For this project I chose the Lifestyle Nova Scotia Magazine.

As asked I went to the bigger bookstore (Coles in Scotia Square) to purchase a magazine. Unfortunately there were no other customers in magazine section for the twenty minutes I spend there, so I cannot give a vivid and colorful description of all interesting types and personalities, which I was supposed to observe.

Coles selection on magazines is not as big as Chapters, but it is not small ether. It represent all the mainstream and popular press. The section takes a big part of a back wall, but it is very well visible from the entrance to the store through the long spaces between the bookshelves. When I was there the section was tidy, only copy of one magazine was not on the intended place. Browsing through many publications I discovered the issue of the Lifestyle. It was displayed on the lower part of the wall beside Seascape (Maritime magazine) and between other lifestyle, home décor and garden creation advisers. I never heard of this magazine before (after all, I can not know everything) and chose to get it for this project. I also absolutely didn’t like the cover of it and this was the additional reason for my decision.

The cover page of the magazine and the Internet page www.lifestylenovascotia.com introduces the Lifestyle as Nova Scotia’s modern living magazine. From the letters to the editor I read that the readers were “impressed with its contents as it brought out the true vision of Nova Scotia and not a vision of us quilting and preserving berries” and that the magazine “reflects the interests and concerns of a more urban audience (not one canning tip in the whole magazine), while still retaining the values that make us unique here in Nova Scotia”. The magazine published four times a year and sold on newsstands and is available for subscription around the world. Lifestyle Nova Scotia Magazine is celebrating its third birthday, so the issue I bought is a bonus issue in 2005 to say thank you to the subscribers. The price in the store is $3.50. It is clear that the magazine is a regional publication and is intended for readership around the province and some around Canada, US and the world who has a connection (was born, has friends, lived or worked) to Nova Scotia. I don’t have any information of how many copies are printed and how they are distributed. The magazine tries to promote food, homes, beauty and fashion, entertainment, gardening in Nova Scotia, but from the modern, urban view, not necessarily lobsters, red barns, hockey and cute pumpkin or sunflower dresses. There are no critical or controversial matters (probably as in all other issues). The issue I bought contains an article about Gordie Sampson, Cape Breton singer-writer; Gemini Pursuit, an article about 40 nominations for the N.S. television industry; The Best of Winter, about indoor, outdoor and extreme activities around the Province (skiing, snowboarding, frozen waterfall climbing, snowshoeing, staying in a Lodge or Chalet, enjoying outdoor hot tub, etc); Leisure Times, article about small knitting boutique in Dartmouth and big store by Carsand Mosher which is a scrapbooking paradise (apparently lucrative business, that exploded in the last years); article about Halifax Grammar School; 2005 Wish List, describes gifts made in N.S.; Decorating for the Season gives ideas for effective floral displays; Family Style is about design and furnish of a stylish home for casual living and kids; article about food from the owners of a Cocoa Pesto, Bedford-located business and R.S.V.P., fashion photos in Onyx Bar on Spring Garden Road. The issue is very colorful, contains many tasteful photos. It is printed on a thick glossy paper and contains 54 pages. It has four full-page advertisements from Atlantic Golf Expo, Carsand-Mosher, Feron Kitchen Appliances and Wacky’s Carpet and Floor Centre, the rest are quarter- page size adds from local, mostly Halifax located businesses.

Its subscribers and buyers, as reflected in the letter above are urban audience, or a country (at last Nova Scotia is a country province) audience, living an urban lifestyle. People who has an good income, comfortable lifestyle, home or nice apartment, pays attention to fashion, goes to restaurants, interested in cultural events in a province and looks for different ways to spend the weekends, holidays and leisure times rather then watch TV, can the berries and quilt. Mostly those people like to live in Nova Scotia, trying support local businesses and events, have awareness that their support needed and probably in this concept like the idea to have a glossy publication about the province and like to support the magazine through subscription or purchase in the store. As I mentioned the publisher tries to promote Nova Scotia’s modern lifestyle, so the team of the magazine is on the right track, writing positive articles about different departments. The photos and glossy pages give the Lifestyle sophisticated glamour appearance.

The thing I disliked about it was the title page. It looked better scanned on the computer, the screen gave it luminosity, but in print it is much darker. It has a full-page photo of winter landscape from Point Pleasant Park, which is not very good to begin with, is to dark on some and to light on the other spots and for all we know could be taken everywhere. Lifestyle Nova Scotia Magazine is printed in very simple fonts in dark red (Nova Scotia barn) color and blends with the dark parts of the background. The logo Nova Scotia’s modern living magazine is in black color and disappears against dark spots. The Best of Winter in Nova Scotia and the other titles are in white color, offset by black outline, but they don’t look very striking against light background. Overall I noticed the magazine on the shelf only because I was looking closely on every item, otherwise I would never register it optically. It looks absolutely unremarkable. Without any radical changes to the contents of it, I think after three years on the market and establishing supportative readership, Lifestyle could create not revolutionary new, but still more interesting cover style and get new fonts. After securing subscribes it is important to get more attention of the casual buyers, who browse through the magazine sections of the stores and newsstands. I am sure the change would not scare off the established readers. Three years old is an excusable age for a magazine to get a makeover and experiment a little. After all the ideal reader of Lifestyle is a modern novascotians and as all modern people, who suppose to redecorate their houses all the time, he or she should welcome some changes in the design of the lifestyle magazine.
 

by © Sveta