Publisher Carlo Greco says the recession and misconceptions about the name were behind his decision to relaunch Life and Fashion as Preferred magazine. “With the recession, magazines folding I decided to change my focus a little bit,” he says. “I wanted to be totally different. I wanted to see if I could juggle things up a little bit. Make it a little more unique.”

Changing perceptions about the magazine from fashion to encompass the entire upscale reader was the goal behind the name change, says Greco. “With the old name people thought that we were a fashion magazine,” he says. “Advertisers said we don’t want to be involved with a fashion magazine, it isn’t our market. I wanted to make a boutique magazine, sort of like W,” he says. “A very upscale magazine but with both a male and female audience. Staying between the late 20 to early 60s.”

Greco says Preferred has a controlled circulation of about 21,000 and a paid circulation of 2,500 with a newsstand price of $6.50. The controlled copies are available mainly in the Toronto area but also across Canada in hotels, salons and spas.

The quarterly magazine is distributed by Disticor and printed by Greco’s company, CNG Publishing in Mississauga. “One of the reasons that I have survived in is because I have been a printer for the past 25 years.”

Greco says the goal for the magazine is to increase distribution for the book, but not at the risk of creating sky-high expenses. There are about 96 pages per issue with between 16 and 20 pages of advertising, he says.