Ascent goes even higher; Shameless needn't be

[Note: This post has been corrected and updated.] For the second time, out of 5 straight nominations, Ascent magazine has won one of Utne magazine's coveted Independent Press Awards. The Montreal-based yoga magazine's win is announced in the just-published January-February issue of Utne. Every year, the staff of the magazine troll through some 1,300 independently published magazines to come up

Why publishers could become tree huggers

While the previous item spoke of an American "greenbuilding" initiative, there is an even more laudable program working quietly and persistently closer to home. That's a 3-year-old lobbying venture that is attempting to wean Canadian magazine (and book) publishers off paper that contains fibre from ancient, old growth and endangered forests.Markets Initiative is a joint project of Greenpeace, the

The greenbuilding of America

If you think that a) there are no new niches and b) no more smart people to spot and take advantage of them, perhaps you'll take heart from the U.S. launch of Green Builder. Working out of Montpelier, Vermont, and having accessed the list of the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) partners John Wagner and a New Mexico builder called Ron Jones, are creating a printed, national trade

Quote, unquote

Anne Moore, Chair and CEO of Time Inc., who submitted to a quizzing by Advertising Age (subscription req'd) about recent cuts of 105 staff positions, including some very senior people:I still believe in the magazine industry. What we do, our core competency, is trusted editing skills. Whether we do it on paper or not remains to be seen, but in an age of too much information, isn’t our core

Is blood thicker than culture?

The aboriginal magazine Spirit ventures onto controversial ground in its current issue (marking two years of publishing), by exploring the question of "out-marriage". It's when Indians marry non-status, white or non-Indian partners. Spirit's publisher, Harmony Rice, says its something that her audience talks about all the time, so it's time the magazine did, too: “It’s a question that we are

How very Canadian

Time Canada has named Mr. Justice John Gomery as its Canadian "Newsmaker of the Year". This seems a very Canadian sort of icon, doesn't it? He was cited for working hard, despite suffering a case of shingles, and because of the impressive scope of his inquiry. But wasn't the scope of his enquiry pretty much determined by his terms of reference when he was appointed? Not to take anything away from

Ooo, look, everybody's out of step except our Paul

BBC News has quoted Maclean's columnist Paul Wells criticizing Prime Minister Paul Martin's statements about the United States. [Paul Wells] says with Mr Martin fighting for re-election after his government was brought down in a vote of no-confidence, he is behaving like a politician with his back to the wall. "He's allowed his worst instincts to come to the fore and he's basically

Walk The Line Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writer/director James Mangold for Walk The Line.

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Two times unlucky

The hip New York magazine Radar has been suspended, according to an article in Newsday. It was launched in 2003, but fizzled for lack of financing. It was revived recently under the protection of Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman, but after three issues the plug has been pulled again. It had a reported or claimed circulation of 150,000. But in U.S. terms that is tiny, and the New York print ad

Free but not a free ride

Free commuter dailies, such as Metro and Dose in Canada, and A.M. New York, Metro, Red Eye, Express and Quick in the U.S. may not be having such a fundamental impact on traditional newspapers as first thought. This, at least, according to a study by Scarborough Research sponsored by the New York Times. Now, of course, the Times would have a significant vested interest in making this case, but the

Standard and Poor's outlook for U.S. mags

Standard and Poor, the rating agency, forecasts that magazine ad pages in the U.S. will post minimal growth in 2006, in the low single-digits, according to an article on the UK-Ireland edition of Yahoo Finance. "Ad pages increased an anemic 0.3% in the first 10 months of 2005, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, as declines in pages for home furnishings, technology, and automotive

Looming deadline for 2005 mag award entries

If you're going to take off Christmas week, that leaves very little time to complete your entries to the National Magazine Awards. Deadline is January 10*. Being magazine people, you tend to start thinking about it at, rather than before the deadline. A good habit to break. *Curiously, the MagAwards said that entries "without exception" would have to be postmarked by January 10. Then they say

The big dogs howl

The impact of the shift to digital publishing is felt most keenly at companies with the most to lose. Yesterday, Time Inc., the world's largest publisher of consumer magazines, laid off 105 mostly business employees and started from the top down, chopping Ad Sales Chief Jack Haire, Time magazine President Ellen Naughton and Richard Atkinson, executive vice-president in charge of Time Inc.'s news

Sounds like fun, huh?

