Dick Snyder, one of the first creatives at Toronto-based custom publishing company Totem, has left the company to pursue a freelance writing career and devote more time to his food and wine magazine, CityBites.
Snyder, 46, joined Totem – then known as Redwood Custom Communications – in 1999, plucked from his job as fashion editor with The Globe and Mail by company founder Eric Schneider to launch Noise magazine for its first client, JC Penney.
“I was intrigued by the notion of Redwood as an offshoot of Redwood in the UK, where they really pioneered marketing communications,” Snyder told Marketing on Thursday. “They were sort of establishing a North American beachhead and I was really intrigued by the mash-up of journalism and marketing.
“We were very fortunate to get in and help define what it was and what it would be.”
Snyder rose to the position of editorial director for Totem, and led several key pieces of business including General Motors and Aeroplan. Over the next 12 years, the company grew from eight people into a 150-person operation that today counts companies such as Mazda, Sobeys and Scotiabank among its clients.
“I’ve done a lot at the company and really been fortunate to work with some incredible clients,” Snyder said. “Maybe it’s a bit of a midlife crisis, but I’m in my forties and I want to see what’s going on out there.”
While he plans to focus on a freelance writing career and fully explore digital and social media (there are also plans to “shore up” his wine knowledge), Snyder said he maintains close ties with Totem and will likely continue to work with the company in a consultant role.
Redwood was purchased by Transcontinental in November 2008, one in a string of marketing related acquisitions by the Montreal media company that included e-mail marketing solutions provider ThinData, direct marketing firm Rastar and mobile marketing company Vortex Mobile.
“We were sort of brought in with five or six other companies to head up Transcontinental’s interactive marketing entity, but that hadn’t been fully defined even when we joined,” said Snyder. “We’ve all been put into the playground and said ‘Let’s figure out how to work together.’ I’d be lying if I said it was totally smooth.
“It’s certainly had its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t say that’s the reason why I’m leaving,” he said. “In this day and age, staying anywhere for too long has its upside and its downside. In the marketing business, youth has its benefit, and you don’t want to be regarded as the old guy who’s been here for 30 years and wrote on typewriters.”
Snyder plans to spend up to half of his time developing his bi-monthly food and wine title CityBites. While the magazine has been “profitable enough to pay the bills,” and has a solid advertiser and reader base, Snyder said it has never provided him with an income since its 2005 launch.
His immediate priority is developing a website for CityBites, while a recent grant from the Ontario Media Development Corporation will go towards improving the publication’s circulation and distribution.
In an internal memo to staff, Totem creative director Peter Grimaldi said that Snyder “set the bar” for the company’s creative output and groomed many staffers who have subsequently risen to senior editor and art director roles.
“His talent and passion for the written work, and the journalistic integrity attached to it, are part of the core tenets that we hold true at Totem and have evolved into our creative competitive edge over the last decade,” said Grimaldi.
