Five decades ago, in Newport Beach, Calif., publisher Stuart Karl launched the publication that would grow into AQUA Magazine.
It was Southern California in the seventies, a time of dreams and exuberance. A new leisure product had come on the scene — the massproduced, portable hot tub — and Karl saw the possibilities.
At that time, many people saw the hot tub movement as a fad that would last as long as the wild times in SoCal, and die with the next downturn, but Karl, then in his early 20s, had already found success with a publication serving the growing waterbed industry and believed he was on a roll. He called his new magazine, “Spa and Sauna.”
He was, as we now know, half right. It’s hard to find a good waterbed store these days, but sales of hot tubs and saunas reached $5 billion in the last few years, and I think we can safely say they are here to stay.
And while Karl’s waterbed magazine withered, Spa and Sauna thrived and soon became AQUA, currently the No. 1 Pool and Spa magazine in the world by almost any measure — revenue, pages and qualified circulation.
Next year, we celebrate our 50th birthday, starting with a retrospective feature in the January, 2026 issue.
In anticipation of the festivities, I caught up with myself for a brief interview.
AQUA: What does 50 years of publishing really mean — plenty of businesses are a lot older than that.
Scott Webb: Well, small businesses like AQUA (about 7 people make AQUA) fail at high rates and face hurdles as generations pass, just like pool and spa startups. But you’re right, I’ve seen plenty of pool and spa companies achieve far greater things than our 50 years in the business. As I often say, those people are geniuses, and our idols. We don’t pretend to approach their accomplishments — feats of courage, strength and determination we understand quite well having written about them for half a century. But this 50th anniversary is still nice.
AQ: What does it mean to you personally?
SW: Well, I’ve been here for exactly half of it, I started in 2001. It truly feels like a milestone. In the magazine business, like the pool and spa business, you rarely get a chance to step back and look at what you’ve done. Once you finish a job or project (or in my case, an issue), you’re on to the next one. But every once in a while, you should stop, raise your eyes up from the work in front of you, and see it all together for what it is, collectively — all those moments that make up the years.
This article first appeared in the November 2025 issue of AQUA Magazine — the top resource for retailers, builders and service pros in the pool and spa industry. Subscriptions to the print magazine are free to all industry professionals. Click here to subscribe.
