Waterloo Region newspaper's lifestyle title Grand going strong after 5 years

Five years ago, when the Waterloo Region Record newspaper launched a couple of magazines -- one about business, one lifestyle title, there was some well-founded scepticism; newspapers routinely think it is no big whoops to do a magazine the same way they do the daily, and often fail. 

However the Record (a subsidiary of Torstsar's Metroland media group which publishes an astonishing number of targetted lifestyle magazines across Ontario) has proven its mettle. While the business title foundered, the lifestyle bimonthly, Grand magazine, has gone from strength to strength and is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a fat holiday issue. 

The magazine has a controlled circulation of 19,000 in this booming region, which includes the cities of Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo plus four rural townships.It has the expected focus on people and stuff: home decor, local cuisine, health and fitness and travel. By exclusively spotlighting local people and local goods and services, it has carved out a valuable niche and augmented it by insisting on professional design, photography and production values (a perfect-bound glossy).

It has also given its advertisers the online opportunity to offer promotions and their own digital flyers. Those who don't pick it up at a participating location can have a 6-issue mail subscription for $33.76 (including HST). And it has developed a branded consumer show.

A 1x full page ad in the magazine is $2,650 and a leaderboard on the magazine's website is $199 a month.