle Publications's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for Lifestyle Publications (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many Lifestyle Publications franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, Lifestyle Publications has 210 total units in the United States, including 208 franchised units and 2 company-owned units. 50 new units were opened in the latest reporting year.
Is Lifestyle Publications a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates Lifestyle Publications as a A-grade franchise with a verdict score of 78 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
Are you the franchisor?
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.