Canadian biz glossy undergoes redesign

Val Maloney of Masthead reports that Canadian business magazine Profit unveiled a redesign with its March issue.

Maloney writes, “Profit editor Ian Portsmouth says the magazine has always focused on growth companies, but has expanded its reach to small and medium business owners who aren’t actively seeking to expand their businesses. ‘As a result of our mandate, readers and advertisers may have felt that Profit wasn’t a magazine that spoke to the broader small business market,’ he says. ‘We decided we had an opportunity to engage a larger small business audience. The thousands of people that own businesses but aren’t actively seeking to grow their companies. Not trying to become tycoons.’

“Most of the changes in the magazine are subtle, says Portsmouth, such as changing its vernacular from less talk about growth and more about management. ‘There are more stories in the magazines that appeal to lifestyle owners,’ he says. ‘People who start their own businesses to obtain a certain degree of independence and lifestyle. Those are topics that we wouldn’t have tackled in the past.’

“The biggest architectural change to the magazine is a new front of book ‘Opportunity’ section, which builds off Profit’s popular guide printed yearly in its December issue. ‘We have basically dedicated the first few pages to new trends for business owners to capitalize on,’ he says. ‘New innovations, tools, or less tangible things like new ideas. Helping people understand how the world is changing around them, become more profitable.'”