Metropolitan Home being revived on a contingent basis by Hearst

Mavens of shelter magazines may be hugging themselves now that it has been announced that Metropolitan Home is being revived -- at least for now. Originally published by Hachette, it was closed in 2009 to much lamentation. It is now to be back on the newsstands this month under the imprimatur of Hearst magazines, which acquired it in 2011 along with other Hachette U.S. titles. According to an article in AdWeek:

The magazine’s relaunch follows the test-issue template set by other Hearst titles like HGTV and Dr. Oz. The Spring/Summer issue of Metropolitan Home will be released on April 11—70,000 copies will be sold on newsstands with another 45,000 going to subscribers of other Hearst magazines such as Elle Décor, Town & Country and Esquire—and, depending on reader and advertiser interest, more issues could follow.

The Philanthropist launches a new look & a new digital platform

The Philanthropist has launched a new look and digital platform which should go a long way towards expanding its audience in the not-for-profit and charitable sector. 

The quarterly has been published since 1972, first as a printed traditional journal with a few hundred paid subscribers. Then, in 2010 it was converted to a wholly online open access publication hosted by Simon Fraser University. This week it has been relaunched as a standalone website (again, free) with a goal of extending its reach and positioning and to taking best advantage of web technology. [Disclosure: I was an advisor on the conversion and the current redesign.]

It specializes in legal, tax, operational, and governance matters that affect Canada’s charitable and non-profit sector and focusses on specific issues and challenges faced by the sector. The journal has three editors: Malcolm Burrows, Gordon Floyd and Susan Manwaring.

The new site was designed by Jessica Duffin Wolfe, who is also the editor and founder of The Toronto Review of Books. She made the new site responsive to all devices, integrated with social media, allowed for moderated comments, accessible PDF versions of prior content and current articles, and easy access to a formidable issue archive of over 700 articles. 

New, merged magazine launched by and for Canada's accountants

The merger of Canada's major accounting organizations required a couple of things, including a new name, and as a result, a rebranding and creation of a new, merged magazine out of two excellent predecessors. The result was officially launched yesterday, with the first issue of CPA magazine. 

It serves a core audience of Canada's accounting profession, has a circulation of 180,000, comes out 10 times a year and is looking to serve a much broader readership. In addition to the kind of content and features that appeared in CA magazine and CMA Magazine, there will be more opinion pieces and articles about management, finance, technology and lifestyle.

"We will address topics and issues that are important to professional accountants along with Canada's top business leaders and decision makers," says Cairine Wilson, the magazine's publisher [in a release] "CPA Magazine is ambitious. We aim to inform and spark discussion by being a trusted resource."

Editor Okey Chigbo, who was editor of the award-winning CA magazine, said

"CPA Magazine educates, engages and entertains. Its content and delivery systems ensure strong penetration in the marketplace. If we are to connect Canadians from coast to coast, we must deliver the magazine in a format that meets their needs."

The inaugural issue features an exclusive interview with Kirstine Stewart, managing director of Twitter Canada  and stories on cyber warfare, Bombardier's new CSeries jet and the first-ever CPA Canada compensation survey.

The magazine is available on newsstands, by subscription and in a web edition. 

Domino said to be returning as e-commerce site and quarterly print mag

Domino, the interior design magazine much beloved of its readers, is returning, possibly as early as next month, as an e-commerce site, augmented by a quarterly print magazine, according to a story in WWD. 

Domino was closed in 2009 and has appeared infrequently since only as a brand on special interest pubs such as "Small Spaces". The relaunch is a partnership between Condé Nast, which created it in 2005, and retains the copyright on the name, and a startup e-commerce business called Project Décor. 

The partnership between the publisher and the start-up bears a resemblance to Condé’s other recent investments in digital assets, like the purchase of the recipe planner ZipList last April, and may presage a more serious relationship between the two companies. In 2010, Advance Publications, Condé’s parent, set up a $500 million war chest for acquisitions, mainly in the digital realm, led by a former Yahoo executive, Andrew Siegel, now senior vice president, strategy and corporate development. 

Canadian Living refreshes its look, logo and content

New look

Canadian Living magazine will be unveiling a new look -- what it calls as "refresh" -- with its September issue, which will be on newsstands August 5. The magazine will have a new logo, extensive content updates and will be polybagged with a special 32-page supplement aimed at mothers called Canadian Living Moms (which has the earmarks of a test run for a line extension or spinoff). 

