Western Living and Vancouver acquired by Canada Wide Media

Two of western Canada's largest and most successful magazines  -- Vancouver magazine and Western Living -- have been acquired by Canada Wide Media. (Canada Wide publishes, among other things, BCBusiness, TV Week and the digital lifestyle title BCLiving.)

“These are two of the most prestigious magazines in Western Canada, and we are thrilled to add these exemplary brands to our portfolio,” said Peter Legge, chair and CEO of Canada Wide in a story on BCBusiness. “The addition of these titles to our stable of magazines gives us the largest reach in all of the West.”

With an annual readership of 314,000, Vancouver has been the city’s preeminent publication for more than 50 years. Western Living, which has an annual readership of 287,000, focuses on home design and décor, food and wine, and travel.  

The Legge family has owned Canada Wide for more than 40 years, establishing it as Western Canada’s largest independent media company.

CEO Peter Legge and president Samantha Legge

This transaction brings to an end the relatively shortlived ownership of the two magazines by Yellow Pages Homes Ltd. The two magazines had been left somewhat adrift when TC Media sold its eastern consumer magazines to Quebecor's TVA Group. They were picked up by Yellow Pages in May 2015 with the goal of augmenting the lifestyle strengths in the marketplace.

Yellow Pages is the official directories publisher of Bell Canada, Telus, Bell Aliant, MTS Allstream and a number of other companies. It describes itself as the leading digital company in Canada and owns and manages a slew of trademarked  online directories:  YellowPages.ca,  PagesJaunes.ca, Canada411.ca, and RedFlagDeals.com  as well as CanadaPlus.ca  and a network of seven local city sites, including MontrealPlus.ca, QuebecPlus.ca,  TorontoPlus.ca,  CalgaryPlus.ca,  EdmontonPlus.ca,  OttawaPlus.ca and  VancouverPlus.ca.

Alberta Oil editor Max Fawcett to take over as editor of Vancouver magazine

[This post has been updated] Max Fawcett will soon be transitioning over the mountains to take over as editor-in-chief of Vancouver magazine. Fawcett is a native of Vancouver who has been editor of Alberta Oil of Calgary and, before that, managing editor and Calgary bureau chief of Alberta Venture. His first day at Vancouver will be November 16.

As a writer, he has been published in The Walrus, Hazlitt, Eighteen Bridges, BCBusiness, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star, Avenue Magazine, THIS Magazine, and Corporate Knights Magazine. He was also a past editor of Dooneyscafe.com. His personal website self-describes him as 

"a recovering political hack who likes brussel sprouts and interesting facial hair, drinks his coffee black and his whiskey straight, and still believes in the virtues of the serial comma, CP style notwithstanding."

Fawcett replaces John Burns, who left the position July 24. One of the big challenges for the new editor will be to helm the planned redesign of Vancouver, effective with its March 2016 issue. 

[Update: Trevor Melanson, the associate editor of Canada Wide's BCBusiness and formerly the online editor of Canadian Business, has tweeted that he is joining Vancouver as senior editor.]

Why Yellow Pages bought Vancouver and Western Living

The editor of BCBusiness magazine, Matt O'Grady, last week spoke with the president and CEO of Yellow Pages about the company's recent acquisition of  Vancouver magazine and Western Living. Here is an excerpt of Julien Billot's comments about why the titles were purchased and his expectations of what happens now.

Yellow Pages has been rather rapidly getting out of the print business—or repositioning itself as a digital-first company. Why did you decide to purchase Vancouver and Western Living magazines? 

Yellow Pages CEO Julien Billot

The thinking was: more content. That’s the play. What you have to understand is that we have Caroline Andrews* on our team, formerly of TC Media—and she knew these publications very well. The big play here is not about print; it’s about content. Take a look at my phone. Today, we had approval from Apple to launch our new app called YP Dine. All the content from Vancouver magazine and Western Living will help us to feed into this local app. And that’s really the play. We can feed a lot of content into our media platforms.  

But to generate that content, you don’t really need to have a print product anymore, do you? What is the future of print within the Yellow Pages family? 

Let’s forget about print and think about the different usages you can have. You have two types of usages from a digital media perspective. You have search, and you have discovery or serendipity. Print, for me, is more about serendipity. Our major apps are mainly about search. The two parts are very important because if I’m looking for something very precisely, I’m using the search. If I don’t know exactly what to search, and I want to know what’s in the neighbourhood, that’s a different kind of media. Longer term, we really see our evolution in these two types of media: search media and serendipity or more “flipping” type of media. Today it’s on print but tomorrow it could be a very different format—ebooks or emagazines. Some people still prefer a paper book or magazine, but for sure we want to give these magazines more digital opportunities. We are not coming in to shut down print.  

Any plans to buy other city or regional magazines? 

No. It was a content play and a good tactical opportunity, but we don’t have a plan to buy other magazines.

*[Caroline Andrews became vice-president and chief publishing officer of Yellow Pages last June after being vice-president and group publisher of all TC Media's English consumer magazines, in particular the two Vancouver-based magazines in the Western Media Group. Her intimate knowledge of their businesses doubtless facilitated interest and the negotiations to buy them.] 

Vancouver Magazine and Western Living sold to Yellow Pages Homes Ltd.

Western Living and Vancouver magazines have been sold to the owners of Yellow Pages. According to a memo to staff from Ted Markle, president of TC Media, the transaction which closed this morning means that all employees of the Western Magazine Group become Yellow Pages Homes Limited employees today. Western Living and Vancouver magazine were not included in the recent $55.5 million deal wherein TC Media recently sold off its other, eastern Canadian consumer magazines to the TVA Group (Quebecor).  Essentially, with this sale, TC Media is now entirely out of the consumer magazine business. As part of the deal the magazines will continue to be printed by TC Printing.

"Since the announcement of the transaction to sell our consumer magazines in Toronto and Montreal and the communication of the new vision for TC Media, I know that you were faced with uncertainty in this context of change," said Markle. "I want to personally thank all of you for keeping the focus on the brands and on the success of the business, with the same level of energy and professionalism for which you are recognized, despite this time of transition. I would also like to express my gratitude to Tom [general manager Tom Gierasimczuk, who is publisher of both magazines], who has shown tremendous leadership since his appointment and over the course of the past few months. 

"As we say goodbye, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, on behalf of the entire organization, for your daily commitment and dedication to building the reputation of these two prestige brands. Vancouver Magazine and Western Living have made our name a beacon for thousands of readers in Western Canada. The many prizes that were awarded to your brands, most recently at the Alberta Magazine Awards in March, are a tribute to your passion and dedication. You have been part of our family and have shared our values for many years, and it is with sadness that we see you leave TC Transcontinental. 

"It's the end of a chapter, but certainly not the end of the story. May the future be one of both personal and professional growth for you all, and may you continue to thrive within the context of this new adventure."

There is so far no word on the price of the sale. Staff of the Western Magazine Group were being briefed this morning. 

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BC Business and Vancouver are finalists in Webster awards

Two Vancouver-based magazines are finalists for the Jack Webster Business, Industry and Economics Award:

• Matt O'Grady, the editor of BCBusiness,  for "High Hopes" (see right) about the commercialization of marijuana
• Frances Bula, of Vancouver magazine, for "The Modern Drive-Through", about the boom in food trucks

The Webster Awards, which cover all media, honour British Columbia's best journalists and the winners will be announced at a dinner on Wednesday, October 29 at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver hotel.

Full list of finalists