NOW magazine will distribute 20,000 copies on the Toronto subway

NOW magazine, which has for several decades relied on street boxes and racks throughout Toronto's core to distribute its weekly magazine, has struck a deal with Gateway Newsstands. Starting January 23, 20,000 copies of NOW will be distributed at Gateways' 65 newsstands throughout the Toronto Transit Commision subway system. It will continue to be available free every Thursday from over 3,310 racks, boxes and newstands across the GTA, online at www.nowtoronto.com and on the iPad. 

"We are all very excited about this new distribution deal with Gateway, it's yet another way for NOW to engage with our dedicated readership base both within, and outside, of the downtown core," says NOW Editor/Publisher, Michael Hollett [in a release]. 

NOW Editor/CEO, Alice Klein, agrees saying "We are beyond thrilled to say that after 32 years of publishing NOW, our paper will be available in the TTC for readers to pick up and enjoy while riding the subway and going about their daily routines."

Alberta's Law Now magazine opts to be free

LawNow Magazine, a digital publication of the Centre for Public Education Alberta has decided after 37 years of publication to go from being subscription-based to being free, as of September. Subscriptions had been $29.95 a year for 6 issues. The publication is also launching a new website in the fall.

"We believe this change will allow greater access to LawNow’s valuable content and will help us reach new audiences,"  said the publication in a release. 

Traditional controlled b2b publishing is dead, magazines congress told

The controlled circulation business magazine is dead. That was the blunt message conveyed to an audience at the World Magazines Congress in London this week, according to a story in Press Gazette. Tim Weller, the chief executive of the business information group Incisive Media said

"In the years to come we will be charging in some way shape or form for all of our content. I don't think the controlled circulation model in its current form is sustainable."

Incisive Media has a turnover of £250m with a magazine and event company that specializes in legal and financial information. He said the company's strategy is to connect communities to markets by as many routes as possible.

"Now if you try to deliver your print brand online, or if you try to deliver the print brand of six or seven years ago, you're dead.

"Investment Week when we launched was a news weekly. We've evolved the print editorial, it's now more discursive, thought-provoking - bringing together user generated content that we have found online

"The daily products become products that deliver news as it happens when it happens. Our objective is to own the working day of our audience in terms of information and news."

Oh Baby! mag lands distribution expansion with Pharma Plus

The controlled quarterly parenting magalogue Oh Baby!, published by Hestia International, of Toronto, is increasing its circulation through a deal with Rexall Pharma Plus stores, according to a story in Media in Canada.

Distribution will now be 175,000 copies: in addition to 100,000 copies distributed through Sears Canada, 50,000 will be available through Rexall Pharma Plus and another 25,000 through other locations such as Ontario Early Years Centres, Movies for Mommies, Once Upon a Child stores, doctors' offices, and baby/parenting trade shows. In addition, the magazine has over 1,000 paid subscribers.

Nick Eliades, publisher of Oh Baby! Magazine and president/CEO of Hestia, says that the magazine's website gets about 1,500-2,000 unique visitors a day and about 10,000 subscribes receive an e-newsletter, the names for which were gathered by various sponsored contests.

Hestia is, um, quite diversified. In addition to Oh Baby!, Hestia runs a four-day Hispanic festival in Chicago called Fiesta del Sol, publishes Race Week Pocket Guide, a listings book for the Champ car races in Toronto, and runs video advertising screens on the subway in Athens, Greece.