Weddingbells launches Trends Guide

Tiaras are trending

Weddingbells magazine has launched a new trends guide, featuring bridal trends from all over the world. There are 25 modern wedding ideas in categories from décor and style to food and drinks.

"We wanted to create the ultimate online resource for couples tying the knot in 2016," says Jen O'Brien, Executive Editor of Weddingbells.ca [in a release.] “From the perfectly curated cotton candy cocktail to the DIY selfie station, our Trends Guide has all the answers.”

Among the current trends are 

•    • Two-piece Bridal Gowns          
•    • Ganache Drip Cakes
•    • Ceremony Sandwiches
•    • Hanging Florals                 
•    • Copper Details

Destination fitness site, Sweat TV, is launched for active women by Meredith Corporation

Meredith Corporation has launched Sweat TV, an online workout portal that features more than 200 exercise videos. Many of the videos come through Fitness magazine's existing video library, but content is included from Shape.com, FitStar, Grokker and POPSUGAR. According to a release, the workout videos allow users to target each body part, including abs, arms, and thighs; and workout type, including yoga, cardio and post-pregnancy. Each workout is divided into video “playlists” of individual workout moves, so users can jump to and replay specific sections for additional instruction. 

“Workout videos are by far one of the most popular reasons consumers visit Fitnessmagazine.com,” says Melissa Inman, general manager of Fitnessmagazine.com and Shape.com. “So we saw building a destination site for workouts as a huge opportunity. Through SweatTV, we’ve curated an extensive library of videos so users can easily find the workout they’re looking for. And with 60 percent of our users accessing the site on mobile and 33 percent of video views taking place on mobile, we made it a priority to optimize the platform on those devices for on-the-go workouts when traveling, at the gym or at home.”

Users can either become members or choose to get a 24-hour free workout experience after seeing a sponsored message.

The Kit beauty and fashion site launches weekly pop-up mag called The Kit Compact

The Kit, Torstar's beauty and fashion site, has step by step been building up a formidable array of print, tablet and online ways to reach readers, to become what it calls "Canada's 360-degree beauty and style leader". 

First (even before the Star bought it) it was a digital beauty magazine. Then it upgraded its website as a central hub, spread into fashion, created a new interactive app for tablets and smartphones and launched a weekly paper feature that is distributed in select copies of the Toronto Star and in papers in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver as well as a French, south Asian and Chinese versions. 

Now it has launched a week pop-up magazine called The Kit Compact, distributed free in Toronto and on thekit.ca. All of which is available with The Star's weekly tablet edition that is distributed every Thursday. The pop-up is described this way:

"Smart, cool, a little cheeky, a lot thoughtful, The Kit Compact is plugged into what’s new in fashion, beauty, celebrity and pop culture. It encourages readers to share its content via aspirational photo shoots, cutting-edge trend features and highly curated city-specific shopping lists."

Soothe your nerves with Colour Calm, the grownup's colouring book

There's always something new, or odd, or wonderful in the magazine business, never more so than Colour Calm, the bimonthly colouring magazine for grownups. Its intention, says British publisher Future plc, is to promote relaxation and creativity. The first issue of the magazine has 116 pages and 56 patterns of intricate designs that should satisfy even the most inveterate o-filler and doodler. It's produced on high quality paper that stands up to felt pens or pencil crayons. At just £4.99, Colour Calm offers the ultimate collection of relaxing art therapy for creative colourers, says Future.

Matthew Pierce, Head of Content for Future plc's Creative Group, said: "Colour Calm is the perfect way to unwind, relax, and be creative at the same time. It's the ultimate digital detox: keep calm and colour in!"

Canadian Art summer issue contains first-ever Canadian Art Collecting Guide

Canadian Art's Summer 2015 issue contains, for the first time, a 35-page Collecting Guide. The new issue, now on newsstands, was launched officially Thursday night at the Olga Korper Gallery. Editor Richard Rhodes and associate editor David Balzer reported on the Venice Biennale. The issue contains a feature story about Canadian Art Writing Prize winner Amy Luo’s interview with Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer, who is currently presenting a mid-career survey at the Vancouver Art Gallery. 

Spacing magazine harnesses the power of documentary film

Spacing magazine, the increasingly ambitious Toronto-based media company, is diversifying further with today's release of its first documentary film, featuring the two winners of the 2014 Jane Jacobs Prize. It's called Powers of Towers and it explores the challenges of the city's aging suburban apartment clusters (both structurally and demographically). The starts are co-winners Graeme Stewart and Sabina Ali. And, like the magazine, their concerns are about public spaces and livable places.