The September issue will also have four sequential covers each emphasizing the main editorial pillars of the magazine -- food, style, health and home. The new look will be carried through all the platforms that Transcontinental Media offers, including the website, mobile and social media. The relaunch issue will be selling at a special price of $2.99 on newsstands. 

Old look

“Over the last several months, we reached out to thousands of Canadians, both current readers and non-readers to find out what they wanted more of, less of and what topics were on their minds,” said vice president and group publisher, consumer solutions, Toronto and Vancouver, Caroline Andrews. “Their feedback inspired us to bring a fresh new perspective to every aspect of the brand. I am confident our long-standing readers will continue to find everything they've always loved about Canadian Living, and new readers will be impressed with the evolution of this beloved Canadian brand."

Read more »

Frank magazine is reported on the verge of a comeback

The national edition of Frank magazine, the satirical and muckraking publication which closed in October 2008, is apparently being revived as an online publication starting in the fall, according to a post on Canada.com by Postmedia News. Michael Bate, who ran the magazine from 1989 is bringing the national Frank back in a blog format -- similar to Andrew Sullivan's The Dish -- with a paywall and a subscription price between $10 and $15 a month.

The national Frank, based in Ottawa, was a spinoff of a Halifax-based biweekly regional publication which started in 1987 and has continued since in both print and subscription-based online form. 

“I think things have changed," Bate told the CBC. "The zeitgeist has changed, it’s more like it was in the early ‘90s when Mulroney was in office. People are fed up with the Tories. I think there is an appetite for satire and muckraking scandal sheets like Frank. So I’m optimistic.”

Rogers rebrands and relaunches recently acquired Canadian Health & Lifestyle magazine

Canadian Health & Lifestyle magazine, which Rogers Publishing bought in April, is being rebranded and relaunched effective with its Winter 2012 issue, out early in November. The magazine will also be increasing from quarterly to six times a year in 2013.

According to a story in Marketing magazine, the focus of the magazine is on small adjustments that readers can make to improve their lifestyles and that the print redesign is concurrent with the launch of an iPad version.

"Around the time Rogers Publishing purchased the book, Rogers Media senior vice-president of sales and marketing Dale Hooper said at an industry conference that women represent one of the main consumer groups Rogers is trying to better connect (the others being sports fans, entertainment lovers and news followers). "

The magazine has a largely controlled distribution of 397,000. Some 230,000 of those are distributed free to its customers by the Katz Group Canada Ltd. through its Rexall group of pharmacies, including in its Rexall, PharmaPlus, Guardian, IDA and The Medicine Shoppe outlets. Those copies have carried the Rexall logo along with the Canadian Health & Lifestyle banner. According to the latest fall 2012 PMB data, the readership is 2.1 million, of whom 65% are women 25 to 54. The associated website healthandlifestyle.ca will also be redesigned to reflect the new emphasis.

Dogs in Canada magazine may bound back if publishing partner can be found

You may be able to teach an old dog new tricks. The Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) is circulating a request for proposal for a contract publishing partner to relaunch Dogs in Canada magazine and its annual.

"CKC is seeking a publishing partner who will act as a single point of contact and will coordinate the entire lifecycle of the publications. Candidates should outline a revenue model that will cover all costs from concept to delivery of the magazines, and will generate revenue for the CKC [the RFP says, in part]."

The RFP says that the prospective partner would handle all project management, ad sales and marketing, design, editorial planning and development, printing and circulation management with the CKC approving annual sales and editorial plans and the layouts of all issues, supporting ad sales and keeping the publisher abreast of changes in the industry that would affect editorial and sales planning.

Read more »

Ontario Bar Association unveils its new magazine JUST.

The Ontario Bar Association has unveiled a virtually new publication called JUST. for lawyers in Ontario. The six-times-a year magazine (tagline: "For people with a calling") was unveiled Wednesday night at a reception at the Trump International Hotel on Bay Street in Toronto.

The OBA has been producing a house-organ style publication Briefly Speaking for its members for 33 years and since 2006 it has been a magazine. But based on readership research it has repositioned and completely redesigned it to provide a balance of industry and lifestyle content. The relaunch process has been directed by editor Catherine Brennan and the rebranding and new design was done with the assistance of Espresso Inc. The art director is Janet Weldon. Part of the magazine's content is written mostly by practitioners and is bilingual, French and English; in French, the magazine is called JUSTE.

