Alberta's Venture Publishing brings unlimited launch to market

Albertans, and the rest of the country, will see the brand new business and lifestyle magazine aimed at the "millenials" (def: the children of baby boomers) when Venture Publishing of Edmonton launches unlimited.

Content will be about work and life from the perspective of the 20 - 35 year old demographic, the kinds of young people who have flocked and are flocking to Alberta as the land of opportunity. The emphasis is on profiles and substantive articles illustrated by fine portrait photography.

The magazine will have a slightly oversized format (9" x 10.75) and will publish 6 times a year, with a circulation of 20,000 copies through a combination of paid subscriptions, newsstand sales and controlled distribution. Issue 1 (see above) is due on newsstands across Canada on September 17. Circulation is being handled by Coast to Coast. The magazine will be in cash line special displays in Chapters Indigo nationally (heavier in Alberta, BC and Ontario) and in several western chains, including grocery and drug retailers Overwaitea/Saveon Foods and London Drugs. Cover price is $5.95 and a 6-issue sub is $19.97.

Design is by Malcolm Brown and the editor is Dan Rubinstein. Joyce Byrne, associate publisher has headed up the launch team. Byrne was the publisher of This Magazine before moving west to work at Venture. Rubinstein was features editor at Alberta Venture magazine and had been at Alberta Views and the alternative paper Vue Weekly. Brown has worked at many well-known titles, including Saturday Night, Outpost, enRoute and shift.

In his first letter from the editor, Rubinstein says

In our September 2007 debut issue and the first of two issues this year, we’ll bring you stories about an industrial designer who’s doing it his way in Edmonton and a banker/lawyer couple who turned their backs on Calgary’s oil and gas sector to buy a drive-in burger joint. We’ll tell you how to land that dream job abroad (hint: it is who you know), how interdisciplinary teamwork has created a solar car that’s firing on all cylinders, and how to get “Rich by Thirty” (the title of our financial advice columnist’s new book). You’ll learn how to swim with neo-con sharks, how shark-like companies market their image at you, how young working parents are redefining success, and why you need to move out of your parents’ basement.

A one-time 4-colour ad in the new magazine is $3,700.

The new magazine will be kicked off by launch parties September 11 in Edmonton and September 18 in Calgary.

Venture Publishing produces business magazine Alberta Venture, The Money Book, Fore! The Ultimate Guide to Golf in Alberta and B.C., Alberta Market Facts Directory, Meeting and Convention Planner, Open Mind, Tracks & Treads, BioZine, Your Health and Food for Thought.

President and Editor-in-chief Ruth Kelly said earlier this summer:

"With Alberta’s economy as red-hot as it is, and the youngest population in Canada, it’s time our next generation of business leaders had a publication that reflected their issues in the workplace and beyond."

From an item in DesignEdge Canada about Malcolm Brown's design:

“It’s a business lifestyle magazine so they still wanted it to be kind of creative," said Brown. They didn’t want it to be stuffy like a lot of business magazines are.”

Brown commissioned several photographers to shoot for the inaugural issue including Christopher Wahl, Bryce Duffy, Mark Gilbert, Andrej Kopac and local photogs Boot Strucker and Philip Dykes, as well as some Sheridan College student illustrators in Toronto.