The Western Standard Cruise which ended on Sunday (the participants sailed from Dec. 4 to 11 on the Holland America Line's MS Westerdam) took a knot of about 75 right-thinking people (they had been hoping for 100) on a short jaunt from Nassau, Bahamas to St. Maarten, Tortola and back to Half Moon Bay in Bahamas.Scheduled to entertain the cruisers were speakers including Publisher Ezra Levant,

Move east, think small

The Globe and Mail publishes an online magazine called Report on Small Business and has just announced that it has scooped the Editor-in-Chief of BC Business magazine to run it. Noel Hulsman had been in the top chair at Canada Wide's BC Business for a little more than a year. He has an MA in urban planning from the University of Waterloo and, according to the Globe's internal announcement, went

Awards hatched from Penguin Eggs

Congratulations are in order for the Edmonton-based folk music magazine Penguin Eggs and its editor Roddy Campbell who, with Arthur McGregor from the Ottawa Folklore Centre, launched the Canadian Folk Music Awards. The inaugural awards were made in Ottawa on Saturday (the Winnipeg group Nathan won for best contemporary folk offering and best vocal group for its album Jimson Weed. For other

Murdoch Davis guns for Martin

Murdoch Davis, former editor of the Winnipeg Free Press and now Editor of The Beaver, weighed in on the op ed page of the Toronto Star on Saturday about the proposed handgun ban. Clearly he is not taking his perspectives into genteel retirement at the history magazine. He makes it clear he thinks the handgun ban is a bad idea and son of a bad idea (the gun registry).By the way, the current issue

Ontario mags in the money

There is a great variety in the list of magazines that were tapped for the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) Magazine Fund, announced to recipients November 10. They ranged from trade titles (Collision Repair) to gay titles (Fab) to environmental mags like Alternatives Journal. Successful applicants will receive up to 75 per cent of their total project budget, capped at a maximum of

Memoirs of a Geisha Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Robin Swicord.

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Towell snaps up a French prize

Noted Canadian photographer Larry Towell, whose work has appeared in several Canadian magazines, has won the Prix Nadar in France for his book No Man's Land. It is awarded annually to a book of photography edited in France. To read more, go here.

Naughty and not so nice

Grist magazine, an online environmental magazine from Seattle ("gloom and doom with a sense of humour"), wonders whether people are aware of toxins in their sex toys, specifically polyvinyl chlorides. These are apparently inevitable in anything that is soft and squishy or pliable. You can read more about this here.

Paper pause

HELSINKI (Reuters) - The world's top magazine paper company UPM said it would close a Canadian mill for three months, since exports from the plant to the United States were currently unprofitable. The announcement was made Wednesday, December 7. The Miramichi mill in New Brunswick would close for three months from February 1, 2006 -- the slowest period of the year -- but two sawmills and its

Yes means Know

The first issue of Know is coming out of Victoria in January, intending to make science fun for children between six and nine years old. It's tagline says it's "the science magazine for curious kids".Know magazine editor Adrienne Mason, a biologist and author of 20 books for kids and adults, says children want to know about the science involved in chewing gum and other things sciency. "Young

Bloggin', but no funny business, you hear?

The trade publication Solid Waste and Recycling has just launched a blog by Editor Guy Crittenden. This is a publication (and a job) where the main editorial is about biosolids, so it's serious stuff.And while the blog gives SW&R (if I may take the liberty of calling it that) the opportunity to keep in touch with readers in the spaces between its 6 issues a year, clearly the Editor didn't want to

Bells are broadcasting

A national, English-language specialty television channel called Wedding Bells TV has been licensed by the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission. The decision was made on behalf of a company controlled by the Gagliano family, owners of St. Joseph Communications and St. Joseph Printing. St. Joseph Communications publishes the fat and successful Wedding Bells magazine as well

The display blizzard

Am I alone in thinking that the number of coverlines on some magazines has reached the absolute maximum possible? The current issue of Seventeen has barely a place for the cover subject's nose to poke through. (Not that any Canadian magazines would do this...) Larry Dobrow, who occasionally does commentaries on magazines for Media Post, took off after Seventeen recently:Seventeen seems to think

Robertson vs Globe gets to high court

It only took 10 years, but the suit by writer Heather Robertson against appropriation of her copyright by the Globe and Mail, is finally before the Supreme Court today. See the Creators Copyright Coalition site for more information. It could be weeks or months more before the court hands down a written ruling. This lawsuit is, in effect, a class action on behalf of all freelancers.

