Fashion (magazine)
Fashion is a Canadian fashion magazine published by St. Joseph Communications. Established in 1977, it is currently based in Toronto (with satellite offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal), publishes 10 issues a year and has a total readership of 1.85 million (PMB Oct 2010).
August 2013 cover featuring Demi Lovato | |
Editor | Bernadette Morra |
---|---|
Categories | Fashion magazine |
Frequency | Monthly (10 per year) |
Total circulation (December 2011) | 142,016[1] |
Year founded | 1977 |
Company | St. Joseph Communications |
Country | Canada |
Based in | Toronto |
Language | English |
Website | www |
ISSN | 1714-9835 |
The magazine covers international, national and local fashion and beauty trends and news. It aims to reach affluent, style-conscious urban women.[2]
The magazine's first editor-in-chief was John MacKay, who had previously been responsible for Toronto Life's men's fashion supplements.[3]
The current editor-in-chief is Bernadette Morra. Previous to joining Fashion, Morra spent 23 years at the Toronto Star, first as fashion writer, then (since 1993) as fashion editor. She left the Star in 2008 to be a freelance writer and launch a website for jewellery lovers. Morra has reported from the runways of Milan, London, Paris and New York, and interviewed many top fashion designers, models and celebrities including Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Victoria Beckham and Linda Evangelista.
In 2009, FASHION launched its men's magazine Men's FASHION as a bi-annual special interest publication. In 2012, they added a Holiday issue, in addition to the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter editions. The current editor-in-chief is Canadian journalist David Livingstone.
St. Joseph Communications, the magazine's publisher, also publishes Toronto Life, Canadian Family, Weddingbells, Quill & Quire and Where Canada magazines.
Website and digital brand expansion
FASHION's website was first launched in the summer of 2000.[4]
In 2008, the brand made two significant efforts to expand their online presence. In March, FASHION announced a content partnership with MySpace Canada that included sharing behind-the-scenes news, videos and photo galleries.[5] In April, the magazine announced a national "Reporter Search" in an effort to find 10 new style bloggers from across Canada who could write about fashion trends in their home communities. The eventual winners of the contest were given a year-long blog on the FASHION website and were also awarded other prizes.[6]
In a 2008 interview, online editor Jennifer Campbell outlined the multi-pronged strategy that was bringing the site success, which included daily blogging, community outreach, slideshows, newsletters and social media networking. At the time, the site received 100,000 visitors/month, and the most popular site sections were FASHION Lovelies (a weekly street fashion snap) and FASHION Reporters (the aforementioned blogs from the cross-Canada Reporter Search contest).[7]
Video played a large role in Fashionmagazine.com's early online strategy. In October 2009, the site was recognized with the "Best Video" award at the first year of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.[8] The site was a finalist for the same "Best Video" award in 2010, and won top prize in the "Cross-platform" category for an online men's style guide that contained online video.[9]
Randi Bergman replaced Campbell in December 2010 after the latter left for a role with rival Canadian fashion publication Flare.[10] Shortly thereafter, Paige Dzenis joined the team as associate online editor.[11]
In 2011, the site was a finalist for "Website of the Year" at both the Canadian National Magazine Awards[12] and the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. That same year, the website was extensively redesigned by Randi Bergman, Paige Dzenis, Laura Antonik, Gary Campbell and Michelle Darwin. Subsequently, the website won two silver awards at the 2012 Canadian National Magazine Awards—one for best digital design and one for best multimedia feature for the "At The Shows/Spring 2012" package.
In August 2012, it was announced that FASHION had the largest Twitter following of any magazine in Canada, with 352,079 followers.[13] This success was attributed to the brand being an early adopter of social media.[14]
In August 2013, the brand launched an online shopping extension called "FASHION Shopping" featuring clothing and accessory items selected by the editors that can be purchased.[15]
References
- "eCirc for Consumer Magazines". Audit Bureau of Circulations. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "FASHION Magazine". St. Joseph Communications. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- Morra, Bernadette (2012-10-10). "Celebrating 35 years: FASHION editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra sits down with the magazine's first editor-in-chief John MacKay to discuss the differences between then and now". FASHION Magazine. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- "Wayback Machine capture of Fashionmagazine.com from August 2000". Archived from the original on August 18, 2000.
- "Fashion magazine partners with MySpace to create fashion hub".
- "FASHION announces blogger contest".
- "5 questions: Jennifer Campbell of Fashion Magazine".
- "Photo gallery: Canadian Online Publishing Awards 2009".
- "Winners -- Canadian Online Publishing Awards 2010, Red Category". Archived from the original on 2010-10-02.
- "People in Publishing: Changes at FASHION, Flare, Eye Weekly and more".
- "Media, Darling: Paige Dzenis".
- "National Magazine Awards nominations have been released".
- "Fashion tops the list when it comes to Twitter followers".
- "Twitter Magazine Index (Canada)". Archived from the original on 2013-09-14.
- "St. Joseph's FASHION launches online shopping platform".