Redwood appears to have lost major Kraft custom publishing account

[This item has been updated]

It appears that Redwood Custom Communications of Toronto, the largest custom publisher in the country, has lost one of its biggest clients. All or perhaps part of the account to produce custom magazines for Kraft Foods (What's Cooking in Canada, Food & Family in the U.S.) has been scooped by the giant U.S. publisher Meredith Corporation (Better Homes & Gardens etc.).

Rumours seem to be confirmed by a job posting at Meredith, looking for an Account Director, which says in part: "The Account Director will manage a team of Account Supervisors and an Account Executive who are based in Chicago, New York and perhaps Toronto to run the Kraft Food & Family business." An editorial and production team (13 specific jobs) is also being advertised on mediabistro.com.

[UPDATE: Apparently Redwood is now shutting down its Chicago office. In addition to Kraft, the company had at one time produced a custom publication for the state of Illiniois.]

Word on the street is that there is soon to be a major announcement at a staff meeting at Redwood's Front Street headquarters in Toronto. Meanwhile the What's Cooking image and information about Food & Family continues to be available on the Redwood web site.

The 5-times a year Food & Family magazines have a combined circulation of 12 million across North America, including What's Cooking in English Canada (which has 3.5 million readers according to PMB), its Quebec counterpart Qu’est-ce qui mijote, Food and Family and the Hispanic edition Comida y Familia in the U.S.

The irony is that the word leaked out because of the announcement this week that Transcontinental Media has struck a deal with a British custom publisher to go after custom publishing business aggressively in Canada and the United States. (Coincidentally, Transcon is in partnership with Meredith Corporation in publishing a Canadian edition of More magazine, which was launched this spring.)

Meredith is one of the largest publishers of magazines in the U.S. with 15 paid consumer publications and 200 special interest publications, many with the Better Homes & Gardens brand. It also owns 14 television stations. Its integrated marketing division is one of the largest custom publishing operations around, with many of the best known U.S. companies and brands and clients including Carnival Cruises, Century 21, DirecTV, Nestle, Daimler/Chrysler, Jeep, MetLife, and The Principal Financial Group, among others.

The Kraft move may also be yet another outcome of a consolidation that was announced in 2005. Kraft said it was restructuring its North American operations and having the Canadian business report directly through its Illinois headquarters.