But was the breakfast any good?

Our friend Reptile, who blogs the reps' life over here, provides an interesting take on the recent Magazines Canada seminar laudably attempting to make connections between sales people, agencies and advertisers.

Eyes east for Rogers trade books?

Rogers Publishing is, cautiously, considering expanding its trade publishing into the market in China, according to an article in Monday's Globe and Mail by Gordon Robertson. Chief executive officer Brian Segal said Rogers is less interested in consumer publishing and more concentrating on growth possibilities from exporting trade titles to China. “It's underdeveloped. If I was to do anything —

A world of magazines

The Federation of the Independent Periodical Press (FIPP) has published in its Magazine World a review of the kinds of magazines being launched all over the world. As we've said before, FIPP data about the Canadian market is so skewed and inaccurate that one must question anything they do. Still, the story is interesting, as are the many and various new titles. Shown is a new French magazine for

Worth noting and quoting

Amidst the thicket of question marks surrounding last week's Bell Globemedia (BGM) deal, not least of which is what exactly the Toronto Star hopes to get out of its 20% share, comes this curious comment. Geoff Beattie, president of the Thomson family holding company, Woodbridge, which now dominates with 40% of the company was reacting to suggestions that newspapers are being eclipsed by the

Them's fightin' words, mister

"It's hard to imagine a less romantic milieu for a romantic comedy than the Canadian magazine industry." That's how Jason Anderson's Globe and Mail review of Cake begins. The made-in-Canada series stars Heather Graham, Sandra Oh and Taye Diggs. Read it here (subscription req'd)Let's top Mr. Anderson. A less romantic milieu? The Globe's newsroom, for a start.And, by the way, can an entire

View of point

Phrase of the week: strategic inflection point. Which is where the American Press Institute says daily newspapers are at, losing audience and the technological race. They have come up with a plan to deal with this critical juncture, apparently....read about it in Ad Age, which acidly says that it's "a little late".

Great minds think alike....hmmm

When it was announced by Martha Stewart Omnimedia that it was going to launch a new magazine called Blueprint for young people (principally women) starting out in their first homes, there was head-scratching at Time Inc., which was also considering a proposal for a magazine for...well, you guessed it, a magazine called...Blueprint. Seems that former staffers at Real Simple (part of the Time Inc.

Squid and The Whale Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer/director Noah Baumbach.

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50 Plus reports latest financials

The troubled Fifty Plus magazine has announced its first quarter results, for the period ended September 30.Net income for the quarter was $56,919 compared to net income of $36,233 for the comparable quarter last year.Revenues were up $13,986 for the quarter to $210,786 including increased advertising revenues of $23,044. Expenses were down about 4% for the quarter, to $153,867 compared to

New mag for Toronto black community

A new quarterly magazine celebrating the power, lifestyle, interests and influence of black Canadians, Continental African and Carribbean communities in Canada has begun distributing in Toronto. It's called Sway. It's a joint venture of Chioma Productions and Torstar's Metroland Printing and Publishing, which is handling distribution of the 50,000 initial copies. Mostly it is distributed free in

Media Digest download available

The 2005-06 Media Digest from the Canadian Media Directors Council is now available for download in pdf format and for browsing online. It's a useful reference work for current and historical information on magazines and competing media as well as providing some summary data on markets across the country.

Rogers says you had me at Hello!

Rogers Media will be launching a branch plant version of the celebrity title Hello! next fall. It will be a Canadianized version (made so by an editorial staff of 10 about to be hired) with about 60% of the content shared with its international editions. Hello! started in Spain as Hola! and is a huge seller in Great Britain. The UK edition, which sells about 7,000 copies on Canadian newsstands,

Quill & Quire and WHERE

Alilson Jones, the Publisher of Quill & Quire (the library and book industry trade magazine) is taking on new responsibilities as Business Development Director for WHERE Canada, the stable of tourism magazines at St. Joseph Media. To do the new job, she will be giving up sales responsibilities at Quill & Quire.WHERE Canada's various regional arms (Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary) plus

Deeper discounts on subs

Rogers Magazine Service is a division of Rogers Media and every once in a while, it teams up with the Bank of Montreal MasterCard division and makes a special offer on magazine subscriptions -- its own, and others, including U.S. titles from the giants like Hearst, Rodale, Conde Nast and Meredith Corporation. The latest just arrived in the mail with the credit card bill.It's interesting to see

Buy three, give one free

An interesting variant on volume discounting: A magazine in the U.S. called DiversityInc. gives advertisers one, free "pro bono" ad in support of the cause of their choice for every three regular ads they buy on the rate card. Here's a longer story about it from Media Daily News.

