St. Joseph Media sells Torontoist to Daily Hive

The daily online news source, Torontoist, has been acquired from St. Joseph Media by Daily Hive, a national online publication which has recently expanded into the Toronto market.

“Torontoist has a strong local readership in the community, and we’re excited to have the opportunity to build on the site’s legacy and continue its success,” said Karm Sumal, CEO of Daily Hive. “We will be building on everything you have come to love about Torontoist — the trust, passion, and quick reporting — while simply adding a bit of our signature flair.”

Torontoist was purchased in 2011 by St Joseph Media. It had been launched in 2004 and, for a time, beginning in 2009, had been in a content partnership with the Globe and Mail. 

St. Joseph Media buys Totem custom publisher from Yellow Pages Ltd.

St. Joseph Media has bought Totem from Yellow Pages Ltd., and plans to roll it under its custom publishing division, Strategic Content Labs. Among the custom publications Totem produces are the quarterly CAA Magazine with combined readership of 4.5 million. Other Totem clients include  The Hockey News and The London Magazine. The company was founded in 2008 as Redwood Custom Communications, and  was for a time owned by TC Media and renamed Totem and sold  in 2008 to Yellow Pages in 2016. 

“We look forward to working with Totem and its clients to not only maintain the great level of service being provided, but to supplement it with the expanded capabilities available through Strategic Content Labs and St. Joseph’s complete range of business offerings,’’ said St. Joseph Media President Douglas Kelly.

Launched four years ago, Strategic Content Labs produces publications in the consumer products, travel, culture, association, university and college, and government sectors. Its clients have included Grey Goose, Greater Toronto Airport Authority, National Music Centre, University of Guelph and Heritage Canada.

St. Joseph Media’s stable of consumer brands includes Toronto Life and FASHION Magazine.

St. Joseph launches Title magazine, replacing its Men's Fashion

St. Joseph Media is launching a new magazine called Title which replaces the former Men's FASHION. It will appear on newsstands in November and be mailed to selected subscribers of FASHION, Toronto Life and will be distributed to select postal code areas and business locations across Canada. It will also be available poly-bagged with FASHION at select Shoppers Drug Marts throughout Canada on November 20. 

There will be three seasonal issues: fall, winter and spring.  Some digital content will be available online at thetitlemag.com starting November 14.

“The launch of Title is part of our ongoing strategic plan to position our media brands as the most competitive in the market and to target the luxury consumer,” said Jacqueline Loch, VP & group publisher, women’s brands at St. Joseph Communications. “We strategically designed the Title brand to feature high quality multi-platform content that will resonate with our readers. Like our strategy with FASHION, Title will also focus on innovations in technology and editorial integrations to provide quality content that delivers for our advertising partners and engages audiences across all our platforms.”

Kelly Whitelock named new GM ad sales at St. Joseph Media women's group

St. Joseph Media has named a newly created position of general manager advertising sales, women's group in the person of Kelly Whitelock. She will oversee all national and retail sales teams and territories across Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal and New York for the company's portfolio of women’s brands across all digital and mobile platforms. These include FASHION, Men’s FASHION, Weddingbells,  Mariage Québec,  Glow,  Pure and Canadian Family. 

Whitelock's most recent position was senior director advertising sales, magazine and out of home at Quebecor Media and she had previous experience as associate publisher/director of sales at The Kit (Star Media Group), publisher at Glow and Pure (Rogers Media) and advertising director at FASHION (Key Publishers).

This is but the latest step in a wholesale reorganization of the women's publishing group which included naming Jacqueline Loch as vice-president and group publisher, replacing Lilia Lozinski as senior vice-president women’s group, and the appointment of Noreen Flanagan as editor in chief of FASHION, moved from being EIC at Elle Canada. 

Jacqueline Loch to lead St. Joseph women's group; Lilia Lozinski leaving company

St. Joseph Media is consolidating the management of its women's group, appointing Jacqueline Loch as vice-president and group publisher overseeing FASHION, Men’s FASHION,  Weddingbells, Mariage Québec, GLOW, Pure and Canadian Family. 

As a result of the decision it was announced that Lilia Lozinski will be leaving the company, stepping down from her role as senior vice-president women’s group since 2008, responsible for all of SJM's women's magazines. 

Duncan Clark, vice president strategic development, will assume responsibility for the women’s group branded and custom events.

Loch has been vice president content solutions for the past 11 months, where she worked closely with Strategic Content Labs and St. Joseph’s portfolio of cross platform media brands. 

St. Joseph Media takes over publication of CAA-affiliated mags in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

The media group (SJM) of St. Joseph Communications is taking over the contract publication of three western magazines on behalf of divisions of the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA).  The move is the result of a winning response to a request for proposal. Combined, the three magazines have a total circulation of 888,000. Publication and national ad sales will be centralized in Toronto. 

