“I didn’t just stumble into East Austin — my family has been part of this community since the 1820s. EASTside Magazine is the most personal thing I’ve ever built.”
Will Bowling has spent more than two decades doing one thing exceptionally well: building magazines that matter to their communities. From a college publication at Texas State University in San Marcos to five titles spanning Texas and Oklahoma, Will has been at the center of local media — creating, rebranding, and breathing life into print and digital publications that give communities a voice they can hold in their hands.
His career began the way the best ones do: with a bold idea and not nearly enough resources. While studying at Texas State, Will launched his first magazine — a scrappy, community-focused publication that taught him everything formal education couldn’t. That early experience set the template for everything that followed: find a community that isn’t being told its own story well enough, and tell it better.
Over the next two decades, Will went on to create and rebrand two additional publications in Texas and Oklahoma — each one rooted in the specific character of its city, each one built from the ground up with the kind of editorial integrity and design sensibility that comes from someone who genuinely cares. Along the way he developed a rare combination of skills: the creative eye of a designer, the strategic mind of a publisher, and the instincts of someone who understands that great local media is built on trust.
EASTside Magazine, launched in 2015, is the culmination of all of it — and for Will, the most personal project of his career.
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Early 2000s
First Magazine — Texas State University Launched his first publication while studying in San Marcos, TX — learning the full craft of magazine-making from the ground up.
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2000s–2010s
Texas & Oklahoma Publications Created and rebranded two additional regional magazines across Texas and Oklahoma, developing a track record of turning local publications into community institutions.
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2015
EASTside Magazine — Austin, TX Co-founded EASTside Magazine with Ashley Bowling, creating Austin’s definitive guide to East Austin living — food, homes, art, culture, and community.
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Today
Publisher & Creative Director, EASTside Leading the creative vision, design, and business strategy of EASTside Magazine — now with 127,000+ Instagram followers and a thriving print and digital presence.
A Family History That Goes Back to the 1820s
People often ask Will why he chose to focus on East Austin. The answer, it turns out, goes back further than he even knew.
Growing up, Will always sensed his family had deep roots in Austin. After college in San Marcos, his family returned to this side of town because they simply loved it. But it wasn’t until his father passed away three years ago that the full depth of that history came into focus.
His father used to tell stories of his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother living on East Avenue — swimming in Barton Springs when it was still just a creek, and going down to the river to set their traps. He spent years searching for photos of them, but they were always out of reach.
Then a conversation with an uncle changed everything. He pulled out a box of photos no one had seen before: pictures of the family home on East Avenue, and a photograph of Will’s grandmother with her father at Barton Springs. The family, it turned out, had been part of East Austin since the 1820s — among the first to build and settle here, long before Texas gained its independence.
“After learning this, I’m more convinced than ever that this connection to East Austin is why I do what I do today,” Will says. “A hundred years of my family are buried here. This legacy shapes everything I’m passionate about.”
That legacy — of community, of roots, of belonging to a place before a place was famous — is woven into every issue of EASTside Magazine.