When stories are interview-free

Simon Houpt, the New York columnist for the Globe and Mail, writes today (subscription req'd) about the ethics of the "write around", wherein a magazine does a story without an interview being granted by the central subject. Are magazines under some sort of obligation to disclose this? Provided the information is correct and the story a good and entertaining read, what beyond that is the magazine

Organizing freelancers? Maybe. Maybe not

If you haven't had the opportunity to see it, there is some interesting analysis in Julie Crysler's article "Unite the Write?" in the November-December issue of This Magazine. It explores the implications of and impediments to the unionizing of freelance writers. The movement surfaced in August.

The Canadian Utne nominees

It's an honour just to be nominated, they say (and in this case, it's true). There are a number of Canadian titles among the finalists in the Utne magazine Independent Press Awards. These aren't applied for, but selected, from among the 1,300 odd titles that are scanned every year by the magazine's staff. As a result, an Utne nomination is highly prized. The winners in each category will be

Geez keeps the faith

A new quarterly magazine, one with North American ambitions, is due out from its Winnipeg base on December 5. It's called Geez and it promises to anneal political activism to discussions about religion and belief.It sold its first 200 subscriptions by offering them at half price (sorry that offer ended once they reached 200) and it costs $25 a year for 4 issues. Cover price is $7.The magazine's

And that would be a good thing

Martha Stewart Omnimedia is to launch a new magazine this spring called Blueprint, for 30-something first-time homeowners. This, according to Advertising Age.

Election-time, you think?

The Department of Canadian Heritage has announced a major injection of cash ($306.5 million over three years) that will double the appropriation for the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, there is increased support for some significant major performing arts organizations such as the National Arts Centre.

In-flight mags taking off in U.S.

Based on an admittedly self-serving source, one of the U.S.'s major in-flight magazine publishers, Media Post reports that this sector is strengthening and about to pass the US$1 billion mark in advertising sales. (As a comparison, ad sales for Canada's leading in-flight, enRoute, is about $8 million a year.)

Auditor wonders about impacts of Heritage decisions

The Office of the Auditor General yesterday released a report that included a review of the activities of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Most of the emphasis was placed upon governance and accountability issues related to the Canadian Television Fund which Heritage administers.Perhaps of particular interest (but no surprise) to the magazine industry, the report referred to the fact that

The Walrus wins charitable status

The Walrus Foundation, according to a report in today's Globe and Mail has been granted charitable status. This clears the way for it to receive transfers of much-needed cash from the private family Chawkers Foundation. Publisher Ken Alexander is due congratulations for a) his perseverance and b) his faith. Presumably, he will be able to recover some of the reported $2 million in personal assets

Freelancers, unite

Mastheadonline has an update on the creation of the Canadian Freelancer Union, which will apparently hit its stride next year. You can read it here (subscription required*).*If you're interested in Canadian magazines, it's no hardship to become a subscriber to Canada's only magazine trade magazine and/or its website. Fair disclosure: with its November/December issue, I have begun a small column

Magazines we like -- Backbone

In a world of failed and faltering tech magazines, Backbone seems to have found its mojo. The 6-times-a-year magazine, published out of North Vancouver by Publimedia Communications Inc., reaches most of its readers through controlled distribution in the Globe and Mail. (The total circ, according to its December 2004 latest CCAB audit, is 123,000, of which 104,000 approximately are controlled (

Thinking better about crossing the line

Rance Crain, the Editor in Chief of Advertising Age, has an interesting column apologizing for a recent gaffe. The magazine sold an ad page that was a phony Ad Age front page, with headlines that talked about the advertiser in a design that looked a lot like the magazine. Even though the "advertisement" slug was at the top, Crain says, the ad stepped over the invisible and increasingly blurry

A question of perception and value

From Digital Journal.com:Video may have killed the radio star, but the Internet hasn’t yet killed the paperback hero according to a new study by the Canadian Internet Project (CIP).While many believe the growth of the Internet will eventually relegate hard-copy media to the recycling bin, it turns out Internet users put more value on traditional sources of media than non-users do.The study says

We trust he is going first class

Anthony Wilson-Smith, the previous editor of Maclean's, started his new job today as Special Advisor to Moya Greene, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Post.

