Yellow Pages and Transcon in magazine venture

The term "hybrid magazine" is new to us, but it's the phrase being used to describe the joint venture between the Yellow Pages Group and Transcontinental Media in the projected launch in Toronto and Montreal of two, new, as-yet-unnamed, magazines -- one in the home improvement/homes/shelter category, one aimed at aging boomers and their families.

The Yellow Pages Group is Canada's largest telephone-directories publisher. Annually, it publishes more than 330 directories and alphabetical pages in markets that cover 93 per cent of the Canadian population. It is wholly owned by the Yellow Pages Income Fund.

Fourth-quarter net earnings for Yellow Pages improved 7.4 per cent to $41.2 million, on annual revenues of $922.9 million.

The new magazines will have how-to content and a directory where services can be found. Depending on the success of the magazines, there may be more.

This is not the first time that the Yellow Pages has ventured into magazine publishing. A few years ago, it started a controlled quarterly magazine and city guide called Toronto This Season. It lasted a little more than a year and failed to find an audience.

The announcement of the new venture follows fairly quickly on the heels of the deal between Rogers Media and Canada Post to publish a shelter book, starting this fall. At the time, the word "hybrid" wasn't used.

[UPDATE: Feb 21. Media in Canada reports that the new "magdirectory" will be bundled with Transcon titles Select Homes (in English) and Decor (in French) and will consist of a magazine front half and a selective "Yellow Pages" directory in the back half. It will also apparently be circulated by controlled methods to neighbourhoods where people are -- for instance -- most likely to be interested in renovation.]