The Toronto-based urban issues magazine Spacing is getting into the retail business with a planned store opening next spring.
Spacing publisher and creative director Matthew Blackett said the store will serve two purposes: creating an additional revenue stream while giving the Spacing brand a much-needed public face.
While both Blackett and Spacing’s senior editor Shawn Micallef are regular guests on the CBC Radio programs Here & Now and Metro Morning respectively, Blackett said there is literally a barrier between Spacing and its readers.
“We’re a magazine about public life in the city, and yet we find our office behind two glass security doors,” he said. “We’re not truly living up to what we are as a magazine.”
The planned retail space will be a brick-and-mortar manifestation of the publication’s popular online store, which sells approximately 50 city-themed items including subway stop buttons (by far its biggest seller, with more than 350,000 buttons sold to date), clothing, magnets and back issues.
The online store accounts for about 25% of Spacing’s annual revenue, and Blackett said it’s not unreasonable to believe the physical store – which will sell books, T-shirts and other city-themed items – can double online sales.
“The challenge for us is location, location, location – getting a place that is a combination of a good pedestrian environment but at the same time being really affordable,” said Blackett. “That’s not necessarily an easy thing to do in Toronto.”
While the idea of a print brand expanding into retail isn’t entirely new (Tyler Brûlé’s Monocle magazine opened a store in Toronto last fall, for example), Spacing’s move (which has been in development for the past two years) is a tacit acknowledgement of the forces reshaping the publishing industry.
“The publishing world is a weird place right now, and this is a way for us to re-imagine our revenue stream,” said Blackett. “We think it’s something that will work out really well for us.”
Matthew Blackett
Spacing currently publishes quarterly, with a print run of 10,000 and per-issue readership of approximately 30,000 (it also attracts between 6,000 and 7,000 daily visitors to its website, while its Twitter and Facebook feeds have 25,000 and 5,000 followers respectively).
Blackett said that ad sales have been on a “nice upward trajectory” since 2011, currently accounting for about 30% of total revenue. The launch of its first national issue in summer 2011 has enabled the publication to reach a wider range of advertisers, he said.
The publication, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in December, is also nurturing a burgeoning events business, and has expanded into city tours in Ontario and the U.S. It took approximately 50 people on a walking tour of Detroit earlier this year, while trips to other cities including Pittsburgh and Cleveland are planned for 2014.
