Two of Canada’s best-known business publications and a major management title in the u.s. have joined forces in a reciprocal sales representation deal that begins next January.
Toronto-based CB Media, owner of Canadian Business and profit, signed the agreement earlier this month with Penton Publishing, which owns IndustryWeek, published out of Cleveland.
Two reasons
Vincent Castell, publisher of IndustryWeek, says the deal came about for two reasons – u.s. advertiser inquiries and the North American free trade agreement.
Castell says the inquiries, spurred by u.s. interest in the Canadian market now free trade has opened it up, prompted him to look around.
He says IndustryWeek advertisers include such large industrial enterprises as ibm, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric and Westinghouse.
Paul Jones, publisher of Canadian Business and profit, says there were two reasons also why CB Media signed the pact.
Incremental revenue
The first was the chance to earn some incremental revenue, and the second was the opportunity to raise both magazines’ profiles.
Jones says the agreement is not a blanket deal for his magazines.
IndustryWeek will only rep Canadian Business and profit on economic development accounts, whether city, county or state, something CB Media could not hope to do itself, he says.
There are no plans for the partners to trade editorial, Jones says.
Castell says the initial deal lasts one year and may be cancelled on 90 days’ notice or renewed for a further 12 months if both parties are satisfied with it.
IndustryWeek is the flagship of Penton Publishing’s 93 titles that include 31 other magazines and directories and guides, all oriented to industry and business.
IndustryWeek is a management book for the upper echelons of industry operations, Castell says, adding it has 300,000 primary subscribers but no newsstand sales.
Castell says IndustryWeek – it was a weekly until 1976 – comes out twice a month.
He says an average issue runs to 80 pages with a 50-50 advertising-editorial split.
Canadian Business is Canada’s only national paid-circulation business magazine with a corporate manager readership.
Its stablemate, profit, targets small- and medium-size businesses.
