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ZS Publishing’s new bimonthly magazine looks a lot like the other lifestyle titles that already crowd the newsstand. On the cover a pretty woman preparing a holiday meal smiles, and the inside pages are filled with recipes, gift-giving suggestions, parenting tips and the now-requisite green article. But Jewish Living, the newly launched magazine from former Foote Cone Belding executive Dan Zimerman, may be the only magazine that promises to teach readers to “Spin a dreidel a new way.” The publication launched last week with a rate base of 100,000, including subscriptions sold to the Jewish Federations in North America. Advertising in the first issue targets upscale women, including several Jewish-focused businesses like J-Date, a Jewish dating service. Features also include Jewish authors facing off over whether to buy into Christmas, a guide on how not to coddle your kids, and why tattooing is a hot issue in the Jewish community. Zimerman, whose wife, former Toronto Life art director Carol Moskot, is the creative director at Jewish Living, talks to Media Life about his magazine’s competitors, why past Jewish-focused magazines left something to be desired, and how he got the idea for Jewish Living.
How did you come up with the idea for this magazine?
A trip to a newsstand one wintry day in Toronto. There were red and green magazine covers touting the joys of Christmas everywhere, and I looked around thinking, 'Where are all the menorahs? Where are the latkes?'
Jews consume media just like everyone else and there was a void within the mainstream market to be filled.
Have there been other Jewish-culture magazines before? If so, what did those lack that you'd like to see in this one?
There have been and currently are other Jewish-oriented magazines, but I was seeing cover lines about current events and deep issues such as the Palestinian conflict and the Holocaust.
We focus on the culture and the celebration associated with Judaism.
What do you see as its competition already in the marketplace?
The Martha Stewarts, Oprahs, and Good Housekeepings of the world all do a fantastic job on lifestyle, especially during the holiday time. Christmas and Easter are all very prevalent in their pages but where's Chanukah? Where's Passover?
Who is the target Jewish Living reader?
A broad community, from interfaith married couples to the modern Orthodox. We are reaching out to brand-aware, early-adopting, well-educated urban professional women between the ages of 25-54.
You're obviously a veteran of the media agency business. What have you applied to this launch that you learned from your years at Foote Cone Belding?
The importance of surrounding yourself with a pedigree of polished and talented industry veterans who know this business inside and out.
I worked on the creative side. I was a creative director and copywriter for many years. As an advertising copywriter, you're a business strategist, so that allowed me to quickly see a need in the marketplace.
For the last 16 years I've been creating content, so that was also valuable. And my wife has been art director at Toronto Life, so she also brings some magazine experience.
What has been the reaction thus far of media people and advertisers?
Reaction has been positive.
They say it's a demographic that's hungry for this content, and that they're relatively well-educated. Advertisers are happy to put their messages in front of the readership, at a cost-effective price point, I think.
What advertisers have you lined up for your premiere issue?
They include Viking Kitchens, Bugaboo (stroller-makers), Club Med, (jeweler) Yossi Harari and (Jewish snack food company) Thou Shall Snack.
What will the magazine's editorial focus be, and how will you differentiate it from other lifestyle magazines?
Jewish Living focuses on food, family and celebrations through a uniquely Jewish lens. This publication is a celebration of experience.
Taking the cultural ideas of Judaism and applying them in a stylish, modern way, readers are able to really take their ceremonies and celebrations and make them their own.
Each issue will have profiles, a Jewish 101, articles on significant lifestyle events such as a wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah or Bris, a question and answer section with different experts and well-known Jewish figures.
How do you see Jewish Living growing in the coming years?
I see it progressing on our planned path while continuing to emanate a sense of joy, passion, life and celebration.