The film is produced in in association with Tangent Motion Pictures and Foxley Films. and with financial support from the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Executive producer is Matthew Blackett, producers are Sean Liliani and Sarah Martin.

Related posts:

• Winners honoured as Spacing magazine takes over management of Jane Jacobs Prize
• Spacing magazine awarded $15,000 Jane Jacobs Prize

Garden Making magazine goes all to pots with new container gardening app

Garden Making magazine, based in Niagara-on-the-Lake, has launched a free Phone/iPad app for people who like to garden in pots. The new My Garden Containers app provides users with plant recipes for various combinations and a list of 80 plus container plants, plus how-to articles and videos. Users can share photographs and documentation of their own plantings in a public gallery.

“We try to make gardening approachable while providing expertise, tips and techniques," says publisher Michael Fox of Inspiring Media Inc., which produces Garden Making.

The company developed the app with support from the Ontario Media Development Corporation and through collaboration with developer Addicted to Touch, a division of Symetric Productions, Inc. in St. Catharines, Ont. .

The other side of Detroit [and Pittsburgh] featured in Spacing magazine tours

[This post has been updated] So popular was its first group tour to Detroit last year (it was a sell out) that Spacing magazine has a series planned this year. The tours are the outcome of a discussion by a group of Windsor architects with Windsor native Shawn Micalleff, a co-owner of the urban affairs magazine. They wanted to give Detroit a positive spin and tell about the good news about the city. 

This year, there will be bus tours April 12 and 13, June 28 and 29 and another in September. Sights on the tour include Eastern Market, The Heidelberg Project and neighbourhoods of Corktown, Midtown and New Center.

Quoted in a post on The Urbanite, Matthew Blackett, the publisher and creative director said of last year's tour that people from Toronto were ecstatic to witness what Detroit has to offer.

"The reaction was really good. What we found really interesting was that the women with our group always wanted to go to Detroit but never felt safe, so going in a group made it ideal for them. The trip made them want to explore the city in ways they wanted to without the fear at the back of their minds....

“The American tour-guides keep on saying, ‘Across the river there is Canada.’ Canada to them is not foreign unlike for many other Americans. Lots of people live in Windsor and work in Detroit. It is a unique urban experience to be honest. There are no other border cities like this.”

[In addition to the Detroit trips, Spacing is offering tours to Pittsburgh too -- May 9 - 11 and July 11 - 13.]

The more digital the world becomes, the more it needs glossy magazines

The editor of the high-brow German weekly Die Zeit has created a slick, biannual international magazine in English, featuring "best-of" content.  It's called The Berlin State of Mind and is something of a throwback to the glossy coffee table magazines of old. Christophe Amend says that he and his colleagues think there's a market for this kind of thing, a cross between the New York Times magazine and its sister T. When Deutsche Welle asked him if such magazines weren't dying out, he said

It's not dying. Die Zeit has a very successful website, and it is very successful on all social networks. But I think the more we all live in a digital media world, the more we feel the need to take a beautiful magazine into our hands and read it. To flip through the pages and enjoy it. If you look at the medium blogs, especially the younger ones like fashion blogs, what do they talk about? Mostly printed magazines! If a magazine like Vogue in America runs a cover with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West or Fantastic Man runs a cover with Boris Becker, the blogs discuss it first. The more digital the world becomes, the greater the need for nicely done glossy magazines.

Modern Dog creates memorial web page for treasured pets

Vancouver's Modern Dog magazine has established a page on its website that allows dog owners to memorialize their departed pets. Using their free account with the magazine, owners can post a picture and text and find articles and resources that help to cope with the loss of a beloved pet. 

GQ to launch branded barbershop

Branded retail stores, coffee shops, cars and bars, now barbershops? GQ, the men's fashion title, is opening the "first ever" GQ Barbershop on Friday at Brooklyn's Barclay's Center. 

According to a story in AdAge, the shop is being launched in partnership with Fellow Barber, a hipster shaving emporium, and will offer everything from a simple $10 "cleanup" to a shave and a haircut for $75. The Barclays Center is the arena where the basketball Nets play.

Cottage Life rebrands Cottage as Cottage Life West, launches Edmonton consumer show

Cottage to go West

Cottage Life Media is rebranding its recently acquired Cottage magazine as Cottage Life West, starting in March 2014. And concurrently, it is launching the Edmonton Cottage Life & Cabin Show, much like its successful eastern counterparts.

