TRENDSETTING | The ezine trend is all the rage in the marketing world.

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It’s a simple idea: You think you’re a trendsetter? Why not spread the word on what you think is hot via mass email? Spam plus, if you will. Except, what if, unlike all those penile enhancement messages, your pontifications are actually read … by the thousands.

Welcome to the world of the e-magazine, or ezine.

In case you’ve never seen one, an ezine is a daily electronic dose of info, filled with the sort of thing you’d find in a traditional magazine (that is, ads, articles, and general “content”).

Ezines feature everything that’s currently fabulous, long before traditional media have even caught the scent. They come right to your inbox, are free, and they’re taking Canada by storm.

Already a thing down in the US, the ezine trend has arrived in Canada. Two new ezine services have sprung up.

Sweet Spot, launched by Joanna Track, 34, in Toronto in 2004, now has a three-city readership (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver). [Sweet Spot is now defunct.] And Vitamin V [now VitaDaily], founded by Sara Bancroft, is Vancouver-specific, and already boasts over 4,000 subscribers.

But, of course, neither yet compares to the big-momma of the ezine universe: Daily Candy.

Daily Candy [defunct 2014] hit New York City about five years ago. Founded by Dany Levy, now 33, the service was essentially a daily mass email about everything of-the-moment in the city. Now, in addition to their flagship fan base, it reaches readers in six major cities, as well as sending generalized “everywhere” emails that feature stuff that’s accessible all over the world.

A single email about a product from Daily Candy can easily make or break a company. That’s how powerful it is.

“Hundreds, thousands of people click through to check out the products we feature in more detail,” says Daily Candy Editor-At-Large, Dannielle Romano. “And everyday we get literally hundreds of submissions. People really want their companies to be featured.”

New as they are, the Canadian versions are starting to realize they have the same sort of influence.

“We have to pass on about 90% of the stuff that comes to our door every day,” says Track. “A couple of days later, we see a lot of the stuff we didn’t think was fresh enough in other publications.”

“We’re on a steep growth curve right now” adds Bancroft. “Our goal was to break even by the end of our first year, and it looks like we will.”

All that said, most e-zine content is purely editorial (and not influenced by advertising dollars).

So how do these trendsetters choose their features?

“It’s a very tangible thing. We ask ourselves: Does it make us fall in love? Is it something we’ve never seen before? It’s about being true to your audience and true to your gut,” says Romano.

Bancroft has a similar sentiment to share. “We’re very discriminating about what we profile. We spend a lot of time checking things out, and we try to do and test everything ourselves,” she says.

For her part, Track feels a real, first-person perspective is key. “I approach things as a consumer, and I just know that I like certain things,” she explains.

But aren’t e-zines just … blogs?

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Bancroft says no. “There’s a lot of room to grow … The emagazine is even newer than blogs. So … rather than eating into the market share, I think the pie will just get bigger. As email magazines become more powerful, marketing agencies and ad agencies will start building them into their budgets.”

She’s truly not worried about the competition. “From our perspective we just want this new type of media to grow. It will benefit all of us,” she says.

Daily Candy isn’t fussed about copycats, certainly.

“I’ve been very aware in the past three to four years of very Daily Candy-like launches,” Levy says. “In a way, I think every city deserves it’s own version. People are always asking me if I’m pissed off about it, and I’m not. I’m not threatened. I view it as flattery.”

Certainly, Track admits that Levy’s work inspired her directly. “I’d always had that desire to start my own business. Some people just have that,” she says. “While I was in New York I became acquainted with Daily Candy. When I returned home, I realized there was a hole in the market for something like that in Toronto. It seemed like the perfect type of business for me.”

Besides being flattered, Levy’s ego has remained intact.

“I think there is something unique about Daily Candy – in its art and its style, and its tone. It’s very intangible, but it’s something I’m very proud of,” she says. “Daily Candy has really got it’s own voice and it’s own identity. And that was something that was really important to me when I started.”

“I was a print journalist beforehand, at NY Magazine and Conde Nast,” Levy explains. “And having been in print, I was incredibly frustrated by lead times. And the Internet is a great way to scoop all other forms of media. You can read about things the day of. The immediacy that the Internet afforded was fascinating to me. And I also felt that the entire world was almost on media overload. I wanted to provide them with something that required very little work on their part. And I couldn’t understand why no one had done it before. I think that’s why Daily Candy survived the dotcom bust.”

As for why e-zines have become so powerful, Levy probably puts it best, saying, “[This medium] doesn’t flash, it doesn’t ding, and doesn’t try to use the internet for anything other than what it’s best for.”

That’s why it works.

A version of this piece published in Dose on July 25, 2005. Clipping below. After a hot start, in the intervening years, ezines sadly and generally went the way of the Dodo. More culture and trend pieces are here.

Published in Dose, July 25, 2005.