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.

Walmart Live Better launched as Canada's largest circulation title

Walmart Canada's  magazine Walmart Live Better, which with its 1 million circulation automatically becomes Canada's largest circulation magazine, has been launched. Announced in December, it is a partnership with Rogers Media Inc. and six times a year will focus on beauty, fashion, food and home trends.  

In addition to the print edition, it offers a free downloadable tablet edition, a website, e-newsletter, single advertiser e-blasts and social media via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

"Canadians want to be inspired by new ideas and stay on budget. With Walmart Live Better they don't have to make a choice. Our team of experts provide great ideas on how to make dollars go farther with style," said Sandra Martin, editor-in-chief of the magazine, in a statement.

Walmart told the Toronto Star that any relationship between the glossy, 100-page magazine and the concurrent launch of a chain of Target stores (and their more downmarket flyers) across the country is purely coincidental. 

"Walmart Live Better is really about making inspiring ideas accessible, attainable and affordable to Canadians," said publisher Christopher Loudon in a company release. "The unique partnership brings Canadians a fresh and informative multiplatform magazine."  (Loudon was at one time the founding editor-in-chief of  Rogers's HELLO! Canada magazine, group publisher and editor-in-chief of Marketing magazine and editor of Inside Entertainment and TV Guide.) 

The magazine's media kit  offers advertisers 1 million circulation and access to 20 million monthly shoppers in the Walmart Supercentres. It says more than 8 million customers visit Walmart each week. A full page is $27,000 in the print edition, and a standard digital ad unit is $40/M. 

The magazine carries advertorial single-sponsor showcases (example at right) in food, health, home decor, baby and child care and fashion categories, which it describes as 

"a contextually relevant environment that supports and reinforces brand messaging. Labelled as Live Better Promotion (not "Advertisement"), these innovative and guaranteed placement options can be custom-tailored for any advertiser, and will be closely aligned in style and content to the rest of the magazine. All promotions are available as single or multiple pages."

Metro Guide Publishing of Halifax launches bimonthly for Moncton Chamber of Commerce

Metro Guide Publishing of Halifax is to contract-publish Chamber Vision, a bimonthly magazine produced on behalf of the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce. The first issue is January/February 2012 and will be officially launched Friday. 

The magazine will be distributed free to 875 members of the chamber by mail as well as being sent to select postal codes throughout the Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview areas inserted in the Times & Transcript. 

“We have a lot of experience publishing in the Atlantic Provinces,” says Metro Guide publisher Patty Baxter. “Our magazines are read throughout the region, but we’ve never had the opportunity to work on a magazine specifically for the Moncton market. We’re excited to work with the Chamber of Commerce to tell the stories of Greater Moncton’s vibrant business community.”

Metro Guide Publishing, which is owned by Advocate Printing and Publishing, produces 15 publications, reaching 3,000,000 readers in seven market sectors—tourism, business, homes, lifestyle, arts and culture, entertainment and shipping and transportation. It publishes Halifax Magazine, East Coast Living and Where Halifax under license to St. Joseph Media,  and various guides and programs for such organizations as Symphony Nova Scotia and the Neptune Theatre .

In-flight magazines targetted by some airlines to save weight/fuel

Apparently, in-flight magazines are a burden on aviation (on one airline, it accounted for almost 500,000 pounds for one day!) and word comes that some are ditching them, or cutting the page count, to save jet fuel. According to a story in The Guardian Emirates Airlines is discontinuing Open Skies; quite a sacrifice, since the magazine commands ad page rates in excess of $20,000.

According to Emirates' president Tim Clark, the decision to ban all onboard paper will lighten the aircraft by a tonne. "It's 2kg per seat and 500 seats, a worthwhile saving," he says. "We are doing it because of fuel prices and the environment. The printed matter will be replaced by content shown on the aircraft's seat-back TVs."

Japan Airlines announced last month it was reducing pagination in its magazine, which in the early 1990s was one of the largest in the world. James Rolls of travellingmedia.com, a London-based in-flight media agency said: "In the late 1980s, Japan Airlines actually removed seats from certain planes as its in-flight magazines were 300-odd pages in length, and it was a simple case of ticket sales versus ad page rates."Similarly, Norwest Airlines is cutting pages.

This is disturbing news for advertising, but also for freelancers who once earned among their highest fees writing for people to read at 30,000 feet. In the so-called "golden age" of in-flights in the '80s and early '90s, versions of the same article could be sold multiple times to different magazines and at premium fees, up to $4,000 a pop.

Still, the economic model of in-flights, where contract publishers bear the costs and the airline takes a cut of the ad sales, means that in-flights will probably still prove attractive, even when contrasted with the potential savings in fuel, the article says:

Canadian low-cost carrier WestJet earned $3m from its Up! in-flight magazine last year.

With figures like that it seems difficult to see a time when the in-flight magazine is no longer around - despite Emirates' decision to ditch its title. As Samir Husni (Mr. Magazine) says: "Of all the print media, in-flight magazines are the least of my worries."