Star to launch fashion extension

Whenever a newspaper wants to pump up business, it seems to play the magazine card. The Toronto Star will publish a skinny, new glossy, 6-times-a-year fashion section called Fashion Plus in March designed to cream off the lucrative cosmetics budgets of the fashion and women's service magazines. This was reported today in Media in Canada.

According to group advertising director Cathy Wilson, it will emphasize photography, layout and design. (What the heck did the Thursday fashion section emphasize?) "This is an opportunity for the fashion team to 'pump up' what they do in the Thursday fashion section," says Wilson. "Some cosmetic advertisers won't introduce new products on newsprint, so this will be of interest to them."

But, wait, why do I call it a "section" and skinny? Because it will have a "minimum" of 8 pages. More of a brochure or a free-standing insert than a publication at all.

It will be selectively distributed in the Sunday paper, to 180,000 Toronto Star subscribers with a minimum 75k household income. Ad rates range between $15-36k (presumably the latter is the full page rate), giving it a CPM based on circ of $200.