Rogers mags to test alternative delivery

Rogers Media is to launch a pilot project for alternative delivery of some of its magazines by using independent newspaper contractors (the shadowy people who drive around our streets in the dark of night making sure the Globe and Mail gets tossed into the juniper bush, just out of reach.)

Brian Master has been engaged as project manager, reporting to Michael Fox, Senior Vice-President Circulation and Development. Master was most recently Vice-president Circulation at the Toronto Sun after being VP Circulation & Sports Publications from 2001 to 2004 at Transcontinental Media and has worked in a variety of circulation management positions from 1985 to 2000 at Toronto Star Newspapers. As RMAD (Rogers Magazine Alternative Delivery -- the working title) is rolled out, a sample of Rogers titles will be delivered to business addresses by the contractors, as opposed to through Canada Post. Presumably,the pilot will test whether customers are just as happy to get their magazines one way as another; and the payoff may be significant savings for publishers who have faced steadily escalating postage increases (and steadily eroding postal subsidies)in recent years.

Rogers was part of a consortium of big consumer mag players who paid for a feasibility study on alternative delivery last year (with support in part from Canadian Heritage). While it was led by the larger players, the focus was on alternatives for the whole industry, including small magazines.

Rogers has offered to share what it learns in its own project.