Selling magazine articles one-by-one is the goal of startup

A recent startup based in Toronto called Cover Story has been created to sell magazine articles on a per-article basis. 

Launched last summer, the online micropayment platform now has about 150 articles available from four Canadian magazines, including Inroads Journal, A/J Alternatives Journal, Ecoparent  and Green Teacher. Registration is free, there are no subscriptions and there are many free articles. Paid ones start at 49 cents apiece. There are no set up costs to the magazine and revenues are shared as articles are sold. 

The founders of the platform are Aditya Chityala and Aswani Pulipakal, each finance professionals with MBA degrees from the Rotman School at the University of Toronto. 

TC Media offers Quebec advertisers a range of content marketing routes to their business and finance customers

TC Media Business Solutions Group is now offering Quebec advertisers a turnkey menu of ways of reaching Quebec business and finance audiences with marketing and digital strategies applied across various financial platforms: Les Affaires, Finance et Investissement and Investment Executive. 

“We are very proud to be launching a new line of services that highlights the talent and expertise of our people, while also giving our customers the opportunity to raise awareness of their brands and increase their visibility with a high-quality audience,” said Sylvain Bédard, vice president, business solutions at TC Media, and publisher of Les Affaires Group said in a release. 

“Through our prestige brands, we offer multiple distribution channels to advertisers who want to foreground their expertise through content marketing, to showcase their products and services through partner content, or to be associated with our editorial content.”

Essentially, advertisers will have a choice of three ways to communicate with customers:

• Associating their message with editorial content written by journalists in the group, with full journalistic independence; 
• Commissioning content written by the specialized content services team, with advertiser approval (essentially, "native advertising"); 
• Or (for advertisers who want total control) to draw on the skills of the specialized team to produce promotional content about the advertiser’s products and services, distributed on the advertiser’s own channels, or as “partner content” in business solutions properties.

TC Media partners with California "contextual messaging" company

TC Media has entered into a partnership to be the exclusive reseller of StrongView, a platform that can be used by digital clients such as Sunwing Vacations and The Blue Hive (Ford Motor company agency) in their "contextual messaging" campaigns. TC Media sends more than 2 billion personalized emails and 100 million SMS messages a year on behalf of Canadian retailers and advertisers. StrongView is based in Redwood City, California. TC Media which, until recently, was one of Canada's largest consumer magazine publishers, is based in Montreal.

Blue Ant, publishers of Cottage Life, named Marketing's media player of the year, again

For the second time in the four-year history of the Marketing magazine awards, Blue Ant Media has been named Media Player of the Year, this time for 2014. The February/March issue is on newsstands now.

The company casts its net wide into, among other things, music (a partnership with the Polaris prize) and digital content production and broadcasting, with the recent purchase of a majority stake in New Zealand broadcaster Choice TV.

The exemplar for Blue Ant's multimedia strategy is Cottage Life, which co-CEO Raja Khanna says provides advertisers with the opportunity to surround a coveted high-income group, from a print magazine and a dedicated specialty TV channel, to YouTube and Facebook and its consumer shows.

“We don’t think there’s another brand in Canada that’s better than us at talking to the people who own cottages or aspire to own cottages.That’s a very distinct group of people, attractive to advertisers.”

The team at Cottage Life  posed at right for a fun-fake cover in honour of the award:

A whole new generation is in the marketing sights -- "Generation Glamour"

Those millenials better watch it or they'll be the butt of jokes like the ones they used to hurl at baby boomers. This is demonstrated by the current campaign by Glamour magazine to try and claim the attention of the 30-something demographic. According to a story in the New York Times, Hearst Corporation is targetting what they label as "Generation Glamour", or millenials or generation Y, defined roughly as those born after 1980. The company is spending $250,000 on a campaign meant to shift the appeal of the redesigned magazine to a whole new generation of readers. 

In an example of how the medium can often be the message, the campaign goes beyond traditional tactics like print ads and outdoor posters. “Generation Glamour” has its own Web site, generationglamour.com; an interactive photo wall on display in the meatpacking district of Manhattan; events like a party in Brooklyn; and a presence on social media like Instagram, Pinterest and blogs. 

“This reader is out there living in social media, influencing people with her opinions,” said Andy Spade, the creative director of Partners & Spade, who co-founded the agency with Anthony Sperduti. 

“She shares her likes, she’s tweeting, she’s texting,” Mr. Spade said. “So when you buy a page in Glamour, you’re exposed not just to the Glamour reader; you’re exposed to her friends.”