In July 2012, Cottage Life Media and OP Publishing of Vancouver negotiated a swap by which OP's Cottage magazine moved over the Cottage Life Media (and Explore magazine to OP). It was clearly a means to a somewhat more national buy and readership than the heavily Ontario-based Cottage Life could offer advertisers. Cottage Life has a paid circulation of 70,000; Cottage's circulation is 20,000.

The rebranding of Cottage and the creation of a complementary consumer show is part of a national strategy being pursued aggressively by Cottage Life Media after it was purchased by Blue Ant Media in the fall of 2013. This includes the launch of a digital specialty TV channel with the Cottage Life brand.

“While Cottage is already western Canada’s leading recreational living publication, as Cottage Life West, readers can expect the same strong western Canadian focus, but even more great content thanks to the added expertise and resources Cottage Life Media brings to the table” said Peter Robson, editor, Cottage Life West [in a release.]

The first Edmonton Cottage Life & Cabin Show (a nod to the western habit of referring to their second homes as cabins) will be April 25-27 at the Edmonton Expo Centre and is expected to feature more than 100 exhibitors. Consumer shows with cottage lifestyle products and services have been a major strength of the Toronto-based Cottage Life Media for 21 years, including its Spring Cottage Life Show attracts more than 30,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors and the Fall Cottage Life Show with more than 10,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors. The new Edmonton show will tap into a strengthening western Canadian market of recreational property owners. A report compiled in 2012 by Westcoast CED Consulting Ltd. says the resource-based economy in Alberta and Saskatchewan is creating strong markets for recreational properties and fuelling demand for log and timber frame home builders.

“More than 365,000 people in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan own a vacation property in Canada,” said Al Zikovitz, president, Cottage Life Media. “Our objective is to be the leading media brand offering the best in local content for readers and show attendees, along with fully-integrated media solutions for advertisers and exhibitors.”

Canada's History magazine launches online Destinations portal

Canada's History magazine has launched a new online portal that provides information about historical sites, museums, national parks and galleries and various getaways across the country. When unveiling the new site called Destinations at the St. Boniface Museum on Tuesday, the editor-in-chief of Canada's History, Mark Reid said (as reported by Metro): 

"We want to reach out and help people love history by getting them to go out to places where history happened.Basically we’re there to help (historical sites) get their stories out.”

The director of the St. Boniface Museum said the new site would be very helpful for smaller historical sites that don't have a budget for cross-Canada promotion. Featured destinations on the site are the Royal BC Museum Canadian Museum of Civilization, but also the Cobalt Mining Museum, Fort Ingall and the Ingersoll Cheese and Agricultural Museum. The site allows visitors to log in, plan a trip, save it, print it and have it directed to their smartphone. 

St. Joseph's FASHION launches online shopping platform

Fashionmagazine.com, published by St. Joseph Media, has launched an online shopping platform called FASHION Shopping. It features 1,500 items  including clothing and accessories selected by the editors of the website from its retailing partners. It's available on desktops and smartphones.

“From a business perspective, FASHION Shopping makes so much sense,” says Angie McKaig, director, digital lifestyle brands, St. Joseph Media. “Our mandate is to bring the world of international fashion home to our style-conscious readers and that’s exactly what we’re doing by partnering with both Canadian and global retailers, showcasing their e-commerce offerings. The revenue-sharing model is a win-win for everyone involved.”

Toronto Life launches spring SIP Stylebook

Toronto Life, having successfully launched the special interest publication Stylebook with two successive fall editions has now launched a spring version. The 106-page issue sells for $7.95 on newsstands and from the St. Joseph Media estore. The cover of the shopping beauty and trends guidebook features Canadian actress Sarah Gadon photographed at Allan Gardens Conservatory by Norman Wong and styled by Corey Ng with make-up by Veronica Chu and hair by Cody Alain. 

Blue Ant to launch TV specialty channel Cottage Life

Blue Ant Media, the owners of Cottage Life and Cottage magazines, has confirmed that it is launching a specialty television channel called...Cottage Life. The launch will be celebrated this weekend at the spring Cottage Life Show at the International Centre in Toronto and the specialty channel will be available across Canada this fall, joining Blue Ant's other specialty channels Travel+Escape, Bite and AUX as well as its four premium commercial-free channels Oasis HD, HIFI, eqHD and radX.