Are those crocodile tears at newspapers?

An Associated Press story by Seth Sutel dissects the laments and hand-wringing of the U.S. newspaper industry and finds that newspapers are still very (some, very, very) profitable, though revenues are faltering. Hence job cuts and trimming newspaper sizes to try and retain those fat profits as long as possible and buy time to figure out how to get equivalent profits from the internet.

Quote, unquote

I don't have kids yet, but when I do, according to Cookie, if I have enough money, it's going to be a fashionable experience in which I will remain a size six.So says Rachel Lehmann-Haupt in her Magazine Rack review (free sign up required) of the just-launched Cookie magazine in Media Post (see earlier item about this magazine).

Mags on TV: when the magic doesn't work

Coup de Pouce (the French arm of Transcontinental's Canadian Living magazine) has found that the crossover to television can be fraught, according to a recent article in Marketing magazine. Writer Danny Kucharsky contrasted Coup de Pouce's lagging performance in its second venture onto the small screen with the success of such magazine shows branded by Canadian House & Home and Clin d'oeil.

Crash Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writer Bobby Moresco and co-writer/director Paul Haggis.

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Innocence abroad?

On October 31, Liza Frulla, the Minister of Canadian Heritage announced $4.8 million in funding to the Association for the Export of Canadian Books (AECB). The purpose? To help Canadian publishers penetrate international markets by providing $3.9 million in direct assistance for marketing of books, marketing of rights and hiring expertise.The minister noted that books represent 21 % of Canadian

Masthead weighs in

Mastheadonline reports today on the Maclean's party celebrating its 100th, noting that only Ted Rogers and Ken Whyte actually mentioned the magazine during the highly scripted event.

I'm on another line, trying to get dinner

Recipe hounds have yet another way to morph ingredients into meals, courtesy of Chatelaine. They can sign onto a free wireless service that will send a suggested recipe and list of ingredients to their cell phones. No advertising yet, but wait for it. The story was carried in Media in Canada.

Right, n. Not left

This is off topic sinceI can't claim it has anything to do with Canadian magazines, but it's fun, so indulge me. The Editor-in-Chief of The Nation (and, now, its Publisher, too) has compiled the Dictionary of Republicanisms. Here are some of the hundreds of tongue-in-cheek (or knife-in-the-back) definitions, sent in by The Nation's loyal readers. Dick Cheney, n. The greater of two evils [

Grand it's not

It is a truth universally acknowledged that newspapers always think that they can publish magazines. And they're usually wrong, in the process giving a bad name to magazines. They think that newspaper editors can morph painlessly into magazine editors; they think the same old, superficial approach of the newspaper can suffice as long as it's printed and bound expensively.Grand is a terrific name

Gimme shelter...or golf

An analysis by Oxbridge Communications of the past 10 years of listings in its National Directory of U.S. magazines says that there has been a profound shift away from magazines about religion, alternative sexual lifestyles, ethnic cultures, and business--and significantly more magazines about matrimony, the home, golf, and pets. Stating the obvious, the report says that publishers also appear to

Our flop is not part of our particularization

Beleaguered TV Guide in the U.S. has closed its barely-six-month-old Inside TV magazine. That's actually not news, since this has been widely speculated about recently. Inside TV’s last issue will be on newsstands Nov. 17. Gemstar-TV Guide expects it will cost from $2 million to $5 million just to shut it down.Thanks to a friend in the business for pointing out this example of the kinds of

It was quite a party

Maclean's celebrated its 100th anniversary with a gala party at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts on Tuesday evening. There were about 500 seats crowded onto the stage, half filled with current and former Maclean's staffers and executives; about half filled by the most eclectic collection of Canadian muckety-mucks imaginable, a miscellancy of political, business, legal and showbiz

Two more gone at St. Joseph's

More changes at St. Joseph's. Bill Wolch, a senior sales guy and a longtime associate of former St. Joe's President Greg MacNeil, has been laid off. He handled Toronto sales for The Look, the fashion extension of MacNeil's pet project Elm Street that has, so far, outlasted its parent (closed a couple of years ago). And, in a somewhat more surprising move, the longtime assistant to Toronto Life

Celebrity sells

It augurs well for the recently launched Weekly Scoop (out of Torstar) that celebrity titles are soaring in newsstand sales south of the border, according to a story in Media Daily News.

