Canwest’s National Post and FP Magazine are collaborating with the Women’s Executive Network (WXN), an organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of women in the workplace, to launch new editorial features geared toward a female audience.
This fall, a section called Women Executives will launch on Nationalpost.com and it will features video interviews, columns and discussion communities on topics that are important to women, explains Sarah Thompson, director, interactive, social media and public relations, WXN.
‘One of the key messages that WXN tries to be a proponent of is that we are about learning, networking and growing. So this website is really about showcasing female executives and I think that is something that’s lacking in the general press these days,’ Thompson tells MiC. The section is currently looking for advertisers, she adds.
‘It’s a huge opportunity if you think about how many purchasing decisions are made by women. Some surveys say 81% all the way up to 91% of all purchasing decisions are made by women. They’re a very powerful community that I think a lot of advertisers will want to connect with,’ says Thompson, who has a background in marketing working for Accenture and National Public Relations.
The integrated initiative between Canwest and WXN also includes regionally targeted elements. For instance, the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal will run a special section with stories on female executives who live or work in those cities, ‘so it takes that content and localizes it,’ says Thompson. The online and print sections will be promoted through a series of in-paper (National Post) and online (Nationalpost.com) promotional ads, as well as through the WXN network of partners and members.
In December, FP Magazine will feature WXN’s annual ranking ‘Canada’s Most Powerful Women Executives’ on its cover, and publish a listing of all of the execs who made it on the list. The issue will drop Dec. 7, and this is the first time that the mag has partnered with the organization on the project, says Thompson.
‘It [will] provide women the opportunity to go to a national media outlet, and then the regional [publications] as well, where they can learn from other women’s experiences,’ Thompson says.