Starting in February, SJM will publish three quarterlies:

• AMA Insider (circ. 620,000)
• CAA Saskatchewan Magazine (circ. 125,000) and
• CAA Manitoba Magazine (circ. 143,000)

With the change, the brands Westworld Alberta (on behalf of the Alberta Motor Association), Westworld Saskatchewan (CAA Saskatchewan) and Going Places (CAA Manitoba) will be discontinued.

Westworld BC will apparently continue to be published by BC-based Canada Wide Media which had previously produced the magazines now taken over by SJM. CAA Magazine, also a quarterly, which serves Ontario and the Maritimes, will continue to be published by Totem Brand Stories. It has a total circulation of 1.65 million, of which 90% is in Ontario.

The new management of the western magazines will result in a redesign, more news and information about club services such as travel and roadside assistance and new websites. The first website, which will also have mobile versions, will be for the AMA amainsider.com . It will be rolled out in February; similar sites are to be created for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“We at St. Joseph are thrilled to be working with the CAA clubs to make their magazines even more engaging and valuable to association members,” said Douglas Kelly, SJM’s senior vice president, Strategic Content Labs. 

Editor-in-chief of all three publications will be Kellie Davenport, who previously led the Air Miles magazine at Rogers Publishing. She will be working with magazine veteran Maryam Sanati at SJM.

St. Joseph Media to produce custom pub for Birks jewellers

Spring-Summer 2015 issue

St. Joseph Communications is launching a twice-annual custom publication in September with Birks Group Inc. called 1879 by Birks. That was the first year that Henry Birks opened a jewellery shop in Montreal. 

The new luxury publication will have a circulation of 150,000, of which 100,000 will be in Canada and 50,000 in the U.S. Copies will be distributed in 48  Birks and Mayors stores, mailed to best customers, distributed at cultural events (e.g. TIFF), inserted in selected copies of the Globe and Mail and distributed in hotels and private jet terminals in Florida. 

The content of the magazine will include information about Birks corporate social responsibility program, features about jewellery artisans, photo shoots of jewellery. design, travel and food stories and advertising from high end jewellery and timepiece brands carried by Birks as well as other external advertisers.

St. Joseph is responsible for all content and design as well as advertising sales and printing. The project team includes Maryam Sanati, editorial director special projects for Toronto Life, Nevien Azzam, director of integrated solutions for St. Joseph Media and Tralee Pearce, a former reporter and editor with the Globe and Mail. 

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!”

FASHION launches enhanced, interactive tablet version with summer issue

FASHION magazine from St. Joseph Media is launching a new, enhanced, interactive tablet version. The summer issue, featuring Elle Fanning, is an expansion of the previous digital version of the magazine.

 “We want to give our readers the best user experience possible and, for us, that means offering them an all-access pass to FASHION,” said Bernadette Morra, editor-in-chief “The new digital edition will engage users by making them feel like they’re side-by-side with our editors – whether that be shooting in Bora Bora or here in Toronto.”

The new tablet version features four behind-the-scenes videos.  According to a release, the new cover layout with fading effects as well as hyperlinks that will allow users to jump from the cover directly to featured content. In addition, photo galleries have been converted from a static product page to full screen product imagery; with a tap of the finger, readers can pull up captions, information on merchandise or bookmark their favourite page.

Darlene Storey named Magazines Canada volunteer of the year

Darlene Storey, vice-president of consumer marketing and production for St. Joseph Media, has been named Magazines Canada volunteer of the year for 2012. She will be presented with her award at the Magazines Canada luncheon on Thursday, June 6 during the MagNet magazines conference. 

“Darlene was an easy choice for her colleagues,” said Mark Jamison, CEO of Magazines Canada. “She is both a respected industry leader and a generous mentor.”

Storey, who has taught at the Magazines Canada school for circulation for many years, also sits on the association's Direct Mail, Canada Post and Stewardship committees. She teaches Magazine Marketing and Circulation as part of the Magazine and Web Publishing program at Ryerson's Chang School.

Storey directs the circulation of St. Joseph Media publications Toronto Life, Quill & Quire, Where Vancouver, Where Calgary, Where Toronto, Where Ottawa, Fashion, Men’s Fashion, Canadian Family, Weddingbells, Mariage, Glow, Pure and Ottawa magazine. Prior to joining St. Joseph Media, Storey worked as Group Circulation Director for Transcontinental Media (now TC Media), overseeing Canadian Living, Homemakers, Madame, Style at Home, Elle Canada, Canadian Home & Country, Canadian Gardening, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Home Workshop, Vancouver Magazine, Western Living, MORE magazine, The Hockey News and the IT Trade publications.