About Atlantic Business Magazine

Atlantic Business Magazine

Atlantic Business Magazine is a bi-monthly business magazine based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, covering business topics across Atlantic Canada. Founded in 1989, it is one of the last print publications in the region still owned and operated by Atlantic Canadians, and it has built a distinctive model combining magazine publishing with business recognition programs and events.

Overview

The magazine covers business news, leadership, and economic development in Canada's four Atlantic provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. It is published bi-monthly and carries the ISSN 1484-6381. Its website is atlanticbusinessmagazine.ca.

The magazine describes its print edition as a luxury product: printed on Forest Stewardship Council–approved soft-touch matte paper, perfect-bound inside a Sterling Ultra Gloss cover, and designed for maximum tactile appeal. Its media kit claims the longest publishing run (1989–present), the largest circulation (50,000+ print and online readers per issue), and the most awards among Atlantic Canadian business magazines — claims made in its own marketing materials rather than independently audited figures.

History

Atlantic Business Magazine was founded in 1989 by Edwina and Hubert Hutton. The Huttons built the Atlantic Business brand together over more than three decades; a 2024 podcast marking the magazine's 35th anniversary, produced by Acadia News's Don Mills and David Campbell, described them as a dynamic force and dedicated the episode to Edwina Hutton's memory as an outstanding businesswoman following her recent passing. A few years before the anniversary, the Huttons sold the magazine to their daughter Tonia Hutton and long-time employee and editor Dawn Chafe.

The magazine's flagship recognition program, the Top 50 CEO Awards, has been published yearly in May since its launch in 1999. The inaugural issue highlighted business leaders including Robert Zildjian, founder and chairman of Sabian Cymbals. According to the magazine's media kit, the program has since recognized almost 600 individual award winners collectively responsible for generating $1.85 trillion in revenue and creating over a million jobs — figures from the magazine's own materials.

The publication has occasionally made news itself. In 2017 it published an issue dedicated to Atlantic Canadian businesswomen that drew harsh reactions from some readers online; editor Dawn Chafe said she received "incredibly negative and actually shocking comments" directed at her on Twitter following publication, while also receiving positive comments. In 2021 the magazine participated in an initiative with universities across Nova Scotia aimed at drawing more Black and Indigenous students to pursue business education. In 2024 it published a list of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Business.

Content

Each year's editorial calendar is built around signature issues. The flagship Top 50 CEO Awards issue appears in May/June, recognizing Atlantic Canadian corporate leadership. Other annual highlights include the Best of Atlantic Canada Readers' Choice awards (January/February), the Power Issue including the 25 Most Powerful Women (March/April), a Diversity and Inclusion issue including Employers of Diversity (July/August), Resource Development (September/October), and the Innovation Issue including 30 Under 30 Innovators (November/December).

Beyond the magazine, the company has developed into what the 2024 anniversary podcast called "a business network enterprise": its signature business recognition programs and events now contribute about a third of annual revenues. That diversification — events and awards alongside print and digital publishing — is credited with the magazine's resilience as most print publications have struggled with the fragmentation of news coverage and competition for advertising revenue from social media.

Coverage & Audience

Atlantic Business Magazine serves Atlantic Canada's business community: executives, entrepreneurs, professionals, and investors across the four Atlantic provinces. Its media kit claims 50,000+ print and online readers per issue. The magazine positions itself as both a recognized brand for discerning consumers and a valued business resource, with each issue designed for a minimum two-month lifespan — and, in the case of award issues, longevity as a collector's item.

The Top 50 CEO Awards Machine

The Top 50 CEO Awards are far more than an annual issue — they are a full-scale events business. The 27th edition, in 2025, culminated in a celebration at the Halifax Convention Centre: a networking luncheon followed by an evening gala where the year's winners were feted on May 15, 2025. The gala programming included keynote addresses from Chrystia Freeland, then Minister of Transport and Internal Trade, and Dr. Siyabulela Mandela, the great-grandson of Nelson Mandela, alongside a charitable cheque presentation — a sign of how thoroughly the awards have woven themselves into the region's civic fabric.

The winners span every corner of the Atlantic economy and every organizational category. The 2025 class included Tim Petersen of WorkSafeNB and Paul Young of UPEI (Crown corporation/post-secondary), Margaret Melanson of Horizon Health, Carrie Cussons of Events East, and Tia Upshaw (non-profit/industry association), Florian Villaumé of techNL (for-profit, 1–50 employees), and Kendra MacDonald of Canada's Ocean Supercluster, who entered the program's Hall of Fame. Dalhousie University counted sixteen alumni among the 2025 winners — a measure of how deeply the awards track the region's leadership pipeline.

The cycle never really stops. The 2026 awards are scheduled for May 7 in Moncton, New Brunswick, and the program's dedicated website runs year-round coverage of winners, ceremonies, and alumni. The gala format — luncheon, keynote, awards ceremony, charitable giving — has been refined over nearly three decades into the region's premier business recognition event, and the awards themselves carry genuine weight: multiple winners' announcements each year are picked up by local press and institutional communications across the four provinces.

CEO of the Year and the Hall of Fame

Within the Top 50, one title sits above the rest: CEO of the Year. The honour goes to the winner with the highest overall scores across the program's judging categories — corporate governance, organization growth, management, industry leadership, and personal social responsibility — and the recipient is profiled in the magazine's July issue. The recent lineage shows the breadth of the region's economy: Sascha Boulet-Devost of Capture Therapeutics in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, was named CEO of the Year for 2026; John Flewelling of CBCL in Halifax took the 2025 title; and Greg Roberts of MB International Brands was the 2024 honouree. The July CEO of the Year feature has become one of the magazine's most-read editorial products each year.

Longevity earns its own distinction. Five-time Top 50 winners are inducted into the program's Hall of Fame — Kevin Kiley of McInnes Cooper was inducted in 2025, five years after his first win — and the Hall of Fame has fed the magazine's "Legacy Project," which collects contributions and reflections from Hall of Famers on leadership, community building, and the business of the region. The Hall of Fame mechanism gives the awards a memory: winners accumulate, legends compound, and the program's authority grows each cycle.

Ownership

The magazine is owned by Tonia Hutton and Dawn Chafe, who acquired it from founders Edwina and Hubert Hutton. It is one of the last print publications in Atlantic Canada owned and operated by Atlantic Canadians — a point of pride the company emphasizes as regional media ownership has consolidated elsewhere.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website at atlanticbusinessmagazine.ca publishes business news and digital content alongside its print issues. The company's events and awards programs maintain their own digital presence, extending the brand's reach among the region's business community. Its history is documented in its Wikipedia entry, in the Acadia News anniversary podcast, and in the company's media kits.