Promoting Pittsburgh, one product at a time. (New Pittsburgh Publications) (Small Business Journal)

Two local women have managed to create an popular series of products that support the city and make money, too.

It started in 1979 with the Poor Man's Guide to Pittsburgh. Bound by a brown paper bag, 20 pages of restaurant reviews sold 3,000 copies and launched Dorothy Miller on a career in publishing.

She's never looked back.

Today, that directory, renamed the Rich/Poor Man's Guide, runs 250 pages. It is but one product of New Pittsburgh Publications, run by Ms. Miller and Rosemary Parlak, both former reporters.

The guide is published every two and a half to three years; a new edition was released recently. The previous version sold 16,000 copies. A walking map which comes out every 18 months has sold "well over 250,000 copies since it was started," said Ms. Miller. New Pittsburgh does not disclose sales and since most of its products are not produced annually, it is difficult to determine its exact volume, even for the owners.

"We're profitable," said Ms. Miller.

Other offerings include notecards, placemats, and a two-hour video tribute to the city. But the big seller is undeniably the Pittsburgh Pleasures calendar, a community calendar on a metropolitan scale which debuted in 1983.

New Pittsburgh's only …