Redwood custom publisher to rebrand as Totem

We note that Redwood Custom Communications, Canada'a largest provider of contract-published or custom magazines and media (now a subsidiary of Transcontinental Media) has announced its new name: Totem. The associated tag line  is "Brand Stories".

Redwood is now 10 years old and its president and CEO Eric Schneider said:

“The new brand will be more meaningful to what the business is now, its positioning and where it’s going....the new name resonates on several levels. A totem, literally, is an object seen to have significance by a particular group. It has tremendous weight and power, commanding attention.We love this name because it articulates the essence of what we do. We create media brands for our clients that act as totems, bringing to life the qualities that consumers cherish most in our clients’ brands.”

Schneider said the rather enigmatic tagline "Brand Stories" reflects what the company's staff does.

“This captures our strength in crafting the kind of messaging that engages customers on a narrative journey. Be it the subject line of an email, a feature article or a multi-page photo essay, the imperative of great storytelling is the core of our customer-focused approach. We’ve even created a new term to describe the craft employed by the talented staff who create brand stories: Marketing Journalists.”

Redwood appears to have lost major Kraft custom publishing account

[This item has been updated]

It appears that Redwood Custom Communications of Toronto, the largest custom publisher in the country, has lost one of its biggest clients. All or perhaps part of the account to produce custom magazines for Kraft Foods (What's Cooking in Canada, Food & Family in the U.S.) has been scooped by the giant U.S. publisher Meredith Corporation (Better Homes & Gardens etc.).

Rumours seem to be confirmed by a job posting at Meredith, looking for an Account Director, which says in part: "The Account Director will manage a team of Account Supervisors and an Account Executive who are based in Chicago, New York and perhaps Toronto to run the Kraft Food & Family business." An editorial and production team (13 specific jobs) is also being advertised on mediabistro.com.

[UPDATE: Apparently Redwood is now shutting down its Chicago office. In addition to Kraft, the company had at one time produced a custom publication for the state of Illiniois.]

Word on the street is that there is soon to be a major announcement at a staff meeting at Redwood's Front Street headquarters in Toronto. Meanwhile the What's Cooking image and information about Food & Family continues to be available on the Redwood web site.

The 5-times a year Food & Family magazines have a combined circulation of 12 million across North America, including What's Cooking in English Canada (which has 3.5 million readers according to PMB), its Quebec counterpart Qu’est-ce qui mijote, Food and Family and the Hispanic edition Comida y Familia in the U.S.

The irony is that the word leaked out because of the announcement this week that Transcontinental Media has struck a deal with a British custom publisher to go after custom publishing business aggressively in Canada and the United States. (Coincidentally, Transcon is in partnership with Meredith Corporation in publishing a Canadian edition of More magazine, which was launched this spring.)

Meredith is one of the largest publishers of magazines in the U.S. with 15 paid consumer publications and 200 special interest publications, many with the Better Homes & Gardens brand. It also owns 14 television stations. Its integrated marketing division is one of the largest custom publishing operations around, with many of the best known U.S. companies and brands and clients including Carnival Cruises, Century 21, DirecTV, Nestle, Daimler/Chrysler, Jeep, MetLife, and The Principal Financial Group, among others.

The Kraft move may also be yet another outcome of a consolidation that was announced in 2005. Kraft said it was restructuring its North American operations and having the Canadian business report directly through its Illinois headquarters.

Transcon joint venture goes after blue chip custom publications

Transcontinental Media, Canada's largest consumer publisher and the largest printer in Canada, has gone into partnership with a British firm to launch a custom publishing agency called Transcontinental Custom Communications, operating in Canada and the U.S.

This means that Transcon is going head-to-head with Redwood Custom Communications, the Toronto-based offshoot of Redwood in the U.K., the largest custom publisher in the world. Redwood publishes magazines for Kraft (What's Cooking/Food & Family) and for RBC Royal Bank, General Motors and Sears Canada. [UPDATE: See comments; Redwood may have lost the Kraft account recently.]

The joint venture is with Seven Squared, a U.K.-based player that publishes Sainsbury's, the U.K.'s largest paid-for custom magazine done on behalf of one of the country's leading grocers. (Six of the top 10 sellers among newsstand titles in the U.K. are said to be custom publications).

Seven Squared produces approximately 30 other publications for clients including Fortnum & Mason, Marks & Spencer, the Metropolitan Police Service, Unichem and Waterstone's Booksellers as well as several U.K. government departments. The new agency will offer fully integrated relationship marketing services that include database marketing, research, variable printing, photo studio and premedia tools. Nino Di Cara from Seven Squared's operation in London, England, will manage the Toronto-based operation as Director, Custom Publishing.

"Branded content offers marketers the ability to connect in an engaging and non-intrusive way with their target audience, while providing high value returns," said Natalie Larivière, President, Transcontinental Media, in a press release. "Combining the experience of Seven Squared with Transcontinental Canadian media expertise will provide best-in-class branded content services to our clients' increasingly global integrated marketing strategies."

Simon Chappell,Director, Seven Squared, said: "Building on Transcontinental's established array of media and marketing services to create Transcontinental Custom Communications is a great step forward in our group's evolution," said . "We are looking forward to working with North American clients and showing them how custom publishing and relationship marketing has the potential to unlock great value from a customer base."

Seven Squared is itself a combined entity, formed in April 2007 when Seven Publishing Group combined its custom publishing division with Square One Group. With total revenues of C$63 million (£30 million), Seven Squared has been named "fastest growing custom publishing agency" according to Marketing magazine (U.K.).