Quarto Communications goes to the Cottage

Quarto Communications, publisher of Cottage Life, Explore, Outdoor Canada and Canadian Home Workshop magazines and the related websites, has changed its name to Cottage Life Media Inc.

This year is the 25^th anniversary for both the publishing company and its Cottage Life brand, but, as president and CEO Al Zikovitz told Marketing, while Cottage Life has grown into a well-recognized brand, “few know or recognize the Quarto Communications brand.” It was therefore decided to change the moniker “from one that is often mispronounced and misunderstood to one that is highly recognized and respected,” said Zikovitz.

The brand will also soon be televised – again. Starting on April 29, the series Cottage Life TV will air on Travel + Escape (a channel owned by GlassBox Television, which is owned by Michael MacMillan’s Blue Ant Media; Blue Ant also owns a minority stake in Cottage Life Media Inc.). Zikovitz said six new episodes of the show have been produced, with more set for production later this year.

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The original version of Cottage Life TV previously aired on the Life Network, then HGTV. It stopped production four or five years ago, said Zikovitz. In another recent interview with Marketing, Zikovitz said, “One of the problems we had when Cottage Life Television was on HGTV is that HGTV was going in one direction, which was not the direction Cottage Life was going in. They wanted a certain image and they insisted our shows change to be something that no longer reflected what the Cottage Life brand was all about. That’s why we stopped producing.”

But history isn’t likely to repeat itself now that Cottage Life Media is working with Blue Ant and GlassBox to develop and launch a Cottage Life TV channel in Canada.

“In this case we have control from the channel right through to the production and we can make sure the productions reflect what the Cottage Life brand is all about… We will be able to own and control everything from the beginning to the end,” said Zikovitz.

The CRTC gave approval for the channel last fall, and Zikovitz said the company is aiming to launch the Category B channel in fall 2013.