CBC ad exec to be publisher of Hello! Canada

Rogers Publishing Ltd. has appointed a senior ad executive from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to be publisher of its Hello! franchise. The celebrity/gossip magazine is due to launch this August. The new publisher is Shelley Middlebrook, most recently Senior Manager, National Sales, English Television for the CBC. Previous to that she was Executive Vice-President at Brunico Communications, the publishers of Strategy and Playback magazines.

"Hello! has unique access to the hottest celebrities around the world and a premium format that differentiates it in the marketplace. The backing of Canada's largest and most respected magazine publisher makes this a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Middlebrook.

Launched in the UK in 1988, Hello! is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Spanish magazine Hola! (see typical cover, above), which first debuted in 1944. In the UK, Hello!'s current circulation stands at 392,481 weekly, with over 2.2 million readers each week.

(Recently, a passel of Rogers executives jetted to Spain to soak up the successful aura of the parent magazine, in the hope and fervent expectation that it will transfer as well into Canada as it has into the U.K.)