The ad supplements that ate Toronto Life

Torontoist, a popular blog about all things Toronto, has had it with the baggage that comes with every issue of Toronto Life magazine. In a post today, Mark Lostracco says that while he thinks the subscription price is worth every penny, the magazine's heavy burden of advertising ride-alongs and inserts is too much.

Subscription card "fly-ins" and heavy-stock ad inserts are extremely unpopular with readers, but those snot-glued supplements are incredibly lucrative, with advertisers able to attach anything from promotional DVDs to shampoo samples. Obviously, this is incredibly disruptive to the reading experience unless the consumer sifts through the magazine before reading to shake out subscription cards and tear away thick, folded perfume strips. In the case of Toronto Life's December issue, the additional advertising supplements are thicker than the actual magazine when piled side-by-side.

Packaged and mailed inside a plastic bag, the majority of the bulk comes from faux "magazines" like Vintages and Abode, which are impeccably-designed and printed on quality stock. Abode, for example, is laid-out very intentionally to confuse consumers into thinking that it's one of Toronto Life's useful monthly CityGuide magazines (which are also included in the subscription package). The LCBO's expensive Vintages supplement features three pages of fold-outs—closing the thing is a sisyphean task worthy only of those with the longest of fuses.