Rogers Publishing Ltd. has expanded its financial services portfolio with the acquisition of Canadian Insurance magazine from Stone & Cox Ltd. The brokered deal closed Dec. 31.

Rogers Publishing added a 36th title to its portfolio of b-to-b mags with the acquisition of Canadian Insurance.

The purchase rounds out the financial section of Rogers’ business and professional publishing group, which also includes Benefits Canada, Canadian Investment Review, Avantages, Advisor's Edge, Advisor's Edge Report and Objectif Conseiller. CI has a controlled-circulation of about 12,000, according to the Rogers release. Also included in the deal are The General Insurance Directory and Special Markets Directory. Both are available online and in print.

“It’s a great brand,” says John Milne, senior vice president of the Rogers business and professional publishing group. “We want to bring our web experiences and resources in the financial services area to this brand. And we want to look at the Quebec market.”

Acquisitions and brand extensions are the keys for growth in 2008, Milne says. “We’re always interested in good brands. Launching new magazines is expensive. Surveying existing audiences through the Internet, conferences, custom publishing and with research is inexpensive, and there are many unmet needs still out there in many of the markets that we serve.

“We’re not afraid of launching but how do you best meet information needs? If a launch is one of those ways, that’s great. If it isn’t, that’s fine too.”

Canadian Insurance publisher John Wyndham put his publications on the market about three months ago. “I decided it was time for retirement,” he says.

Wyndham, 60, purchased the 94-year-old magazine over a decade ago from his father, John S. Wyndham. The younger Wyndham, who will occasionally consult on CI magazine for Rogers, will spend the next few weeks selling off the company’s office supplies and assets before doing some traveling with his wife, Lois.