"JUST. is the only legal magazine that specifically targets Ontario lawyers," said a release. "As the voice of Ontario's legal profession, the OBA draws upon the diverse expertise of its membership to provide content that is interesting and relevant.

"We talk to our readers as people, not just lawyers, and get that there's more to the industry than the everyday workday. We are enlightened, engaging and relevant, committed to being the only magazine for all things legal in Ontario."

The print edition has a controlled distribution of 18,000 including 17,000 lawyers, judges and law students across Ontario who are OBA member. A digital edition is available at JUSTMAG.ca, and through a mobile application; the publication will be available as a tablet edition in June for Apple and Android devices.
A one-time, full-page ad in the magazine is $3,025.

enRoute magazine launches new look and features with October issue

Seat pockets on all Air Canada flights starting tomorrow will have a new-look enRoute magazine after a complete makeover by art director Nathalie Cusson and associate art director Tania Chiarotto. The magazine was relaunched at an event in Toronto this week and in a release the editor-in-chief Ilana Weitzman says that it includes new departments and new front-of-the-book features as enRoute beefs up its service aspects. 

One new feature is Ask a Frequent Flyer, a column in which a reader panel of same answer readers' travel questions from personal experience. 

The cover redesign shows the magazine's coverlines contained in a vertical colour swatch reminiscent of a luggage tag. The October issue cover image is a photo by Chris Nicolls, shot in Mexico City, presented on a new stock with a combined matte and glossy finish. 

Of course, you don’t want to mess too much with a good thing [says the release]. “The new enRoute expands on the qualities – including award-winning journalism, design and photography – that have already made the publication a favourite of close to a million readers a month,” says publisher Lyne Farley.

enRoute is published by custom publisher Spafax, based in Montreal. 

Globe's magazine Report on Small Business revamped, resized and rewired

The Globe and Mail's magazine Report on Small Business, a quarterly, standard-sized magazine,has been resized and relaunched as tabloid, augmented by a beefed up online presence. According to a release, the improved printing capacity of the Globe, beginning last fall, allows it to print the publication itself as a separate newspaper section while "offering advertisers a bigger, bolder canvas on which to showcase their brands".

The new website has updated news, analysis and advice pitched at small business interests. In addition to being given selected distribution through the Globe in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, the magazine is also distributed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business to over 70,000 English-speaking members. This makes it one of the largest circulation business publications in Canada, says the Globe. 

'"Small business now accounts for nearly 98 per cent of all enterprise in Canada, and The Globe and Mail is building on our deep commitment to serving this vital audience, and the advertisers that want to reach them," said Andrew Saunders, Vice President of Advertising Sales. "A product like this would not have been possible without the investments we have made in quality journalism, and print and online excellence, and the winners are our readers and advertisers."

Canadian Family redesigns and relaunches its parenting website

CanadianFamily.ca

Canadian Family magazine (St Joseph Media) has rebuilt its website CanadianFamily.ca to reflect changes they have seen in online parenting information sites since the site was launched in 2006. One of the most obvious improvements was sections tabbed by age and stage so visitors can quickly find information most relevant to their situation.

The centerpiece is the new recipe-finding tool, a much-needed improvement to the content most important to our audience," says executive producer Chris Skinner. "We’re also growing our team for the first time with two new editors hired in the past month: Ali Martell (formerly of Urbanmoms.ca) has joined us as senior associate editor, and Alicia McAuley (formerly of BestHealthmag.ca) is our associate editor. They will work with Megan McChesney, our executive editor and senior producer as we kick off a rejuvenated content strategy with more original content rolling out in the coming months.

The relaunch will be followed by development of improved newsletters and communities, social media integration and various new tools.

The Grid (re)launched as a weekly city magazine for Toronto

The Grid, the revamped and repositioned successor to Torstar's Eye Weekly in Toronto, had a hip and splashy launch last night and the first issue is available free today from boxes dotted around Toronto. It is now a weekly city magazine, shorn of many of its listings (now mostly migrating to Toronto.com) and the sex ads that had been a feature for years. It is complemented by an attractive website.

In its opening editorial, the magazine is called "a fresh, accessible voice for Toronto" and that it will aim for "a nuanced, considered view".

Our goal is to capture the vibe and energy of a city in ascendance, largely by rejecting the glossy, doggedly aspirational vision of it you see in so many other publications. We want every page of this magazine to give you an almost visceral sense of what it feels like to live here—and in a way that reflects the experience you and most other people have of life in Toronto. Let’s face it: We can’t all afford to live in Rosedale, buy our food at Pusateri’s and clothe ourselves at Holts. But we can, with a little forethought, live well. Very well.

