BC Restaurant News, published by Canada Wide Media for the B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association (BCRFA), launched its first digital-only issue last month. The bimonthly magazine was published in print until January 2009 with a circulation around 5,000.

BC Restaurant News published its final print edition in January 2009 but has relaunched as a digital magazine.

According to Sharron Tulk, director of marketing at BCRFA, the advertising dollars just weren’t coming in fast enough to justify the print version of BC Restaurant News. But now that it has moved online, she says it’s reaching an even larger audience, with a circulation around 8,000.

The new format also allows for more up-to-date stories than before.

“When we were publishing in print, by the time the magazine hit the doorsteps it was very out of date,” Tulk says. “It’s a fast-moving industry, so this enables us to publish whatever stories are current. If something comes up at the last minute, we can always put that into the magazine. We didn’t have that flexibility in the past.”

The new online magazine was created by digital publishing company Issuu, a website that allows users to upload PDF documents and view them on a full-screen, web-based media viewer.

The September issue of BC Restaurant News will feature stories on a B.C. dining program that encourages British Columbians to eat locally. There will also be a focus on the incoming harmonized sales tax, something B.C. restaurant owners fear will hurt their businesses when it takes effect in 2010.