Marketing publisher has moved to ad agency to become "content editor"

Marketing magazine reports that the Toronto ad agency Capital C Communications has hired the magazine's former publisher and editor-in-chief Christopher Loudon (right) as its "content editor". What it apparently means in that Loudon will build a content group that will develop "social objects" and "anything that gives someone the opportunity to say 'I just read this, saw this, did you hear about this?'"

"I told [Loudon] that I didn't even really know what the market is going to be yet, but I love his talent and personality and leadership... he's already making a big impact in the creative group," said [agency founder Tony] Chapman.

While Loudon's content team is currently integrated with the rest of the agency, Chapman believes it has the potential to become a separately operated unit, similar to its consumer research division Fresh Intelligence, which pursues its own clients while serving Capital C accounts.

Loudon was at Hello! Canada and TV Guide before joining Marketing.

On the virtues of being reader-centric

Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, has started an occasional feature called The One Minute Advisor on his website and one of his first offerings is a short interview with marketer James Elliott, talking about the major mistake magazine publishers make today -- being magazine-centric rather than reader-centric.

As the saying goes, "it's not about your grass seed, it's about their lawn."

Parenting mag loyalty program offers cash back on online purchases

That scrunching sound comes as magazines squeeze more tightly the integration between print, online, social networking and marketing (see the post below); another example in the U.S. is a decision by 2nd place Parenting magazine (Bonniers), reported in MediaWeek.

The magazine is offering a new loyalty program whereby registered readers get rebates or discounts on purchases with leading online retailers. Not at all coincidentally, Parenting will then use the buying data to sell online advertising.

The program, called Parenting Privileges and managed by loyalty marketing firm Affinity Solutions, gives Parenting subscribers money back when they spend with certain online retailers. Subscribers sign up at parentingprivileges.com, and from there can visit a range of online retailers including ToysRUs.com, Target.com and Diapers.com.

When they connect to the retailers via the site, subscribers can receive a percentage of the purchase of certain items. The reward comes in the form of a Visa Prepaid Card, which works like a debit card, Bonnier explains. The rewards typically run from 5 percent to 7 percent, according to the site, but can go as high as 28 percent, in the case of movie tickets from AMC. As an added enticement to sign up, subscribers are offered the chance to win a week’s vacation in the Barbados if they register by July 15.

The new loyalty program more or less supercedes the Mom Connection, a conventional online research panel and is distinguished from it by the ability to automatically harvest buying pattern information.

“Our advertisers will gain valuable insight into the products and services that matter most to moms,” said Greg Schumann, vp, group publisher of Bonnier’s Parenting Group.

Marketing publisher unveils plans for 100th anniversary celebration in 2008

A sneak preview of the 100th anniversary celebrations of Marketing magazine is provided in a brief videotaped interview between Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Loudon and Joseph Thornley of Thornley Fallis Public Relations. It was taped after a meeting of the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms (CCPRF) and is on the Thornley Fallis website.

In January 2008, Marketing will begin a series of 20 articles covering the history of marketing, advertising and media in Canada. The series will culminate in November with a special 100th anniversary issue in which 100 of Canada’s marketing movers and shakers will be asked to look ahead at where they see our industry going in the future.

The anniversary will also bring Canadian marketers together in Toronto for the inaugural Marketing Week. For three days in November, the marketing industry will be invited to participate in a conference featuring a program of Canada’s best marketing speakers, panels and workshops. The centrepiece of the Week will be an event combining the Digital Media Awards, the Marketing Innovation Awards, and the Marque Awards along with a party to celebrate Marketing Mag’s 100 year history.

Loudon also said that the magazine will pay more attention to public relations in future. (Readers here will recall that not long ago the chair of the CCPRF wrote an open letter calling for a boycott of Marketing because it was perceived to be giving short shrift to P.R. Clearly, Loudon, recently elevated to Publisher, is clearly mending fences.)

More magazine launch said a good example of focussing on boomers

More magazine in Canada, the franchise title for women over 40, published by Transcontinental Media in partnership with Meredith Corporation, was given as a standout example of the power of marketing to baby boomers in an article in the Saturday Financial Post section of the National Post.

Lina Ko, a partner in National Public Relations and its aptly named Baby Boomer Marketing Division says: "I think everybody is starting to jump on the bandwagon right now and in the next few years you will see even more [marketing] spending."

