Sunday, March 11, 2007

Desi Life launched to ride Toronto's
south Asian boom

The Toronto Star, which has had a spotty record when it comes to success in magazine publishing, has just announced the launch of a new title aimed at the south Asian community in the Greater Toronto area. It's called Desi Life, (pron. They-see). Shown at right is a partial view of the first cover, out in April.

According to the Star's release, the term 'desi' often refers to the South Asian communities living in English-speaking countries such as Canada.(Canada is home to about one million South Asians - 600,000 in the GTA alone. Statistics Canada predicts that this group will be one of the largest in the country by 2017.)
"Desi Life magazine will showcase movers and shakers in the South Asian community, with regular features on trends in Canada and on the subcontinent,the latest on Bollywood and Tamil cinema, cricket, food, fashion, the arts,and much more," said Bageshree (Shree) Paradkar, editor (shown, left).
The Star's publisher, Jagoda Pike, referred to this kind of venture as "culturally specific content", that is intended to attract south Asian readers and serve advertisers who want to reach them.

The magazine says it will have a total circulation of 65,000 and will publish 5 times in 2007 (first issue is April 19). A full page ad will be $7,192 or about a $110 CPM based on circ. It will be available through various (unspecified) retail outlets and through targetted distribution with The Star in pockets of Toronto with large, south Asian populations.

The new magazine will be up against some established competitors like Anokhi and even Blink.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dude, not "They-see" but "Day-see."

12:57 pm  
Blogger D. B. Scott said...

The pronunciation guide came directly from The Star's press release; I presume they know how their magazine's name sounds.

2:47 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know which way it's pronounced, but clearly someone has a lot of splainin' to do.

10:35 pm  

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