Rebranding to better reflect growth and partnerships
Oct 24, 2023
As you relax with your mug of coffee to read Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest on Tuesday morning, October 24th, I’m standing in the lineup at Pearson to board a flight to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. I envy you!
My job, and that of our Publisher Jill Snider will be to get to Fort Lauderdale and then to move as quickly as possible to meet with as many of the boat and equipment brands as we can in a few short days, and with the displays spread across seven different locations. In addition to our usual agenda of meetings, we will be discussing and explaining more about our rebranding. When I started attending FLIBS we were totally focused on Canadian Yachting magazine and the “big boat” market but that has changed dramatically and I believe, very much to the benefit of the boat business.
Cottage boats and fishing boats used to be smaller, (generally under 21-feet) and larger boats in both power and sail, were those with overnight accommodations onboard. Those lines are now very much blurred. In the December issue of the newly re-christened Canadian Boating magazine, we feature a power review on the Regal LS9 Surf. Big, fast, seaworthy and amazingly capable for towing water sports and wake surfing, this 30-footer with the six-figure price tag is what people dream of these days. It could be a cottage boat but the size makes sense to keep it at a marina or a yacht club. So, is it a yacht or a wake surfing sport boat? Maybe it’s a day boat? Maybe the LS9 can be whatever you want it to be.
Last year Cruisers Yachts launched their luxurious new outboard-powered 50 GLS Day Boat and now, as that company celebrates their 70th Anniversary, there are plans to launch a new Cantius 55 Fly Bridge model. My point is that the definitions of a big boat, a cottage boat or a fishing boat have all changed, grown and evolved.
It makes this a very exciting time to be in the boat business and this growth and expansion is why Kerrwil Media Limited (KML) has just announced the unveiling of new names and new logos as part of our extensive rebranding initiative. The new brand, Canadian Boating will replace the legacy brand Canadian Yachting on its namesake print and digital format magazine.
Our world has changed a lot too. The digital version of Canadian Yachting, now to be called Canadian Boating, enjoys even larger readership than our legacy magazine brand that we still print and mail to our subscribers.
Canadian Yachting Onboard, the digital digest deployed twice monthly, will also adopt the new name, Canadian Boating Onboard and it delivers a wider range of boating subjects and information to our readers.
The official Canadian Boating website and digest launch is being announced now and shortly, the first official issue of Canadian Boating magazine featuring our annual December Gift & Electronics Guide will come out in print and in digital.
Content still includes power and sail for Canadian boating enthusiasts but with a wider scope for boat reviews, technical, mechanical, how-to, lifestyle, destinations, chartering and more. We plan to delve into fishing, expand on wake sports and other brand-new activities like riding the electric foiling Fliteboard that Brunswick has just acquired. There is so much going on and we are growing and expanding to bring these developments to our readers.
It’s an exciting time, I can’t wait to see what is at the Fort Lauderdale show…I just don’t want to line up at Pearson!
Andy Adams – Editor
