In a grim year for many publishers, Today’s Parent has scored a hit with both advertisers and readers in a quarterly program that teams the magazine up with Safe Kids Canada, Boys and Girls Club of Canada, Kids Help Phone and the Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment.


As part of the magazine’s 25th anniversary celebrations, Today’s Parent published four quarterly “call to action” special topics: injury prevention, nutrition and fitness, mental health and the environment based on recommendations from the 2008 report Reaching the Top Report by Health
Canada's Advisor on Healthy Children and Youth, surgeon Kellie Leitch. Advertisers embraced the idea and partnered with each topic, said outgoing Today’s Parent publisher Ildiko Marshall. For example, Sunlight created a custom gateway foldout cover for Today’s Parent’s December issue which looked at environmental issues.

The year-long initiative has been a great success, said Marshall, with results including 6,000 readers signing petition a urging the government to set up and fund a national injury prevention strategy. “All I can say is how good is that? We are lucky that our advertisers got on board with the idea,” said Marshall. “In a tough economic year Today’s Parent has fared well.”

Marshall was speaking earlier this week at the magazine’s annual For Kid’s Sake Awards, which honours three grand prize Reader With A Cause winners with a total of $10,000 for the charity of their choice.

In addition to handing out awards, Today’s Parent has also recently received some of its own. It has won Best Issue in Consumer, Parenting/Family/Youth, Full Issue Today's Parent March 2009 and Best Use of Illustration, Consumer under 250,000 circulation Today's Parent ³Family Travel Smarts’ November 2008 at Folio’s Eddie and Ozzie Awards Contest in the U.S.

Today’s Parent is published by Rogers and has a paid circulation of 135,000. It is sold for $4.95 on newsstands and ranked 12th on Masthead’s Top 50 Magazines 2009. Advertising sales director for the magazine Rosemary Sinclair has been promoted to associate publisher at Today’s Parent as well as at Glow and Pure. It was announced earlier this fall that Marshall will be leaving the magazine at the end of the year. The role of publisher will be taken over by Kerry Mitchell in addition to her roles at Flare, Glow and Chatelaine.