Sarah Fulford is the 33-year-old editorial boss of Toronto Life magazine, long considered to be somewhat Rosedaleian in its preoccupations.
So what's with the new emphasis on topics near and dear to 20 and 30-somethings?
Ms. Fulford, who replaced the patrician 66-year-old John Macfarlane, a family friend she has known all her life, balks at the suggestion that the legendary magazine under her watch has or will consciously cater to Gen X, Gen Y - or even Gen Debt.
Toronto Life, she insists, has always, and will continue to, serve readers who are passionate about the city - period.
"Demographics, in terms of age, are not part of the agenda," she said recently over a cup of chamomile tea. "What's more important to me than, 'Is this a young person's story or an old person's story?' is, 'Is this an irresistible story?' " ...
Despite the polished veneer, her youth offers the magazine an opportunity to connect with twenty- and thirtysomethings in a way that would have been challenging for her predecessor. "That she's 33 is not insignificant," said Bill Reynolds, a long-time magazine writer and editor who teaches magazine journalism at Ryerson University.
"Toronto Life has done what a lot of women's magazines have done, which is let their readers grow older with them. But at a certain point an editor has to come in and replenish the supply," he said. "I think it's still going to be mainstream culturally, but I think it's going to focus more on what her age group is interested in."
Perusing recent issues of Toronto Life, though, it is tempting to conclude that a shift is under way. The March cover story, "Mortgage Slaves," was about the city's thousands of house-rich, cash-poor young couples struggling to stay financially afloat amid a raging real-estate market. The May issue's "Baby Wars" depicted an exuberant toddler bellied up to a bar with a bottle of milk between a man with a draught and a woman with a martini.