KMI Publishing and Events launches three new B2B magazines this month. The bi-monthly publications are Wealth Professional, Insurance Business, and Human Resource Director.

Each brand is an extension of a website: wealthprofessional.ca, which launched in the spring; the year-old insurancebusiness.ca; and hrmonline.ca, which KMI rolled out in January 2012.


The launches are in step with KMI's co-ordinated international strategy. Along with the Toronto base, the company has a headquarters in Sydney, Australia which is supported by a New Zealand office, a recently opened U.S. office in Denver, and a new production centre in the Philippines, housed in Manila.

Some iterations of the new titles have already launched while others are pending, but all told, both Insurance Business and Human Resource Director will have versions in Canada, Australia and the U.S., while Wealth Professional will publish for both Canada and the U.S.

Associate publisher Trevor Biggs says while some content will be region-specific, editorial and design will be shared globally and leveraged across verticals wherever possible. "There's a lot of general stuff that works across [borders], especially when you're talking about small business owners…it's a lot of the same issues that everybody has to deal with," he said, explaining that the publishing model helps keep costs low.

The opening of the production centre in Manila also assists in lowering costs. "[That location is] doing some of our back-office work, like ad traffic, and other internal things, and a lot of our design work too. We have lead designers in all of our offices who manage the designers in Manila," Biggs said.

No new staff needed to be hired for the Canadian print launches, although reporters and sales professionals were hired for each vertical when the websites launched--those teams will work on the print products as well. Overall, the Toronto staff has doubled in size over the last two years.

Each magazine will circulate about 10,000 copies. Subscriptions to Wealth Professional and Insurance Business will be available for free, while Human Resource Director is selling paid subscriptions.

KMI Publishing and Events expanded to Canada eight years ago. Its Canadian portfolio includes Canadian Mortgage Professional magazine, Canadian Real Estate Wealth magazine, the Canadian Mortgage Awards, the annual Mortgage Summit, and the Investor Forum series which holds events across the country.