Toronto-based Kontent Group has hired communications design firm Mamone & Partners to handle creative direction of FQ and Sir magazines. The move is tied to recent restructuring at Kontent, where nine staffers in editorial and art were laid off. The company, which also publishes Inside Entertainment and International Architecture & Design (the latter in partnership with GLP and Sotheby’s International Realty Canada), said it will use freelancers to produce content for its titles.

Mamone & Partners, led by Ric Little and Gerry Mamone, developed the design for FQ when it was first launched in the fall of 2003 and  handled art direction for the quarterly during its first two years of publication.

Oakville, Ont.-based Chill Media Inc., which produces Chill and Golf Canada magazines, has added some people. Alex Rodriguez, who most recently served as senior art director at Toronto’s Zeppelin Communications and Design, is Chill Media's new art director; Jacinto Salcedo has been hired as senior graphic designer; Alison King has been promoted to managing editor; Eric Marshall, formerly the associate publisher at Relevant Communications, is Chill's new national promotions and consumer relationship manager; and Rylan Atherley is Chill's new national account exectuive, following positions with Canadian Tire, Taxi Guy Inc. and GMR Marketing.

Onto a number of changes at online publications:

Sweetspot.ca has hired Heather Clark as director of marketing. Clark has worked in communications, strategy and marketing for advertising agencies such as Henderson Bas and for clients such as FedEx. Sweetspot.ca is a Toronto-based trend-spotting online publication with a daily e-newsletter that is partly owned by Rogers Publishing Inc.

Myra Thompson has joined SavvyMom Media Inc. as director of sales. The company publishes SaavyMom Today, an e-mail newsletter publication which counsels over 30,000 moms across Canada with four city editions (Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver); the EatSavvy monthly meal guide, the ShopSavvy shopping directory, and consumer-driven city guide site, ShareSavvy.ca. Thompson, who has more than 20 years of experience in advertising and sales, was most recently with the Star Media Group.

Finally, Vancouver-based Suite101 has hired three new section editors: Lynn Coady of Edmonton recently joined as editor of the Travel and the Politics & Society sections, Mia Carter of Boston is the new editor for Mind & Soul, and Lisa Nichols of Portland, Oregon is the new editor for Business & Finance. Coady is also the current writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and has published four works of fiction.