Collingwood Now: Jeffrey Shearer announces On The Bay Magazine

Shearer to launch his own lifestyle magazine
February 19, 2004 CREEMORE, Ont.—For the first time in his life, Jeffrey Shearer is going to own a majority stake in a magazine. As a former president of Telemedia Publishing (1986-1990), publisher of Saturday Night (1991-1996) and vice-president of marketing at The Toronto Star (1996-2000), Shearer had no problem rustling up a group of silent investors. "We are well capitalized," he says, declining to reveal his start-up budget, but admitting that it is "well north" of $70,000. The magazine, which will appear three times this year beginning in June, and bimonthly in 2005, will be called On the Bay, a celebration of life for those living in the southern Georgian Bay area, including the towns of Wasaga Beach, Meaford, Creemore (Shearer's home base), Collingwood and Thornbury. "The area is literally booming [with development]," says Shearer. "I haven't been as excited in many years," he says of his publishing initiative. A prototype of the 20,000 controlled-circ title will be presented to the advertising community on March 25 at the Blue Mountain ski resort in Collingwood.