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Weekend Planner: November 7–8, 2009
When it launched in April of 2003 by real estate developer Christopher Bratty, Toronto-based men's magazine Toro was a critical darling. The glossy won two Folio Awards for design almost immediately, followed with four National Magazine Awards in 2004 (48 NMA nominations in total), then accolades for investigative journalism and fashion photography.
Today, news arrives that Toro will immediately suspend publication, with the March 2007 issue scheduled for release on February 20 remaining undistributed. Publisher Dinah Quattrin blames a limited advertising pool and lack of government funding for the magazine's downfall.
While noting its steady growth over nearly four years, Quattrin alludes to the high operating costs associated with production. "It's become clear that the advertising revenue available in Canada for a general-interest men's magazine is such that even a high-quality book like Toro can, at best, manage to sustain itself," she said in a statement.
Toro's 25 staffers were notified this afternoon that the magazine would be shuttered.
Editor Derek Finkle was a former features editor at Saturday Night and wrote No Claim To Mercy, a book on the famous Robert Baltovich case which was chosen in 1998 as a Globe and Mail's Book Of The Year.
Published eight times a year, Toro also placed a strong emphasis on design, photography and illustration. Recently departed Creative Director Cameron Williamson previously helmed the National Post's Saturday fashion supplements, was the fashion editor at Saturday Night magazine and is now the Art Director at Chatelaine.
The highbrow glossy was aimed toward "sophisticated males" across Canada and had been oft-compared to American pubs like Esquire and British lad mags like FHM. Stories ranged from an exposé on the death of a retired RCMP officer in Haiti to profiles on celebrities like Ryan Reynolds and Elisha Cuthbert. Headquartered at Spadina and Adelaide, Toro was also distributed free to subscribers of The Globe and Mail.
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They did a fine job but, let's face it, the era of print journalism that exists primarily as a wealthy benefactor's alternative to buying another yacht is over. Publications will never again get enough traction to satisfy their egos...
First Dose, now Toro? Why does everything I love die?
fuck.
Realist> What are you talking about?
Sustaining itself is nothing to be ashamed of seeing as most magazines LOSE money. Why must everything be profit-driven? Can't the fact that it's apparently not losing money (at least that's what the quote implies) while being an award-winning, quality product that's able to offer generous freelance rates and support a huge staff be enough?
And does the government typically fund magazines? I mean, I can understand them funding The Beaver or something, but a lad mag?
Toro wasn't eligible for government funds (Canadian Magazine Fund) because it was a controlled circulation publication, which means it was supported entirely by ad revenue. Mags like The Walrus get money from this fund, and even big successes like Chatelaine, Maclean's and Elle.
Realist: The magazine may have been started by a real estate investor, but it was well-written, high-quality, and well-regarded. A lot of talented people lost their jobs, and it's not like those people weren't very passionate about the product they were putting out. I'd rather benefactors invest in a well-produced project which benefits the creative community than buy a yacht. It was hardly an ego trophy.
EB: The government supports magazine about boating, dogs, backyard gardens, the gay community, motorcycles, little kids and women's fashion, so why not a lad's magazine?
Of course it was an ego trophy. It was a relatively well-done one, but an ego trophy all the same.
It's alright, everyone; Realist's posts are clearly ego trophies so we can safely ignore them.
i never did quite understand why Toro came free with my Globe and Mail subscription, but i always enjoyed it. toro, you will be missed.
Then what do you think the motivation was for starting up Toro?
It didn't have a political agenda. There was nothing produced of literary value. No social benefits as a result of the magazine's existence.
Fun? Sure, whatever, and I'm sure Mr. Bratty will find another source of it. The writers can all start blogs to soothe their bruised egos.
So, anything a person might want to start, from a magazine, to....anything, is an "ego trophy" if it doesn't have a political agenda? That's a crazy leap, realist, but I think your jealous anger is betraying you. It seeps out between your sentences.
I wasn't a big reader of Toro as it isn't my thing, but I commend them on making and doing on an audacious scale for a Canadian publication. Good luck to those folks.
I would love to be wealthy enough to have the luxury of investing in a domestic arts or media project, including giving new opportunities to some deserving people. I'd hate to have people think that would be an ego thing, no matter how filthy rich I was.
Anyway, by that reasoning, isn't anything someone accomplishes by their own means an ego thing?
No, I just don't understand why the loss of this magazine is being lamented. And, I agree that the people involved did good work. But let's be honest about what the motivations were for starting it up... if backing a magazine in 2007 was enough to make Bratty feel like a famous kingpin, he'd have kept the wallet open.
Always sorry to hear about something that people built shutting down.
But it was, to me, mostly slick fluffery. I guess there isn't the market for it that they thought.
Er, the girl's hawt in case nobody noticed.
Looks like all this city has left is the Toronto Special.
New issue is great!
Dave - there was a market for it, in fact Toro had seen the largest increase in readership out of any magazine in the past year and had grown steadily since day one. One problem was the advertisers - not the one's that were loyal but the one's that just kept saying that men did not need or want to be marketed to. Another was the distribution; Being a controlled circ mag has it's up's and it's down's and in this case you can see which side one.
Finally, it was independently owned which means it cannot draw upon other publications under it's umbrealla to pick up the slack or to offer ad discounts etc. A magazine's life is a lot more than readership - if this were the case a magazine like Dwell (who for years had a much smaller circ. than Toro) would have gone under ages ago.
What made this magazine special was the fact that it was unconventional since day one. It was over-width. It's covers had minimal text. It used photo journalists to shoot fashion. It didn't tow the party line. It had classy women. It had smart men. Advertisers don't want that. That want to know that they are marketing the same boring people who cannot think for themselves. It's called the easy route and it has killed many a good magazine here in Canada.
A real shame. Great magazine, great people. I hope everyone ends up on their feet - all that talent could surely go to good use, and hopefully not for ET Canada - The Magazine.
Wonder if the final issue'll leak on the internet, bootleg-style.
I guess DADDY BRATTY will have to give his useless son a job at one of his construction sites now