It's not much of a leap to see the magazine's reference to "glossy, doggedly aspirational vision" as being a sly dig at Toronto Life. The cover story in the first issue of The Grid is a 16-page survey of 97 Toronto chefs go when they want cheap eats. Not exactly groundbreaking in concept and  something that could just as easily have been found in...Toronto Life.It will be interesting to see if the style and substance of the new magazine will attract new categories and volumes of local, regional and national advertising because, for better or worse, that's what Torstar management will be watching to justify the investment they are making in this venture. 

The Grid's press release about its launch.

Eye weekly to be repositioned as weekly city magazine The Grid

Bye, bye Eye

Eye weekly, Torstar's urban weekly, is being rebranded and (as anticipated) relaunched as a city magazine. The renewed publication -- now called The Grid -- will be out on May 12, according to a Twitter announcement by publisher and editor-in-chief Laas Turnbull. 

The repositioning more or less sees the publication vacate the alt entertainment newsweekly and listings field in Toronto to its bigger rival NOW. Eye was originally created to compete head-to-head with NOW. Turnbull told Marketing magazine about the strategic thinking behind the change:

The new handle is not some sort of Tron reference, he said. “It’s actually more descriptive than anything. If you look at a map of the city and take out the background and just emphasize all the roadways—North, South, East and West—it looks like a piece of graph paper. So that notion of looking at the city from a street level and a neighbourhood level is very much the direction we’re going editorially,” said Turnbull, who stepped into his role at the Torstar-owned Eye seven months ago.

The name change is part of a move in a radically different direction for the publication, he continued.

Rather than remain an alternative newsweekly heavy in arts, entertainment and listings, The Grid will essentially be a city magazine for people in their 20s and 30s. “So a younger, hipper, more provocative version of Toronto Life in a weekly guise,” he said.

“We’re pretty excited about it because there’s never been a weekly city magazine for young people in Toronto and we think there’s a real appetite for it,” said Turnbull. He added that Torstar has put a lot of resources into the launch.

“There really hasn’t been a big print and online media brand launch in this town for a long, long time. Dose was probably the last thing that would even approach this scale.”

Momentum, the Vancouver-based cycling magazine, unveils new look and new tagline

Momentum, the Vancouver-based cycling magazine with North American ambitions, has unveiled its new look at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin Texas. With the new logotype, downplaying the name in favour of an iconic 'MO', comes a new tagline. Formerly it was "The magazine for self-propelled people". Now it is "Smart living by bike". Showing off the new logo and tagline are director of marketing and advertising Mia Kohout and Jim Nissen of  Austin-based Switch Studio, now handling design . Below is the old look and logo.

The magazine is distributed in 20 North American cities and has a press run of 30,000 copies.

Torstar's Eye Weekly to be given a whole new look (and a whole new name?)

Big changes are afoot at Toronto's Eye Weekly (published by Torstar), including a complete redesign of the print magazine and the website, perhaps topped by a new name. 

According to a story in Marketing magazine [no longer available online], the dramatic overhaul will be trumpeted by a multi-media advertising campaign devised by the hip agency Rethink Toronto.

The publisher and editor-in-chief of Eye, Laas Turnbull, who has already put 10,000 volts through the newsprint weekly and given it a real citymag vibe, with hard-hitting journalism and bracing cover treatments, says the paper is going to shift away from the heavy emphasis on arts and entertainment. (This would provide a differentiation for Eye from its older, heftier rival NOW magazine.)

"We want to be a city magazine for 20- and 30-somethings in Toronto," [says Turnbull]. "Everything is kind of up for review right now. We’re looking at every part of the business and every part of the brand–what needs to go, what needs to stay and what needs to change....”

Rethink Toronto's Pema Hagen says that the print, television and online creative will draw people to a new Eye experience:

“The changes are going to be drastic and I think the paper that is going to be launched at the end of the day is going to be something that Torontonians are going to love, and something that’s going to be very different from what’s currently out there."

"Unpublished" Grafik last issue heralds the magazine's revival in 2011

Some months ago we reported on the lamentable closure of Grafik magazine. Since then there has been planned a revival of the high end graphic design title by its original editorial team, but under new ownership. Well now the "unpublished" last issue of Grafik (ready to go in June 2010 when the abrupt closure was announced) has been posted online as a pdf and it is the precursor to a relaunched print magazine and website in the new year.

