Caxton Magazines evolves publishing models of two brands

Caxton Magazines has evolved the publishing strategy of two of its oldest brands, Living and Loving and Your Family, in line with the changing media environment and the way in which the modern reader is consuming niched content.

Living and Loving is to be repositioned exclusively as an online parenting information portal but through its digital platform will still provide selected areas of its quality content in print through a bumper parenting section entitled Smart Parent which will be incorporated into Your Family. These changes will come into effect from October this year with the September issue of Living and Loving being the final print edition to go on sale.

Living and Loving magazine has, for nearly half a century and 588 issues, been regarded as South Africa’s most-loved parenting magazine, having provided generations of moms and dads with trusted advice on pregnancy, birth, and raising children from new born to five on a monthly basis. This service to readers will continue but will be more frequently updated and be at reader’s finger tips all the time

Editor Sonya Naude says: “In the last two years, our online audience has grown from strength to strength while, in line with international trends, print sales continued to shrink. Our audience is still interacting with us, but they’re doing it online on www.livingandloving.co.za and through our social media channels. We understand that consumer media consumption habits are changing and we’re adapting with them.”

A core Living and Loving team made up of its editor Sonya Naude and digital editor Xanet Scheepers, will continue to source and produce content in line with what ‘parennials’ (a new generation of Millennial moms and dads) want and need i.e. convenient and accessible information that is reliable and trustworthy.

Adding credence to its decision to embrace the digital model is the news that Living and Loving has just been voted the number one ‘SA Kids and Parenting Blogs, Websites and Newsletters’. Selections were based on Google reputation and search ranking; influence on social media sites; and quality and consistency of posts by the Feedspot Blog Reader editorial team and expert reviews.

Smart Parent, available in a new look Your Family magazine from October, will deal with parenting concerns that affect children at different ages and stages. This special 16-page section will have its own cover, printed on a thicker paper stock for easy access, and will have an interesting mix of news and features that relate to babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, tweens and teens. The section will also include a kiddies’ fashion feature.

Your Family editor Janine Collins adds: “This is an exciting opportunity for Your Family to extend its subject matter to include content that appeals to next-generation families with a wider age range of children and for advertisers to reach a larger, parenting-aligned readership in print. We’re optimistic about the brand’s future in this new format.”

Caxton Magazines DNA

Storytelling is our business. Content is our currency. Caxton Magazines is a division of Caxton CTP Printers & Publishers and houses 12 brands in print and digital formats, primarily aimed at the women’s lifestyle segment across life stages, lifestyles and income groups. These brands are: Vrouekeur; Woman & Home; Bona; Living & Loving; People; Food & Home Entertaining; Your Family; Garden & Home; Farmer’s Weekly; Essentials; Rooi Rose and SA Country Life. Visit www.caxtonmags.co.za