Rotman management magazine to make a big play for newsstand sales

Rotman magazine, the publication of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, is putting on a big newsstand push. It has retained the design firm K9 Design Co. and circulation expert Scott Bullock of coversell.com to help it put out a more commercial cover, one that will compete with its perceived peers such as the Harvard Business Review, strategy+ business and Fast Company. Until now, Rotman has had a rather dour, academic look.

The first cover (shown) will launch in the fall using the current newsstand distribution in university and specialty bookstores; the new look will roll out to airport and Chapters/Indigo stores coast to coast starting with the winter edition of the quarterly. Circ will include 7,000 distributed on selected U.S. newsstands.

“As we begin to expand our reach on global newsstands, we needed a more commercial version of our cover for this version of Rotman magazine.  K9 has created a bold cover that will enable us to stand proud on newsstands beside our aspirational peers...,” said Karen Christensen, exec. director, strategic communication and editor-in-chief, Rotman Magazine.

“Our approach to this cover was one with great respect," said Norm Lourenco, creative director at K9. "The cover was already well known in its niche market. The logo for the nameplate had to remain the same so we worked with all of the other elements available to us that we could affect change with. Introducing large, bold cover lines, call out boxes, typographical hierarchy and a fresh colour palette will increase visibility in a very heavily populated category. I think the resulting cover is a great reflection of staying true to the Rotman brand while giving it enough punch to amp-up the call to action on stands.”