Streamers increasingly are leaning into true crime and stories about the heartland, and Texas Monthly can check those boxes. Of the publication’s 50 film and TV projects, half fall into the true crime genre.

“They’re trying to reach the middle of the country, and we’ve got things that do that,” Scott Brown, Texas Monthly’s president, told Insider.

With 32 films and series sold or optioned and another 18 in development, Brown is eyeing around $1 million in entertainment deals in 2024. That’s 10% of Texas Monthly’s revenue, and he hopes to grow that figure to as much as 20% over time. Other revenue sources are advertising, custom content, and circulation.

Beyond “Hit Man,” recent adaptations include “Land Man,” an upcoming TV series about the state’s oil boom from Taylor Sheridan (another born-and-raised Texan), and a still-untitled exoneration documentary by award-winning filmmaker Deborah Esquenazi about a 1981 murder.

Texas Monthly also has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Discovery’s streamer Max, which yielded the publication’s first projects to hit the screen: this spring’s limited series “Love & Death” and docuseries “How to Create a Sex Scandal.“

Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at Max (and an Austin native), told Insider Texas Monthly has an “uncanny ability” to identify not only gripping true crime but also cultural stories with unforgettable characters. “We just can’t rip our eyes from the screen,” she said. With “Love & Death,” she added, “we could imagine big casts being really attracted to these roles. These stories are magnets for acting talent.”

For Brown, such projects are first and foremost a magnet for new audiences. It’s early days, but in the two months after “Love & Death” premiered, Texas Monthly’s site traffic rose 15% higher than average and sign-ups to its True Crime newsletter were 25% above average. “It was undeniable,” he said.

“We need a lot of “Love & Deaths,” Brown added. “We need a lot of these things in the world with our name on it.”

Texas Monthly joins a broadening trend of legacy and digital publications — from Time to Vox — parlaying their articles into film and TV projects not only to diversify and grow revenue but also to reach new audiences.

The dual writers’ and actors’ strikes derailed Texas Monthly’s plans, as with the rest of Hollywood, when buying and production largely ground to a halt. Entertainment deals accounted for only some 2% of the publication’s revenue this year.

While the writers’ strike has ended, the actors’ strike continues, so much of production is still shut down. Even once the actors are back on set, Hollywood’s appetite for future spending is expected to be tempered as Wall Street ratchets up the pressure for streaming to get profitable.

Brown hopes to see a big bounce in his publication’s film and TV activity coming out of the strikes, though, through groundwork it has laid over the past several months. He and his team have stayed close to their reps at CAA and buyers to keep tabs on what they’re looking for, so the publication could make sure it would have projects ready to go that meet their mandates. Brown’s optimistic about having three or four titles greenlit soon after the actors’ strike resolves, including the Esquenazi doc, especially since its subject, James Reyos, was just declared innocent.

“I believe we have enough stuff that’s far enough along that we will be the ones that’ll get greenlit,” Brown said. “We’re really feeling good.”