Harrowsmith Country Life

Harrowsmith Country Life was a lifestyle magazine geared to countryside or rural living. Originally just called Harrowsmith, it was founded as a back-to-the-land and environmental magazine in the small (Pop. 256) village of Camden East (Ontario, Canada) in 1976 by James M. Lawrence. Within two years, the magazine had over 100,000 subscribers and eventually became Canada's 8th largest magazine and the country's leading magazine read outside of Canada.

In 1988, Lawrence sold Harrowsmith to Canadian media giant, Telemedia, where it remained until 1996. Telemedia launched an American edition, and the words "Country Life" were tacked on to Harrowsmith's title. The American edition reached a paid circulation of 225,000 but was folded as Telemedia began to exit the publishing business, eventually killing or selling all of their properties, including the U.S. and Canadian award-winning titles, New England Monthly and Equinox.

Harrowsmith TV exists as re-runs and Harrowsmith books are no longer published. Some titles, such as the Harrowsmith 3-Volume Cookbook, are available through Amazon and Firefly Books. Telemedia no longer exists, its assets sold, many to Transcontinental Media in 2000.

Editor Tom Cruickshank came on board in 1996, after Telemedia sold Harrowsmith Country Life, and its sister publication Equinox, to its current owner Malcolm Publishing, a small Montreal company. Equinox ceased publishing in 2000, its mailing list sold its arch-rival Canadian Geographic, while Harrowsmith went on to celebrate 30 years of publishing in 2006.

In 2011, the magazine had only published one issue in March and in August 2011 it was announced that Harrowsmith Country Life would cease publication just short of its 35th anniversary issue.^[1]

External links

• Harrowsmith Country Life website

No longer available

References