“Cottage Life has always been a trusted source for engaging weekend living content,” said Al Zikovitz, CEO and President, Cottage Life Media. “It’s a natural evolution to see the brand expand into television, where the depth of our content can continue to flourish. ” 

“Cottage Life is a beloved lifestyle brand. The channel will bring the best of what the magazine delivers in every issue to life on TV,” said Vanessa Case, EVP, Programming & Marketing, Blue Ant Media. “This exciting new channel will resonate with viewers coast-to-coast. Cottage Life doesn’t just celebrate a specific place, but a frame of mind."

The Walrus magazine to partner with Royal Ontario Museum on centennial book

[This post has been updated] The Walrus Foundation, publishers of The Walrus magazine, is collaborating with the Royal Ontario Museum on a lavish coffee table book marking the ROM's centenary. It will be published in March 2014 as the 100th anniversary year begins. The ROM, which is and agency of the Ontario government, is Canada's largest museum of natural history and world cultures, with six million objects in its collections and galleries. 

"The full-colour, approximately 120-page book will focus on ROM’s encyclopedic, internationally recognized collections and their continuing relevance to contemporary audiences," according to a release. "While it will include a history of the ROM’s collections, the core of the publication is a dialogue about specific artifacts and specimens in the collection by ROM curators and writers from across Canada, selected by The Walrus and the ROM."

The book project will be led by The Walrus editor and co-publisher John Macfarlane and Kelvin Browne, ROM vice-president, communications. In addition to the bound paper version, an e-book is also to be produced.
Read more »

LRC magazine partners on Spur, a new national festival of politics, art and ideas

The magazine Literary Review of Canada (LRC), in collaboration with Diaspora Dialogues, has today launched a national festival of politics, art and ideas called Spur. The festival takes place in parts, across Canada and it promises to present town halls, readings, performances, walking tours and funky late-night music, all designed to encourage engagement with pressing issues. It describes itself as "multi-partisan, forward-looking and solutions-oriented -- spurring ideas into action". 

More Spurs are intended to roll out in 2014, but the first three are:

• Spur Toronto: The Bottom Line (April 11-14) -- the intersection of cash, civics and culture;
• Spur Winnipeg: Unnatural Histories (April 26-28) -- The past, present and future of our human-made world;
• Spur Vancouver: Global Power Play (June 17 - 19) -- The rise, fall and reimagination of societies

Presenters include 

• New Yorker senior editor Hendrik Hertzberg on vested interests in politics; 
• Playwrights Hannah Moscovitch and Michael Healy;
• Political operatives Chima Nkemdirim,Jaime Watt and David Herle on electoral alchemy;
• First-time author Ayelet Tsabari; and 
• Ins Choi's (Kim's Convenience) brand new theatrical walking piece

Tickets are on sale now and cover all events, including a private reception. The organizers are also launching the RBC Emerging Scholars program and the Spur Public Fellow to capture ideas generated through the festival and which will guide programming for the coming year. 

Style at Home launches branded home decor line

Style at Home magazine (TC Media) is launching a branded line of kitchen, bath, bedroom and home decor items in celebration of the magazine's 15th anniversary.

Some 50 items in the Style at Home Limited Edition Collection range in price from $34 to $150 and are for sale exclusively in the online shop at the magazine's website. These include duvet cover sets, pillows, Egyptian cotton towels, mix and match bedding, linens and ceramic kitchen accessories that function for display, entertaining or both.  In a release from the magazine, editor-in-chief Erin McLaughlin says

“We purposely designed a select line of must-have decor items that I know Style at Home readers will love. Designed to be simple, chic and timeless, these are pieces that will instantly transform any room into a magazine-worthy space and will allow our readers to incorporate the Style at Home brand into their homes.”

 The collection is only available at styleathome.com/shop and  readers can win a contest for an entire bedroom collection; details can be found at styleathome.com/bedroom. The 15^th anniversary October issue of Style at Home is on newsstands across Canada on September 10. 

Canadian Living BBQ cookbook updated; sold 33,000 copies last time around

As a measure of the effectiveness of brand extensions, a Canadian Press story by Judy Creighton says that the last edition of the barbecue cookbook created by the staff of the Canadian Living magazine test kitchen sold more than 33,000 copies. They have (um) beefed up the current edition with 100 new recipes and some of these are suitable for vegans. The Barbecue Collection (Transcontinental/Random House Canada) sells for $32.95 in paperback