About Beside

Beside

Beside — stylized BESIDE — is a Montreal-based bilingual magazine and media project about nature, the outdoors and sustainable living. Published by BESIDE Media, it explores the relationship between people and the natural world through integrated platforms that include a print magazine, digital content, web series and events. Known for its striking visual identity and its interdisciplinary approach — bringing together writers, photographers, artists and activists — Beside has become one of Quebec's most design-forward independent media projects, with issue 11, "New Times" (2022), earning national design honours from Applied Arts.

Overview

Beside is not just a magazine; it is a media project built around a single idea: celebrating our connection with nature and exploring sustainable living practices through design, architecture and experience. The project works across platforms — the flagship print magazine, digital content, web series and live events — with the aim of inspiring readers to reconnect with nature and adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Its content ranges across the outdoors, adventure, environmental design and architecture, portraiture of people doing remarkable things in nature, and reflections on how humans inhabit the landscape.

The magazine is published in both French and English, reflecting its Montreal roots and its ambition to reach readers across Canada and beyond. BESIDE publishes two magazines and one journal a year, printed in Quebec on 100-per-cent post-consumer Rolland Enviro paper, and its honours include the Art Direction Grand Prix at the Canadian Magazine Awards. Each issue is built around a theme: issue 11, for example, explored humanity's relationship to time, representing the plurality of experiences it evokes through an original typographical approach, the work of a single illustrator across the whole issue, and a varied photographic language combining documentary photography, artistic essays and contemplative imagery. That issue won recognition in the 2022 Applied Arts awards for its entire publication design.

History

Beside Media emerged in Montreal as a project celebrating the connection between people and nature, founded by publisher and co-founder Jean-Daniel Petit and chief creative officer and co-founder Eliane Cadieux. Cadieux, who has described herself as the guardian of the brand's vision, brings more than a decade of experience in communication and design to the project, and has served as a juror for the Applied Arts Design Awards. Petit serves as publisher, and the editorial leadership has included Catherine Métayer as vice-president of media and editor-in-chief.

From the outset, the project distinguished itself by its interdisciplinary approach: rather than treating nature as a beat, it treats it as a lens, bringing together writers, photographers, artists and activists to create a holistic exploration of the relationship between humans and the natural world. The magazine was conceived in both French and English from the start — a bilingual identity that sets it apart from most Quebec outdoor media, which tend to publish in one language only.

As the project matured, it built out its integrated platform: the print magazine as flagship, complemented by digital editorial content, documentary web series, a podcast presence and community events. The chairman of the administrative board has been Jean-François Bouchard, with Nicholas Dumesnil as chief financial director, and a team spanning editorial, design, marketing, partnerships and digital product development. By 2022, with its eleventh issue, Beside had established itself as a fixture of Montreal's independent publishing scene and a regular award-winner in design circles.

Content

The print magazine is organized thematically, with each issue taking a single big idea — time, territory, movement — and examining it through reportage, portraiture, essays, photography and infographics. Issue 11, "New Times" (2022), is the best-documented example: exploring the human invention of time and its eminently subjective experience, the editorial team developed an original typographical approach and showcased one illustrator's work across the entire issue, pairing it with documentary photography, artistic essays and contemplative imagery. The masthead credits for that issue illustrate the scale of the operation: publisher and co-founder Jean-Daniel Petit; VP media and editor-in-chief Catherine Métayer; chief creative officer and co-founder Eliane Cadieux; art director Pier-Philippe Rioux; associate editors-in-chief Mark Mann and Caroline R. Paquette; project manager Catherine Fortin; graphic designer Gabrielle Deronde; editor Casey Beal; infographic designer Steve Desmarais; copy editors Shanti Maharaj and Liette Lemay; fact checker Guillaume Rivest; translators Bronwyn Haslam, Jessica Moore, Nicolas Coutlée and Geneviève Deschamps; printer L'Empreinte.

Beyond the magazine, Beside produces web series and short documentaries — including a film on the work of Duvetnor, the organization that has protected islands of the Bas-Saint-Laurent in the St. Lawrence River since 1979 — and maintains a YouTube channel with nature and adventure videos. The project's tone is contemplative and visually driven rather than instructional: where a traditional outdoor magazine reviews gear and lists trails, Beside meditates on the meaning of wilderness, the aesthetics of landscapes and the ethics of inhabiting them. Stunning visuals and thoughtful storytelling are the signature; the quality of the content, both visual and intellectual, has been credited with captivating and inspiring audiences, while its inclusive and collaborative approach fosters a sense of community and shared purpose among readers.

Coverage & Audience

Beside is a national and, increasingly, international project. Its themes — the outdoors, sustainability, design, architecture — resonate with a growing global consciousness around environmental issues, and its bilingual format gives it reach across French- and English-speaking Canada. The magazine's audience is the culturally engaged, design-conscious reader: people who care about nature not only as recreation but as an aesthetic and ethical proposition. The #BESIDERS community, cultivated through Instagram, Facebook, a newsletter and podcasts, extends the magazine's reach beyond print. Beyond the magazine itself, the project extends into documentary film, podcasting and community events, building the #BESIDERS community around a shared culture of the outdoors and sustainable living.

The project has also been recognized by the design world as a Canadian voice for visual communication: Applied Arts has featured Beside's work in both its inspiration coverage and its awards programme, and its co-founder Eliane Cadieux has served as a juror for the Applied Arts Design Awards. The magazine's printing by L'Empreinte, a Quebec printer, and its Montreal production team root it firmly in Quebec's creative ecosystem.

Ownership

Beside is published by BESIDE Media, a Montreal-based company. The co-founders are Jean-Daniel Petit (publisher) and Eliane Cadieux (chief creative officer). The chairman of the administrative board has been Jean-François Bouchard, and Nicholas Dumesnil has served as chief financial director. The company operates the magazine alongside its digital and events platforms, with a dedicated team for partnerships, communications and marketing, social media, distribution and digital product.

Digital Presence

Beside's digital home is beside.media, the portal for the magazine and the broader project. The site carries digital editorial content alongside the print magazine, and the project is active across the major platforms: Instagram and Facebook as the #BESIDERS community hubs, a newsletter for regular readers, a podcast presence on SoundCloud and iTunes, and a YouTube channel publishing nature and adventure documentaries. The bilingual structure of the content — French and English — is maintained across these platforms. The 2022 Applied Arts award citation lists the project's web address as beside.media and its editorial contact as info@besidemagazine.com, reflecting the magazine's identity as a digital-first as well as print-first operation. For a project whose subject is the natural world, Beside has been notably adept at the digital one: the website, the social feeds and the video series together form an ecosystem in which the magazine is the flagship but not the only vessel for the brand's storytelling.