One year after Village Living launched in Toronto's West Village, the brand is expanding with Village Living: Mt. Pleasant, a new bi-monthly title dropping April 1, 2013.

The mag will continue the brand's "hyper-local" model, going out as admail to houses and condos in Toronto's affluent Davisville Village, Moore Park, Leaside and Rosedale areas, distributed via Canada Post. It will also be available for free at select neighbourhood businesses and institutions, including health-related stores, butcheries and community centres.


It will have a circulation of 17,000 copies. Combined with the West Village edition, Village Living will deliver over 30,000 magazines targeting midtown Toronto.

According to publisher Andrew Fishman, reader feedback showed that Mt. Pleasant area residents and potential advertisers were interested in a Village Living for their own neighbourhood. "Everybody was saying, hey, we love what you're doing, we love your magazine, you should come down here. More and more businesses were encouraging us to expand to that area," he said.

The first edition is 32 pages, and Fishman expects the mag to expand to 48 by the end of the year. Its format and look will be similar to the West Village version; both are designed by Toronto's K9 Design Co. "It will be bright and colourful, with a lot of negative space for easy reading," Fishman said.

Content will also be along the same lines, with a lifestyle slant and tight focus on local businesses. "That's the biggest pleasure that we have, working with small businesses and then helping them grow," he said. The success of the hyper-local model, "because it's very focused," is why Fishman and co-publisher Iris Zimmer opted to launch a second magazine rather than just expand the West Village mag's scope.

Much of the editorial content comes from local experts and business people writing in their area expertise. Articles include contact info, but Fishman notes that writers are required to write broadly about a topic, "in a non-advertorial way," rather than specifically about their own services or products.

While there are two magazines, the brand will continue to run a single website, with around five stories posted per day.

A one-time full-page ad runs for $1750. According to the magazine's rate card, the back cover (running for $3060), is already sold out for the year. As Village Living grows, Fishman said the goal is to roll out geo-targeting options, so clients can tailor ads for each neighbourhood with a larger buy across magazines.