Lush magazine relaunched

A story on Mastheadonline says that quarterly fashion title Lush magazine has been relaunched with a fall 2009 issue after being on a 9-month hiatus. The story indicates the relaunch has been enabled by new ownership, the Toronto-based Bassett Media Group. 

But that ownership is not so new; Lush was actually purchased almost two years ago by Bassett, in December 2007, as part of a move to diversify its out-of-home digital advertising business and go into publishing. At the time, the company said it planned to launch a second title in spring 2008 called Argyle, aimed at "elite corporate executives". 

Argyle was indeed launched and Bassett Publishing says its objective is "to produce high quality, stylish, thought-provoking magazines for the Canadian and international marketplace that cater to a wealthy, educated and influential demographic". It has a controlled quarterly circulation of 75,000 and is principally distributed by mail to members of the Cambridge Group of Clubs in Toronto and Montreal as well as being distributed selectively in Toronto and Montreal through the Globe and Mail and as public place copies in hotel lobbies, waiting rooms, spas and the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounges.  A full-page ad in Argyle is $9,950.

Lush is mostly distributed through selective inclusion in the Globe and Mail. (In 2007 the total was 130,000 copies and Bassett said it planned to increase the number of copies to 150,000 in spring 2008 and apply for a circulation audit.) Editorial director Mark Keast (whose Pennant Media Group launched Lush in 2005 with partner Mahfud Ibrahim) told Masthead that the magazine's circulation now is 100,000, of which 80% is through the Globe, with the remainder distributed at fashion events like the recent LG Fashion Week, through the Cambridge Group of Clubs, in floor racks at HDS stores in airports and on newsstands. (It is not known if a circulation audit is pending.) “Our focus going forward is to grow the paid circulation model via newsstand and subscribers,” says Keast. A full page ad in Lush is $12,753.

According to a statement in its media kit, Bassett Media Group has an exclusive marketing relationship with the Cambridge Group of Clubs to both sell sponsorship to club events and create new events for members in tandem with ad clients. Cambridge Group owns the Cambridge Club and the Adelaide Club in Toronto and Club Sportif MAA in Montreal. Its digital signage is soon to be installed in the clubs.

As an earlier post on Canadian Magazines reported,  the parent company, the Bassett Media Group , specializes in out-of-home digital advertising and its group includes Impulse Media (now 120 screens in Rexall Pharama Plus stores) and Concourse Media (now 60 screens in the Toronto financial district). According to The Canadian Press, the company is headed by Matthew Bassett, a son of the late Baton Broadcasting media magnate John Bassett and former TV personality and Ontario cabinet minister Isabel Bassett. In a 2007 release, Basset Media Group said it also intended to move into the wireless market with a bid on available spectrum in the auction to be held by the federal government. In the end, BMG was not one of the successful bidders.