In March, Transcontinental Media launched the Canadian edition of More magazine to an unprecedented response from advertisers and a subscriber run of 80,000 -- close to double the amount anticipated. More's American version has been one of the most successful magazine launches in the last decade, tripling since its 1998 launch

She pointed to other examples: The Bay focussing this fall on boomers; the launching of a Lavalife Prime dating service for older people.

The most common mistake marketers (and presumably publishers) make said Ms Ko is lumping all boomers together. A more nuanced approach would yield better results.

"There is a 20-year age gap from 40 to 60, and that's a huge gap. The lifestyle of those in the leading edge is very different from that of the trailing edge," she said. "The only thing common to all boomers compared with previous generations is that we all think we are 10 years younger than we are. We all think younger and stay more active than our parents or our parents' parents did at our age."

Word on the Street, where magazines come out to meet the public

In most places in Canada, the end of September has a crisp feel of autumn about it, which is ideal for Word on the Street (though Toronto can sometimes surprise with a heat wave). And this annual celebration of the written word (now in its 18th year) seems to have become an important part of marketing consumer magazines in this country -- both selling subs and single copies and raising brand awareness among the general public.

Visitors can number in the thousands in smaller venues (Kitchener and Halifax) and in the tens of thousands in Vancouver and Toronto. While they're there for books and readings and other events, too, it's a great place for magazine staffers to meet the public, maybe sell or give away those back issues, get those sub cards into eager hands and generally feel good about what they do.

The event is a little different from place to place. Only in Vancouver, for instance, is there a "magazine mews" on Howe Street, where magazine booths are clustered together. Only in Toronto do the big guys, Rogers and Transcontinental, set up shop. In some places it is really on a city street, in others it is in a more parklike setting (Queen's Park in Toronto, Victoria Park in Kitchener). Curiously, there are some major cities where it hasn't taken yet, like Ottawa and Montreal and Winnipeg and Regina, Calgary, St. John's and Saint John.

What's amazing is that even more magazines don't make the effort, taking advantage of the national promotion and aggressively associating themselves with the event. We have heard that some magazines find writers, sell subs and make friends in a way that hard to replicate. There's a modest cost for a booth, but some magazines split this with another title.

Just for interest, here are the magazines and magazine-related organizations and companies that we found were registered as of today (more are likely to come) in the various places across the country.

Halifax (September 23)
Atlantic Magazine Association
Magazines Canada
Saltscapes
The Walrus

Kitchener (September 30)
The New Quarterly
Alternatives Journal
Canadian Humanist
Vida Latina Magazine

Toronto (September 30)
Alternatives Journal
Ascent magazine
Brick, a literary journal
Broken Pencil
Canadian Art
Canadian Geographic
Canadian Newcomer Chart magazine
Chatelaine
cineAction
Descant
Existere
Eye Weekly
Ideas: Arts & Sciences Review
Kiss Machine
Literary Review of Canada
Magazines Canada
Moorshead Magazines*
Musicworks magazine
New Internationalist
NOW magazine
Outpost
Owl & Chickadee
Public
Rogers Publishing
Shameless
SkyNews Spacing
Taddle Creek
The Magazine
The New Quarterly
The Walrus Foundation
This Magazine
Transcontinental Media
What’s Up Kids Family Magazine

Calgary (September 30)
Calgary Inc. Avenue Magazine
The Walrus Foundation
Magazines Canada
Venture Publishing (Alberta Venture, Unlimited)

Vancouver (September 30)
alive magazine
British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers
British Columbia Magazine
CJC: Canadian Journal of Communications
Dance International
Event
FRONT Magazine
Geist magazine,
Homes & Living Magazine
Humanist Perspectives
Magazines Canada
Pacific Rim Magazine
Ricepaper
Room
subTerrain magazine
Vancouver Review
The Walrus
Watershed Sentinel

*U.S. titles: Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, History magazine

Rogers rehires fired Hello editor to edit Marketing

According to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd) Rogers Publishing has rehired Christopher Loudon after firing him as editor of Hello! just two months ago. He is to be the new editor of Marketing, which has been without an editor since Stan Sutter was fired in January. Marketing has undergone a major revamp, with reduced frequency (every two weeks) and a redesign. Now, it has a new editor. Before Hello!, Loudon was editor of Inside Entertainment (Kontent) and TV Guide (Transcon). (His Canadian career started out as a research manager with Comac magazines in the '80s, after a time in New York with Reader's Digest.