The premiere issue of Canadian Architecture & Design Magazine, which hits newsstands and mailboxes later this week, comes just four weeks after the launch of International Architecture & Design. Both magazines feature ultra-expensive homes as editorial; both magazines target very rich readers and the advertisers that want to reach them.

Here are the facts on both titles, broken down by key categories.

Publishers

International Architecture & Design is published by the GLP Group: Eithne McCredie, a consultant with Abacus Circulation for the last 13 years, Geoffrey Dawe, owner and founder of the Kontent Group (FQ, Sir, Inside Entertainment) and a third, silent partner.

Canadian Architecture & Design is published by Mike Dunphy, a former senior construction manager who got into the magazine game last year with the launch of North of 89, a regional architecture and design magazine focused on the area north of highway 89 in Ontario. That magazine was profitable from the get go, Dunphy says.

Circulation

A total of 50,000 copies of IAD are being distributed—42,000 of those go to clients and prospects of Sotheby's International Realty
Canada; another 1,700 are dropped off at Air Canada first class lounges, 1,000 are sold on newsstands ($5.95); and the rest are distributed to high-end hotels and Sotheby project presentation centres. (McCredie says IAD is not a custom magazine—Sotheby’s has no influence on editorial, she points out, and the publishers are incurring all the risk.)

A total of 75,000 copies of CAD are being distributed—25,000 on newsstands (with promotions) ($5.95); 5,000 sent direct mail; and the balance to industry professionals, subscribers ($18) and controlled circulation based on North of 89 readers.

Advertising

A full-page, full-colour ad in IAD costs $8,300. Sotheby’s has guaranteed advertising in every issue (it took out 12  pages of residual real estate ads in the premiere). Other advertisers include BMW, Rolex watches, Grey Goose Vodka, Birks, Jaguar, Fairmont Hotels, Hunter-Douglas, European Flooring and Emirates Airline.

A full-page, full-colour ad in CAD costs $9,520. Advertisers include Cadillac, Omega Watches, Loewen Windows, Kohler Canada, Bateman Furniture, EQ3 Furniture, Scavolini Kitchens, HorseFeathers Homes, Farrow & Ball and the Castlefield Design Centre.

Editorial

IAD, a quarterly, will base editorial around themes—the premiere focuses on water (with a cover story on buying waterfront properties), while future issues will cover cities, country and resorts. Kelvin Browne is editor at large; Benjamin MacDonald, former senior art director of Inside Entertainment, handles art direction.

Each issue of CAD, published bimonthly, will include a minimum of six home features, five in Canada, one in an international locale (the South of Spain in the premiere). High-quality photos (including several taken by Dunphy, who is also a professional photographer) will feature prominently. Dunphy is editor; Brian Rushton Phillips, formerly with St. Joseph Media in its custom division, is art director.

What the publishers said about the competition

McCredie: “We’re not worried because we have the database…It’s a golden little list…We don’t have any desire to go to the consumer.”

Dunphy: “They do what they do. We do what we do…. From the first magazine I’ve seen, we’re leaning more towards architecture, with the design tied in, where International Architecture & Design was all about Sotheby’s content. We don’t cover real estate in our magazine. We don’t have real estate listings in our magazine.”