November 16, 2007
Quick! Spot The Magazine
The arrival of Toronto Life in the mailbox each month is something to look forward to, except for one thing: the ridiculous payload of advertising that comes with it. Now, we understand that magazines generally lose money on subscriptions, and Toronto Life's $24 annual fee is worth every penny, but we think that Toronto Life is starting to look more like Toronto Life Square.
Subscription card "blow-ins" and heavy-stock ad inserts are extremely unpopular with readers, but those snot-glued supplements are incredibly lucrative, with advertisers able to attach anything from promotional DVDs to shampoo samples. Obviously, this is incredibly disruptive to the reading experience unless the consumer sifts through the magazine before reading to shake out subscription cards and tear away thick, folded perfume strips. In the case of Toronto Life's December issue, the additional standalone advertising supplements are thicker than the actual magazine when piled side by side.
Packaged and mailed inside a plastic bag, the majority of the bulk comes from faux "magazines" like Vintages and Abode, which are impeccably-designed and printed on quality stock. Abode, for example, is laid out very intentionally to confuse consumers into thinking that it's one of Toronto Life's useful monthly CityGuide magazines (which are also included in the subscription package). The LCBO's expensive Vintages supplement features three pages of fold-outs—closing the thing is a Sisyphean task worthy only of those with the longest of fuses.
And then there are the magazine's own stiff inserts, which are legion. Clearly, so many of them are required simply for your convenience—if you need one, why go hunting for the one that fell on the floor of your car when you can just find one in your bed or behind the toilet? Attempting to rip out the largest of these, which are cemented into the magazine's binding, will cause the flimsy pages of Toronto Life to disintegrate unless you leave a hard strip that acts as a bookmark, demarcating the page in the back that you're least interested in.
All magazines consist primarily of advertising (hello, Vanity Fair!), and we can live with the 147 pages of ads inside the December Toronto Life, but there becomes a point when we have to worry about our own sanity when attempting to dislodge Toronto Life's excessive package of cardboard supplements wedged solidly inside a tiny little mailbox. Not to mention the chiropractic health of our letter carriers! Enough.
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They used to have an option for subscribers where you could opt out of perfume strips due to allergic reaction. I would be willing to pay extra for my subscription if I received a magazine without blow-in cards, inserts or subscription pleas, etc. They really should offer this, at least to their subscribers.
YES. Just a couple hours ago, I opened up my package and had to throw out the piles of advertising that came with it. What a damn waste of paper and effort all that is.
I don't understand why they put subscription inserts inside. I guess they just put them in indiscriminately, regardless of whether it's going to the newstands or a mailbox. Not cool.
Toronto Life was bathroom reading for me growing up – we'd usually have about a year's worth of back issues stuffed into a drawer throughout my childhood and adolescence. I remember reading the wonderful '94 article about the TTC's signage woes, and thought Wow! This magazine writes about some really interesting urban issues!
Its idea of urban issues now is where one can get (not the best, but) the most expensive architect/construction company for your renos. I don't really fit within their target demographic anymore, which at one point was 'people who are interested in Toronto culture', and now is somewhere in the 'combined household salary of $200k+' zone.
I still end up flipping through it when I see it in someone else's bathroom, or while waiting for my prescriptions at the pharmacy.
Totally agree wilshire. I miss the old Toronto Life too. Everyonce in a while there's a spark of life (like the feature that made me actually like Howard Moscoe, and their listing of the best takeout), but mostly it just gets piled in the Recyling box a few days after opening (which is at least slower than it takes me to pile sister mag Fashion in there - pretty much immedieately after ripping off the plastic and flipping through).
What a waste of paper!
Compare this to my copies of Blueprint, or Readymade, or even Spacing which I keep filed in my office and go back to time and time again.
Even The Walrus (which Toronto life is in direct competition for subscribers with) manages to stick around on my Coffee table for a month or two.
This magazine is irrelevant to 95% of the Toronto public so why not get income from every source possible to pad the books?
I hope there are big changes when the old guard leaves next year. The art direction is so completely bad and so completely dated...often, when I look at it, I get the feeling I have been thrown in a time machine. The articles as of late are vindictive and crass. It is like John M has said ' I am outta here but before I go I am taking pot shots at all those who have crossed me.' An editors letter dedicated to how he is not pissed with Conrad Black followed by 10000 words of slamming drivel proves this. (somehow though this and that horrible cartoon like cover will win NMA's - which is another sad story)
Who is reading this magazine? Who cares? For Canada's largest city that is "Live with Culture" this magazine is an embarrassment.
I actually quite like Toronto Life since it became more random. Some of the longer articles are great, although others are kinda bizarre (like the Tim Horton's one a few issues back), but I like what they've done with the front half of the mag. I couldn't care less about restaurants and stuff, so that's lost on me, but for what is essentially only $2 per issue by subscription, I find at least a couple of things in it worth the toonie.
The problem with The Walrus is that nobody fancies their intellectual brilliance more than The Walrus themselves. Well, there's that god-awful name too.
Chris Anderson (editor of Wired) covered the issue of magazine subscription cards well in a recent post on his blog.
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/the-connection-.html