ANNA tops Saveur’s top indie food mag list!
Chatting with Lang & OLeary on CBC!!!
Had the loveliest visit with Kevin Oleary and Amanda Lang (I think they love ANNA Magazine… and we gifted them our lovely embroidered aprons with my fathers handmade gift box… ) on last night’s The Lang and OLeary Exchange on CBC!! And CBC invited us back!! Thank you for the opportunity CBC, Canada’s #1 News Channel… I know we will have some fun this holiday season!
ANNA Magazine moves into Toronto with nontraditional distribution
Check out the story below from MastheadOnline.com!
Canadian Magazine Industry News
ANNA Magazinefounder and creative director Mari Loewen attributes the cooking publication’s recent circulation expansion to old-fashioned “knocking on doors.”The quarterly, based in Winnipeg and started in 2006, held a Toronto launch last week as the latest step in its expansion after securing footholds in Western Canada. The move into Toronto is part of its continent-wide growth strategy of partnering with local businesses for distribution to supplement its strong subscription base.
According to company info, 85% of ANNA‘s circulation is through paid subscriptions while newsstand sales account for the other 15%. Single copies sell for $10.95 and yearly subscriptions go for $39.95.
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Issue 25 of ANNA Magazine
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Instead of chasing a national advertiser to help extend its reach, Loewen set out to create regional relationships with like-minded speciality food stores that will sell the mag in-store. In Toronto, ANNA is now sold at Pusateri’s Fine Foods and Nature’s Emporium.
Loewen said this works well because a shared target market means catching the right eyeballs, and getting the stores onboard as advertisers is an easy sell.
Another benefit of dealing direct is that when stores sell out, business owners can contact ANNA to replenish stock. (Loewen said Pusateri’s anticipates moving 300 a month after selling out the first week.) Since ANNA‘s issues are undated and packaged like collector’s cookbooks, it’s not unusual to see four different issues on stand at the same time.
Although the traditional newsstand and bookstore distribution model handled by Disticor works in Winnipeg thanks to hometown awareness, Loewen said it didn’t make sense for the expansion because copies are removed from racks and shredded if not sold within a set period.
“That’s why magazines fall apart,” she said. “We’ve tried to find relationships where we can have payment immediately. That’s the only way that this works.”
With ANNA‘s dateless model, all 25 issues are sellable at any time of year and can be repackaged together for special offers, like the 2012 holiday four-issue “starter pack” that comes with an apron and preserves.
Spreading regionally currently means than an issue bought in Toronto, for example, carries ads for Winnipeg businesses and vice versa. But Loewen said ANNA will move from single editions to adopt regional split runs soon. “I’m hoping that by spring, we’ll be running three different runs in Calgary, Manitoba and Toronto,” she said.
ANNA‘s ad-to-editorial ratio is 30:70 and Loewen hopes to keep it there. Circ was 400 for the inaugural issue in 2006, and Loewen’s goal is 80,000 by spring.
— Jef Catapang
ANNA on CHCH Morning Live!
Thank you lovely team at CHCH Morning Live… for giving us the opportunity to tell Ontario our story!! Please see our clip here. chch.com/index.php/morning-live-blog/item/10656-anna-magazine
Make everyday special, Edmonton Journal
Making everyday special; New food magazine captures the beauty of the simple gesture
By Liane Faulder | Edmonton Journal
April 25th, 2009
I couldn’t say that most cooking magazines inspire me. In fact, many are terrifying. But a new food magazine out of Winnipeg has caught my attention, and I want to tell you about it.
The magazine is called Anna and it’s the brainchild of Mari Loewen. The signature sentiment of the magazine is this phrase: make everyday special. The catch phrase is not a saccharine advertising gimmick (although, granted, it may serve the same purpose). It’s words for living that Loewen adopted after a devastating divorce — an event that helped launch both the magazine and a new chapter of her own life.
“I realized that making every day special was up to me and no one else. I can’t help the decision another person makes. And as I pulled myself together, I inspired a lot of people and it came from that,” says Loewen, 44.
“I wondered, ‘how can we get the message across of making everyday special and linking it to food?’ ”
The result of her musing is a product that combines exquisite design with straightforward recipes and entertaining guidance. I wanted to lick the cover of the most recent issue, an homage to the Parisian esthetic that makes me catch my breath every time I see it. The reason I like this perspective so much is that it values the beauty of the simple gesture — in food or in fashion — that is executed with time and care.
Launched in 2006, Anna comes out quarterly. Loewen, who runs the magazine with a full-time staff of five from her home, says it hasn’t been easy to get the publication off the ground. She used to be in the grain industry and was hardly trained to be a publisher. But she had always been a creative person who loved cooking and having friends over. The magazine is named after Loewen’s mother, a first-rate home cook, who was into organics and frugality in the kitchen long before it became fashionable.
“I have reconnected with my childhood, and what my mother did suddenly became glamorous to me,” she says with a bit of a chuckle. “An egg sandwich wrapped in wax paper and tied with string. She did it because she was frugal and we do it because it’s beautiful.”
Anna, with a mere 6,000 subscribers, is sold in Barnes and Noble in the United States, and at Chapters, Indigo and Coles in Canada, as well as specialty food markets such as Whole Foods in Vancouver and Toronto. Loewen relies heavily on premium brand advertisers and sells back issues as if they were collectors’ items. Which they are.
“It has such a homey feel, and people want to share it with their friends,” says Loewen.
Each issue has four components, including a section devoted to foods that are traditional, and those that are every day easy, such as one-skillet suppers. But though not over-challenging to the average homemaker, Anna emphasizes the use of quality ingredients, such as homemade chicken stock (for which there is a step-by-step recipe, with pictures).
The magazine, with a minimalist style, has the air of possibility. That may have something to do with the fact that Loewen created it, practically out of the air, when her marriage ended, and with it, not only cherished relationships, but her sense of her place in the world.
“You lose your friends and your circle and you’re a single parent and you want to be part of something,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘I have to create that myself.’ Instead of waiting for an invitation, I had to put that out. You need to knock on your neighbour’s door and invite them for dinner, and that’s how you get to be part of a group.”
Loewen wants her magazine to be a way for people to feel connected to each other through food and entertaining.
“We are all looking for something. Maybe it’s a quote to get you through the day and make you feel better,” she says. “Everyone is walking around with something going on.”
Here is a recipe from the latest Anna magazine.
BANANA CAKE WITH MANGO AND STRAWBERRIES
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) unsalted butter, room temperature, addition for pan
- 3/4 cup (175 mL) firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup (75 mL) sour cream
- 11/2 (375 mL) cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 mL) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon (.5 mL) salt
- 1 cup (125 mL) mashed bananas (2 large)
FILLING
- 2 cups (500 mL) 35 per cent cream
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla
- 2 cups (500 mL) sliced strawberries
- 2 mangoes, peeled, pitted and sliced
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Grease two 9-inch (22 centimetre) round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in sour cream. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture and beat on low speed for 1 minute. Stir in bananas until combined. Spread batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
For filling, in a large bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla; set aside.
To assemble cake, cut each cake into two layers. Place one layer on a serving plate and spread with whipped cream and top with 1/2 cup (125 mL) strawberries and mango slices. Repeat with remaining layers. Spread top layer with whipped cream, strawberries and mango slices. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8 to 10.