Ken Hunt named publisher of Toronto Life

Ken Hunt

A new publisher has been appointed at Toronto Life magazine, with David Hamilton stepping down after more than three years. As he noted, he came on a one-year contract in August 2011 and now it's time to hand over to someone else. That someone is Ken Hunt, the vice-president of digital at St. Joseph Media. A release from the St Joseph Communications, Media Group president Douglas Knight said

Along with his many accomplishments across the company’s full range of magazine and digital properties, and in building innovative digital strategies for corporate and not-for-profit clients, Mr. Hunt also led the growth of Torontolife.com and Toronto Life’s related digital platforms. In addition to serving an audience of more than 600,000 print magazine readers, Toronto Life’s digital audience now exceeds 1.2 million.

 “New technologies, new platforms, new media habits have opened up tremendous opportunity for Toronto Life to find new and innovative ways to serve the needs of our city,” said Mr. Hunt. “I am thrilled to take on that challenge and to build on the award-winning journalistic standards of the magazine, the growth of our digital operations and the appeal of the many events we have introduced to the city.”

Hamilton had been brought in in October 2011 with a strong magazine background, having been the longtime publisher of Flare magazine at Rogers Publishing, then publisher of Hello! Canada before a stint as co-general director of Opera Canada. In his time in the Toronto Life publisher's chair he led several initiatives, introducing Toronto Life’s We Love Our City campaign along with a series of events including Toronto’s Most Influential, recognizing Toronto leaders making a difference in the city, and Toronto’s Most Stylish, which launches Toronto’s red carpet season each September. Hamilton said

“I’d like to thank Doug Knight and Tony Gagliano, Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications, for their confidence in bringing me into Toronto Life and for their tremendous support. I have enjoyed working with the incredibly talented and enthusiastic team of people at the magazine; it has been very rewarding and a lot of fun. I believe I’m leaving the brand stronger than ever and, while there are certainly challenges facing media today, I know that Toronto Life will continue to grow and excel as it has for almost 50 years – yes, Toronto Life will be 50 in 2016!”