The Sunday Star will relaunch with a new look on Jan. 16. The paper will still be a broadsheet, but will have more of a magazine feel, with more feature stories. It will be full colour throughout, and have four sections: a front section that includes news, features, opinion pieces and finance, an analysis section called ‘Ideas,’ a sports section called ‘The Score’ and a section called ‘Buzz’ that will have arts, entertainment and lifestyle pieces. The front page of the new paper will have a poster-front image, and the design of the paper will be updated throughout. Giles Gherson, editor in chief of the Star, says this type of Sunday paper is a first for North America, and will have the feel of British papers like The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer.
The Star created a task force about a year ago to look at why the Sunday edition was underperforming compared to the rest of the week’s editions. ‘The Sunday paper never had the circulation of Saturday and other days,’ says Gherson. ‘Although it’s not a small circulation, questions were asked why we aren’t doing better.’
He says this is an opportunity for the Star to re-brand its editorial to be more inclusive of different cultural communities and younger readers. Greg Lowen, VP of strategic planning, marketing and new ventures, says that Sundays have less competition from other media, so it’s a perfect opportunity for advertisers to get their message across without a lot of clutter. He predicts that the relaunch will expand advertising in categories including packaged goods and pharmaceuticals, as these are advertisers who might appreciate the paper’s magazine-like feel.

Toronto Life is planning its first major redesign in over 12 years, and the new look is hitting newsstands in April. According to art director Carol Moskot, the redesign will include a new logo and new fonts. Says editor John MacFarlane: ‘I’d thought for a few years that visually the magazine was falling behind – that it’s a better magazine editorially than it is visually. So, the conclusion was it’s time to do a redesign.’
No details have been released, but the bolder, more contemporary version of Toronto Life will continue to target its current demo of people with a higher-than-average income, a higher-than-average education, and a higher-than-average interest in the city.

FQ Magazine, the large-format, saddle-stitch fashion book, will be adding a men’s edition in October 2005 in addition to its four regular issues. Publisher Shelagh Tarleton describes this yet-to-be-named magazine as an extension of the FQ brand aimed at the male reader. ‘The FQ men’s edition is more about a psychographic than a demographic, aimed at a guy who has taste and above-average income,’ she says.
Tarleton forsees that the same advertising base that supports FQ will likely advertise in the men’s edition, including cosmetic, fragrance, skincare, automotive, beverage alcohol, retail and fashion. The FQ men’s edition will be the same distribution pattern as FQ, going out to 185,000 readers, including all home subscribers of the Globe and Mail and newsstand readers. FQ is also planning an online magazine and several events with its parent company, Kontent Publishing, in the new year.

After 25 years, Filles d’aujourd’hui is being relaunched as Filles Clin d’Oeil, in January. Owner Les Publications TVA, wishing to differentiate it from its counterpart, Cool, is redefining the mag’s target and image. Filles will shoot for readers 14-24, the group in between the targets of Cool and Clin d’Oeil.
In terms of content, beauty and society coverage will be beefed up and a decorating section will be introduced.

SuperPages Canada, Canada’s second-largest phone directory, will be closing down its operations in Ontario and Quebec resulting in approximately 200 job cuts. The shut-down of the eastern Canada branch of the company has been reported as being a direct result of the company’s inability to make a significant dent on Yellow Pages’ stranglehold on the region. Speculation is that Yellow Pages will purchase the eastern Canada division of Super Pages.
Meanwhile, Red Toronto touts itself as the solution for small and big businesses alike looking for a way to break from Yellow Pages’ Wal-Martian rule of the phone directory business. Red Toronto offers a single price for advertising across its assorted media outlets (print, on-line, and URL links). Red Toronto also has an affiliated Web site, http://www.redto.com which currently has 80,000 listed companies. Since its launch in July, has seen its viewership increase 30% each month and currently boasts close to 30,000 hits each week.