Friday, July 08, 2016
This is the final COPA Digital Media spotlight post, and I saved magazines for last. What I have noticed while looking at all the different forms of digital media, is that a lot of them are becoming more magazine-like as they jump on the “Content Marketing” bandwagon, while magazines are trying to be more ad tech-like, which is ironic.

This observation is all part of the digital media convergence that is happening in the market with all media brands crossing over each other in the digital space.During the course of my career I have met a lot of magazine publishers at various conferences across Canada and I picked out some of the niche publishers that go unnoticed nationally, as they cater to specific geographic area, lifestyle segment or hobby. We created a niche content award category for the 2016 COPAs that will give these brands a higher profile in Canada and recognize their talents.

 

Saltscape is a popular title based in Halifax. The regional lifestyle magazine for the East Coast is known for its  stories on food and drink, homes & cottages, people & culture, healthy living and travel. This integrated brand has a website, paid magazine (print & digital), email newsletter and consumer events as part of their publishing mix. The magazine has a distribution of 425,000, with website traffic of 200,000 visitors per month. Saltscape evokes a sense of community and regional pride that ties in all the provinces on the east coast of Canada.

 

Avenue is a free monthly urban lifestyle magazine for the city of Calgary. It offers its readers content on city & life, restaurants and food, shopping and attractions and events. To compete with mobile local business search ad companies for Calgary retailers, they have a restaurant search widget on their site. This is supported editorially with a Foodie Guide and Best Restaurants Awards to provide readers info on who are the hottest restaurants in the city. Their digital platform includes all the reader touch points with a website that has traffic of over 250,000 visitors per month, a digital edition of the magazine and email newsletters. There is also an Edmonton edition of Avenue that is co-published by Red Pointe Publishing in Calgary and their partner Odvod Publishing in Edmonton.

 

The focus of Homes magazine is to cater to Toronto's new homebuyers. It has all the information you will need to start a search for a new home, that includes profiles of new home builders and new projects. Additional content includes design and décor, financial news, and community profiles. The free publication is available in print and digital edition, website and email newsletter that includes new project alerts. The “Search for a Home” widget enables the magazine to be part of the buying process during the home research stage, in addition to providing stories on homes design, communities and builders.

 

Real Weddings is a regional Bridal magazine in BC that caters to the $4.5 billion wedding industry in Canada. It is estimated the wedding crop each year is 160,000 with the average spend including the honeymoon clocking in at  $30,000. The BC portion is 20-23,000 weddings a year, which translates into a $690 million market.  This niche had to get digital fast as the majority of marriages are between couples 25-35 years old that are digital savvy. The style and form of the website is radically different from other magazine sites as it is more picture oriented and navigation is set-up with a page advance control, that mimics turning a page. There are 27 web pages of content that you can scroll down to see stories on inspiration, style,planning and venues. You can check out their digital edition of the magazine here.

 

Hobbyist’s titles are a staple of the magazine industry, where a reader can enjoy their passion by reading stories about things they love to do from an authority on the subject. Scrapbook & Cards magazine is for the papercraft hobbyist. What started out as a free print magazine that is published 4x year, now offers paper kits, online seminars, local events, and items for sale on their website. They have effectively leveraged their authority on the topic into additional revenue streams so people new to the hobby can learn, play and socialize. They offer a digital edition of the magazine and email newsletter as part of their content distribution model. 

 

Cycle Canada is a hobby magazine for the Motorcycle enthusiast. It's a Canadian institution for people that like a little speed and adrenaline as part of their day. The site has information on new and used motorcycles; product news and video test-drive coverage. Like Homes Magazine, Cycle Canada assists people is shopping for a new motorcycle or a used one with their “Product Search” widget on the website. The widget is supported with editorial that talks about all the products in the marketplace. The video inventory is packaged as Cycle TV to bring event coverage and test-drives to their audience. Cycle Canada is a paid magazine published 10x per year in English and French (Moto Journal) and is packaged with free content on their website and an email newsletter.
 
 

Kayak, a bilingual history magazine for kids 7-12, offers a mix of fictional short stories, videos, games and contests to learn about Canada’s history. The kids can play on the site with quizzes, puzzles and match games. They have created interactive features with one themed “Bubbleology” that asks readers to submit a caption for photo. The site has a list of 75 Heritage Fairs where history re-enactments are held across Canada. This is a non-profit magazine produced by Canada’s History Society that relies on donations, paid subscriptions, sponsorships and grants to sustain the magazine. Canadian Heritage and Hudson Bay Company are key supporters. You can visit the French version at this link.

All these magazines have evolved like other media from their traditional channel to include a website, digital edition and email newsletter as the optimal digital mix with some free and some paid content. Some have also become more sales oriented with “Product search” widgets or the selling of branded products and services online to create revenue beyond web display ads.  The word on the street is for magazines to be more magazine-like according to the discussion held at Digital Day held by the Ad Club in May. They talked about the importance of “Authentic 3rd Party Content” to attract the reader and the “Return of Engagement” metrics for the marketer. This is a good spot to be in and magazines have a leg up, as they already are a trusted 3rd Party source, with lots of engagement stats.

If you have missed the other COPA Digital Media spotlights you can check them out below. The deadline for entries for the 2016 COPAs has been extended to July 15  and you can enter here.


COPA Digital Media Spotlight
About Me
Martin Seto

 
Martin Seto is the producer of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPAS) with 30 years of life expereince in technology, advertising, media and creative exploration. He can be reached at marty(dot)seto(at)
reflexmediasales.com or 416-907-6562, and on LinkedIn.

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