Transcontinental Media's affaires plus magazine redesigned to become a+

Transcontinental Media's affaires plus magazine has undergone a transformation, with a new design and a rebranding as a+, effective with the issue just now on the newsstands in Quebec.

The monthly magazine was a line extension to the the publication Les Affaires.  While it continued to be aimed at a business audience, affaires plus two years ago shifted its editorial positioning to distinguish itself from the parent publication and put more emphasis on lifestyle subjects and make the magazine more interesting to read, said Daniel Germain, the editor-in-chief . 

Now, by adding fashion, cooking and wine coverage and rebranding, the magazine also hopes to reach a wider readership and to become more attractive to advertisers in the retail, clothing, beauty and automotive sectors.

Edmontonians magazine brought back from the dead by controversial publisher

In a curious turn of events, Edmontonians magazine is being brought back after its closure was announced in June. The resurrection is being done by Moe Najmeddine of Cedar Publishing Corporation, who says in a press release that after a three-month hiatus the magazine will resume publishing as of October 2010, with editor Barb Deters resuming her role and regular contributors continuing.

The once oversized monthly will now be a quarterly in a standard magazine format.

Edmontonians was founded in 1989 by former publisher Sharon MacLean and her late husband Dick, who died in 1993. Sharon Maclean was quoted in the release saying:

“I had an exciting and fulfilling 21 years… now I am thrilled to see another generation take on the challenge and continue a legacy of excellence.”

Najmeddine was named one of Sizzling Twenty under 30 in 2003 and his release said the magazine would be carrying on the annual feature.

Cedar currently says it publishes 15 magazines including Neighbourhood Watch Newsmagazine, Alberta Paramedics Newsmagazine, Food Bank Network Newsmagazine, Safe Parent Association Newsmagazine, Alberta Arab Directory and Alberta Seniors Directory. All are connected in one way or another with specific causes, professions and community initiatives. with distribution locally, provincially and nationally as appropriate.

In an earlier post on this blog, we reported that Cedar was being sued by the City of Edmonton on behalf of the local Crime Stoppers organization, claiming that Cedar's Edmonton Firefighters Magazine was being passed off as being officially connected to Edmonton Fire Rescue.

This is not the first time that Cedar Publishing and its owner, Mohamad Najmeddine has clashed with the authorities. In June 2008, the Crime Stoppers Organization filed a claim against the company for using their logo, making it hard for the independent organization to raise money. Apparently Cedar and Crimestoppers had agreed in 2004 to publish a magazine in partnership, but the arrangement was terminated in February 2007.

Crime Stoppers is asking for $500,00 for loss of donations and goodwill and $250,000 in punitive damages. Najmeddine, in his statement of defence, argues that Crime Stoppers reneged on its contract and appropriated his clients by starting their own magazine called "Crime Stoppers and you...Making a difference."

Najmeddine said he plans to expand Edmontonians' support for charity and not-for-profit groups, saying that Cedar Publishing has donated more than $300,000 to charities and supports numerous fundraising events.

Najmeddine is president of the Canadian Mental Health Association-Edmonton, treasurer of the Progressive Conservative Association-Edmonton Decore, vice-president of the Canadian Arab Professional & Business Club, sports director of the Evansdale Community League, and a director of the Canadian Arab Friendship Association.

U of T law school alumni magazine relaunches with a new look, new content

The University of Toronto Faculty of Law has redesigned and relaunched its alumni magazine Nexus that is sent to more than 7000 alumni, friends and supporters of the law school. The magazine is more than 30 years old and had gone through some difficulties, cutting its frequency from twice a year to once. It will be returning to a twice-a-year publishing schedule.

A new executive editor, Lucianna Ciccocioppo, has been hired. She's a former journalist with CBC Radio and CNBC Asia and she plans to give it a clean, contemporary look and an editorial re-focus at least in part featuring professional freelancers. Previously, most of the articles were written by faculty and naturally tended to the scholarly. Now, she says, Nexus will focus on current topics in the legal profession and Canadian justice system through the voices of alumni, and highlights unique U of T law school initiatives and their impact beyond the campus.

The magazine has contracted its design to  Biohazard Design and the magazine will now accept advertisements. Editor in chief is Kate Hilton, the assistant dean of advancement.