BCLiving launches print editions in English and Chinese
Given the current economic reality, it’s rare for an online publisher to expand into print. But Canada Wide Media is doing just that. It’s growing BCLiving.ca with two print editions—an English version published 10 times a year and a Chinese quarterly.
Given the current economic reality, it’s rare for an online publisher expand into print. But Canada Wide Media is doing just that. It’s growing BCLiving.ca with two print editions—an English version published 10 times a year and a Chinese quarterly—targeting women ages 34 to 45.
The English-language version launched this month with 100 pages and Vancouver shopping guru Susie Wall on the first issue, said Tom Gierasimczuk, vice-president of editorial at Canada Wide Media. It will have a circulation of 35,000, including 15,000 copies that will be distributed for free through The Globe and Mail in B.C.
Meanwhile, the inaugural Chinese version featuring Wanting Qu, a Chinese-born singer and Vancouver's official tourism ambassador to China on the cover, will release 10,000 copies. It will be under the editorial direction of Kelly Bai, who moves between Vancouver and Hong Kong.
“This launch is a courageous step for Canada Wide, whose last venture into consumer print and online publishing—Granville—petered out,” said D. B. Scott, who runs canadianmags.blogspot.ca. “There is probably room in the Vancouver market for another city magazine. Vancouver Lifestyles and Vancouver View both no longer publish in print and pretty much have left the field to Transcon's Vancouver magazine and sister publication Western Living's BC edition.”
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Video courtesy of Canada Wide Media
Gierasimczuk told J-Source he’s confident there is a market for both versions of the magazine. “There aren’t really other magazines in the Lower Mainland that are putting out holistic lifestyle content,” he said. “And the Chinese market is really underserved … they’ve been ignored far too long by English media, and we felt there was an opportunity to do something different here.”
The Chinese edition will run 75 per cent of the same content as the English edition. The other 25 per cent will be original content targeting subjects specifically for a Chinese-Canadian audience. “Frankly, the Chinese edition will be amazing because Kelly will choose the best of what we produce in the English edition,” Gierasimczuk said.
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.