TC Media to rep added U.S. Hearst digital properties as well as Homes Group sites

TC Media has extended its digital sales partnership with Hearst Magazines and taking over exclusive digital ad representation  for Hearst's Canadian sales of U.S. sites ELLE.com⁽³⁾, ELLEDecor.com⁽⁴⁾, and WomansDay.com 

It will now also will represent digital ad sales for sites operated by Canadian-based Homes Publishing Group of Toronto, incliuding ActiveAdult.com, CondoLifeMag.com, HomesMag.com, RenoAndDecor.com and MovingTo.com. 

TC Media sites reach13.7 million unique visitors per month in Canada through more than 1000 websites, and show an inventory of 25 million online video clips played every month in the country, the company says. It had already represented the digital sales of Canadian franchises with Hearst,  ELLE Canada and ELLE Québec.

"TC Media is our publishing partner for ELLE Canada and ELLE Québec, so it was only natural to have them represent our US-based brands ELLE.com, ELLEDecor.com and WomansDay.com in the Canadian market," said Kimberly Lau, Vice President of Business Development at Hearst Digital Media in a release . "We are pleased to extend our partnership which will enable Canadian advertisers to seamlessly reach the Elle audience through TC Media’s creative multiplatform offerings.”

The Homes Publishing Group has some 18 titles concentrated in the shelter market and has been built on the success of Homes magazine, starting in 1985. HPG also produces consumer and trade books and web sites for the renovation, design, relocation and home show segments of the shelter market, as well as related association member publications. The aggregate annual distribution of HPG publications is over 4 million copies, plus over 10 million online page views per year.

Transcon sells its editorial so readers can be reminded that crackers go with soup

Canada's largest publisher of consumer magazines, Transcontinental Media, has apparently decided that editorial integrity is an optional extra. It says it is pleased and proud to have played a part in publishing an ad which is made to look exactly like part of an editorial spread. The ad for Premium Plus crackers is incorporated into an editorial food spread about soup shared across nearly one million copies of Canadian Living, Style at Home, Canadian Gardening, Coup de Pouce and Decormag, according to a story in Marketing magazine.  A sticker of soda crackers is strategically floated on top of the soup in a pot so that, when peeled off, it directs the reader to a site called AddSomePlus.ca where there are additional recipes and product information.The ad/photo is made to appear as an integral part of the spread.

The ad was developed in collaboration with agency MediaVest Canada on behalf of client Kraft Canada and Transcon makes no secret of its role in skipping over the once-clear line between ads and edit.  The ad contravenes both the letter and the spirit of the Canadian magazine industry advertising-editorial guidelines (whichTranscon played a part in developing.)

“It acts as a point of interruption and leverages editorial content to pique curiosity and inherently link soup and our crackers,” said Melissa Grant, senior brand manager for Premium Plus crackers [in the Marketing story]. “By using a captive audience of readers already looking at soup recipes, it acts as a reminder to use Premium Plus with soup and increases awareness of other Premium Plus varieties.”

According to a Transcontinental representative, the idea arose from planning sessions between the company’s national account manager, Monique Hourd, and a MediaVest Canada representative.

“We are always open to exploring creative uses for print that will capture the reader’s attention and add value to their experience,” said Janice Davidson Pressick, senior specialist, marketing and communications, for Transcontinental Media in Toronto. Asked about the apparent melding of advertising with editorial content, Pressick said: “It marries nicely with the editorial and is not much different than running a bind-in insert over the editorial magazine page or a pop-up blocker over an article online.”

“We are so pleased to be working with an open-minded agency like MediaVest, which appreciates the importance of providing unique campaigns that are so well suited to our editorial,” said Lynn Chambers, group publisher with Transcontinental.

Advertising Age in the U.S. a while ago wrote that the demarcation between advertising and editorial was increasingly being worn down to a mere warning track. Uh-huh.

Transcontinental merges media and interactive into one division under Natalie Larivière

Transcontinental Inc. is merging all its media operations -- which include its stable of consumer and trade magazines -- with its interactive division. President of the merged sector, to be called Transcontinental Media, will be Natalie Larivière (who had been president of the media side) and, with the merger, Christian Trudeau, the president of Transcontinental Interactive, is leaving the company effective the end of October.

Transcontinental Media will now be responsible for all products and services in publishing, distribution, data analytics and management, as well as interactive marketing solutions (mobile, digital promotions, etc.) and digital media.

"After three years of developing our interactive marketing products and services, it became a natural step to provide our customers with an integrated offer by grouping them in our media operations," said François Olivier, President and CEO of Transcontinental [in a release]. "Supply and demand in the marketing communications industry has changed rapidly, reflecting the ever-growing presence of communication channels such as mobile technology and social media. In this new environment our customers want to reach their target customers more effectively by using a combination of media, digital and interactive solutions.

Transcon is the largest printer in Canada and the largest publisher of consumer magazines.It has reported revenues of $2.1 billion in 2010, of which approximately one-quarter relates to publishing activities, both print and digital, including a long and growing list of community newspapers.

Transcon Media to represent Ziff Davis sites (e.g. PCMag.com) in Canada

Transcontinental Media, has entered  into an exclusive new partnership with Ziff Davis, Inc. to represent the Canadian ad inventory for Ziff Davis' flagship property, PCMag.com, as well as ExtremeTech.com and Geek.com. Transcon will be selling sponsorship and custom ad units targeted by category, brand and audience.

"We are truly pleased to have become partners with Ziff Davis and to have the opportunity to represent their signature brand PCMag.com, one of the oldest, most reputable properties in tech media" said Andrew Osmak, vice president business development for the new media and digital solutions group at Transcontinental Media in a company release "Joining with Ziff Davis helps us expand our digital offering to provide Canadian agencies and marketers with the opportunity to reach premiere audiences."

Transcontinental Media's digital network of more than 300 websites reaches over 10 million unique visitors per month in Canada.

Speculation starts about Canadianized editions of Hearst magazines

It was probably inevitable that the recent takeover by Hearst Corporation of 49% of the joint venture with Transcontinental Media producing Elle Canada and Elle Quebec would provoke speculation about similar arrangements with other big Hearst titles. And so it has with an item on the Huffington Post by Marc Weisblott though it contains little that would indicate we'll see Canadian editions of Cosmopolitan, Esquire or Car & Driver anytime soon. In fact American "spill" into the Canadian market has been demonstrated to be in long-term decline, according to Magazines Canada.

Transcon online sub deal not quite as good as it looks at first

On its face, it looks like a great deal. Transcontinental Media is using couponer Toronto Deals Blog to offer a one-year subscription to Style at Home for $11 and for the Hockey News at $23. But the fine print in the "one-day only" deal is that, while you nominally save 56% off the newsstand price, you'll have to pay $5.95 for shipping, handling and applicable taxes on Style and $7.95 for Hockey News. (An earlier coupon offer  had Canadian Living (12 issues) for $18 bonused by 6 issues of Elle Canada, but that didn't have the added shipping and handling provision and taxes were included in the price.)