The Toronto-based Women’s Post, a twice-monthly national newspaper targeting professional women, is planning to expand its presence at street-level in the fall and launch its first sponsored podcast series in the spring. The newspaper reaches out to the elusive professional female target by reporting on current events and issues in first-person narratives, and plans for 2007 are setting it up for expansion.

The brand is developing its first sponsored video podcast series – interviews with leading Canadian business women aiming to inspire female viewers to ‘be all they can be’ – for launch prior to May 1. The series is sponsored by Sony Canada.

Women’s Post publisher Sarah Thomson and columnists will officially unveil pink newspaper boxes at a Toronto event (which also raises funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation) on March 29. The new pink boxes will hit the streets of the Greater Toronto Area in time for Sept, 1, when the newspaper plans to go weekly with 100,000 copies.

The newspaper is currently available across Canada at GoodLife Fitness and Office Depot locations, while Ontario markets have additional distribution through selected Second Cup and Timothy’s World coffee shops. The brand is also gearing up to launch a series of monthly wine and cheese networking functions across the GTA.

Circulation figures for the Women’s Post as of this month peg readership at 350,000 (3.5 readers per copy). More than half of the female readers are 26-45 (56%), while a good number are over 46 (39%). Most readers’ income levels range from $50,000 to $100,000 (with a $74,000 average), but one in four make more than $100,000 a year.

‘Most of the promotion we do is through Women’s Post and word of mouth,’ Thomson tells MiC. ‘We have learned that if women like something, they tell 10 of their friends.’