About Saltscapes

Saltscapes

Overview

Saltscapes is a consumer lifestyle magazine covering Atlantic Canada, published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Metro Guide Publishing, a division of Advocate Printing & Publishing. The magazine describes its mission as celebrating the culture, values and rewards of living on Canada's East Coast, and its pages are devoted to the people, food, homes, landscapes and traditions of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Founded by Jim and Linda Gourlay, whose first edition appeared in 2000, Saltscapes marked its 25th year in 2025 and remains in active publication: its website carried a January/February 2026 issue as its current edition, and new articles were being posted through the summer of 2026. Alongside the print magazine, the brand encompasses a website, a biweekly digital newsletter called the Viewsletter, an online store and the Saltscapes Expo consumer shows held in Halifax.

History

Saltscapes began in 2000, when Jim and Linda Gourlay launched a new magazine devoted to East Coast life. In a publisher's letter marking the 25th anniversary in February 2025, current publisher Crystal Murray recalled that the founding mission was "to celebrate the values, talents, ingenuity, perspective, and legacy of Atlantic Canadians," while also showcasing the region's landscape to travellers. The Gourlays built the title into one of Atlantic Canada's best-known regional magazines; in 2010 the couple were among 14 Canadians to receive the Governor General's Award in Celebration of the Nation's Table at a ceremony at Rideau Hall, recognizing their contribution to Canadian food culture. Over its first two decades the magazine expanded beyond print, adding the Saltscapes Expo consumer shows and the Saltscapes Shoppe online store. In 2018, Saltscapes became part of the Advocate family of companies, when Advocate Printing & Publishing — a Pictou, Nova Scotia company founded in 1891 — acquired the magazine and placed it within its Metro Guide Publishing division. According to the magazine's own account of the change, Jim and Linda Gourlay remained involved after the sale, lending their experience to the Advocate media team. Under Advocate, Saltscapes has continued its regular publishing schedule, reaching its 25th anniversary year in 2025.

Content and Coverage

Saltscapes organizes its editorial around the everyday life of the region. Its long-running departments include Roots & Folks, which profiles Atlantic Canadians and explores heritage and community stories; Kitchen Party, devoted to East Coast cooking and home recipes; Home & Cottage, covering houses, gardens and cottage living; and Living Healthy, which addresses health and wellness from a regional perspective. Travel features take readers across the four Atlantic provinces, from Cape Breton and the Bay of Fundy to Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, and the magazine has a long tradition of food writing, including an annual recipe contest that was already in its tenth year by 2011. Recent online features illustrate the range: a story on wildfire safety during a record-breaking fire season, heritage apple varieties, a Nova Scotia blacksmith working with recycled metal, and seasonal recipes such as a turkey pot pie built around Thanksgiving leftovers. Reader participation is a long-standing part of the formula: beyond the recipe contest, the magazine runs an annual photography contest, judged each autumn with support from sponsors, in which readers submit images of East Coast life and landscapes. The publisher states that Saltscapes appears seven times a year — six regular issues plus an annual Food & Travel Guide — and that subscriptions also include Good Taste, a specialty food publication produced in partnership with Sobeys that has also been distributed free through Sobeys stores in Atlantic Canada. Individual issues follow a seasonal rhythm, beginning with a January/February edition and closing with a November/December edition.

Audience and Reach

Saltscapes is aimed at Atlantic Canadians, at the region's large diaspora of people who have moved away but retain ties to the East Coast, and at visitors drawn to the region. Its audience figures are the publisher's own and should be read as such. In its 2017 media planner, the magazine claimed more than 497,317 readers per issue and combined annual impressions of more than six million across its print and digital properties, and it described a readership in which more than 82 per cent of households were dual-income professional households; no independently audited circulation figure is published. Writing in February 2025, publisher Crystal Murray stated that Saltscapes readers live in 52 countries, a reflection of the East Coast diaspora. The biweekly Viewsletter email newsletter was described in the publisher's 2018 media planner as reaching more than 35,000 subscribers. The brand's in-person reach comes through the Saltscapes Expo, a consumer show the magazine has staged in Halifax for some two decades — at Exhibition Park in the magazine's earlier years and more recently at the Halifax Exhibition Centre — held each spring and fall and bringing together, in the publisher's words, hundreds of East Coast makers, growers, artisans and entrepreneurs. The magazine's journalism has been recognized by its peers: a Saltscapes feature, Jean's story "A Second Chance," about a Fredericton tiny-home community helping people rebuild their lives, received an Award of Merit in the General Feature category at the 45th annual International Regional Media Association (IRMA) Awards in Calgary, and Metro Guide Publishing notes that Saltscapes has won a variety of Atlantic Journalism Awards.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, saltscapes.com, republishes print features and carries web-only material organized by the same department names as the print edition, including Home & Cottage, Roots & Folks, Living Healthy and the Kitchen Party recipe collection. The site was publishing new dated articles throughout 2026 — Home & Cottage stories, for example, appeared in May, June, July and August 2026 — alongside the current-issue promotion for the January/February 2026 edition. Readers can subscribe to the print magazine through the site, sign up for the free biweekly Viewsletter, enter the magazine's contests, and shop at the Saltscapes Shoppe online store. The brand also maintains a social media presence, sharing recipes and stories between issues, and promotes its Saltscapes Expo events online through a dedicated expo site.

Ownership and Organisation

Saltscapes is published by Metro Guide Publishing Ltd. of Halifax, which describes itself as an Advocate company. Advocate Printing & Publishing, headquartered in Pictou, Nova Scotia, was founded in 1891 and, in its own description, operates locations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Maine, with Metro Guide Publishing producing some 25 trade and regional magazines alongside Advocate's community newspapers, flyer distribution, photography and design businesses. Within Metro Guide Publishing, Crystal Murray serves as president of media operations and is listed by Saltscapes as its publisher; Trevor J. Adams is editor-in-chief of Saltscapes Magazine, according to the publisher. Founders Jim and Linda Gourlay continued to be associated with the magazine after the 2018 acquisition, and Jim Gourlay has continued to write for its pages.

Contact and Availability

Saltscapes is published from Metro Guide Publishing's office at 2882 Gottingen Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 3E2. The magazine's subscriber customer care line is the toll-free number 1-877-885-6344, staffed Monday to Friday during Atlantic business hours, and readers can also reach the magazine through the contact and subscription pages at saltscapes.com. Print subscriptions are sold through the website, single issues are available on newsstands in Atlantic Canada, and the magazine can be read online at the same address, where the current issue, recipe archive, contest details and Saltscapes Expo information are posted.