Canadian Magazine Industry News
25 November 2010,     TORONTO
Former FASHION staff launch Sweet Potato Chronicles
Former St. Joseph Media-published FASHION Magazine editor in chief Ceri Marsh and beauty director Laura Keogh have teamed up to launch the family-focused Sweetpotatochronicles.com.

Sweetpotatochronicles.com co-creators Ceri Marsh and Laura Keogh
Sweetpotatochronicles.com co-creators Ceri Marsh and Laura Keogh


The site and accompanying weekly newsletter was an opportunity for the two to work together on a project which would marry their experience as journalists with their
 
new realities as parents, says Marsh. “Kids never stop eating, that was where it started,” she says. “The impulse was to create a site that could be a one-stop shop for parents. There are a lot of great recipe sites out there, a lot of nutrition sites. We thought wouldn’t it be great if there was a place you could go to get a recipe idea for dinner and also the latest information on vitamin D?”

Sweetpotatochronicles.com was designed by Toronto-based Arcade design agency, runs on WordPress and hopes to reach 15,000 unique visitors a week by late spring, says Marsh.

Advertising opportunities on the site and newsletter are being rolled out, with banner ads, sponsorships and advertorials all open for discussion. “It is a great and fun project but we also want it to be a legitimate business,” says Marsh. “We are starting to work on advertising, don’t yet know if we will be working with a sales person or an agency.”

Four contributors help to populate the site with daily updates, including recipes, product coverage and celebrity interviews. “We want the site to have a cool feeling while still making it approachable,” says Marsh. “We also go out of our way to include dads in the content. We don’t go for the mommy-ness which a lot of sites go for.”

Promotional work for the site has been going very well, says Marsh, with content sharing on other sites and newsletters helping to drive traffic and word of mouth. Social media and the co-creators stature in the industry have also helped boost the buzz.

For more information, visit Sweetpotatochronicles.com.



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