The new Maclean's

The only people Maclean's has to please are a) its current readers, b) its potential new readers and c) the national agencies and advertisers. The only way we'll know if it has achieved liftoff with a), b) and c) is when hard, objective results come in the form of audited circulation numbers and ad page counts. It's redesign (the way it reads and the way it looks) released to the public yesterday

Sneak peek of the week

The indefatigable James Adams of the Globe and Mail today gives readers a sneak preview (in words, not pictures) of the revamped Maclean's which is being unveiled tomorrow at a gala that marks the magazine's 100th anniversary. Adams confirms that there will be 52 pages of editorial rather than 44 in each issue. Plus more, smaller, photographs. Also a rejigged front section that is a review of the

It had to come, unfortunately

It had to come to this. Fairchild Publications, a unit of Conde Nast and the publishers of, among other titles, Women's Wear Daily, Jane, Details and Modern Bride is launching next week a magazine called Cookie which celebrates "the joys of parenthood", but is apparently a lifestyle magazine for parents, featuring goods designed for their children. Sort of Lucky and Cargo for kids, all rolled

Legend Of Zorro Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

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New math at Maclean's

Mastheadonline notes today that in one of his rare columns in the magazine, Maclean's Publisher Ken Whyte this week promises that the new, redesigned magazine will have, at minimum, 50% more stories and 5o% more text PLUS more photographs.Are there going to be more pages, which presupposes more ads? If so, where are all those ads coming from?If not, and the magazine continues to have roughly 45 -

Weekend magazines dwindling

A specialized sub-set of the magazine world is the weekend supplement to newspapers -- more common in U.S. papers than in Canada, but reminiscent of the long-gone Canadian and Weekend in Canadian papers. Those were said to be killed not only by demographic change and cost, but also by the end of the tobacco advertising that were their anchor.Now, even longtime Sunday papers in the U.S. are going

Peering across the digital divide

Joe Mandese, the editor of Media Post, writes in today's Media Digest Daily that not only are subscribers getting used to the idea of digital magazines but those who do subscribe that way are spending considerably less time with the print versions of those magazines.According to a study sponsored by BPA Worldwide, one of the major audit firms, the percentage of digital subscribers who also read

Trendwatch south of the border

For those who gauge the Canadian magazine industry by U.S. trends, it is interesting that in the month of October, U.S. magazines measured by the Publishers Information Bureau were down 2.1%, the third monthly decline in a row. But there were standout increases, too. This information from a more detailed report in Media Daily News.If there was ever evidence for short memories, the stunning

A prize worth winning

It should not be mistaken; The Walrus, even with its financial difficulties, strives to live up to its ambitions and stated mission. Consider the prize being offered for its 2006 writing contents for Canadian poets and writers. The entry fee is nominal, the benefits of winning quite exotic and alluring. This, from the website places for writers:The Walrus Magazine, together with Summer Literary

The B special

Doubtless there will be others, better acquainted and informed, who will eulogize Beland Honderich, who just passed at the age of 86. He was known, during his long tenure as Publisher of the Toronto Star as "B" or, unflatteringly, "the Beast" although no one doubted his power and his commitment to making The Star the best newspaper in Canada. His natural taciturnity was overlaid with restraint

Where shall I go to donate tonight?

This is an idea that more urban magazines might emulate -- Vancouver magazine's Social Datebook, which can be found on their website. It's a listing of philanthropic and fundraising events around the lower mainland. I don't know whether people pick fundraisers at random upon which to bestow their generosity. But the idea that a city magazine rounds up and formats the information seems a very nice

National Post in freefall

Nestled down among the paragraphs reporting on the latest, dismal, results for newspaper circulation, is the stunning fact that the National Post lost 14% of its base in one year according to the latest six-monthly report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That is, the people who pay 50% of full price or more for the paper from Monday to Friday (as opposed to the freebies and near-freebies

Not in our magazine, you don't

Just now catching up to this story, best reported by this item from the website of CBC New Brunswick, about the Irving interests in New Brunswick yanking the magazine Here off the trucks last month because it contained a cover image of a baby being breastfed.The editor, Miriam Christensen, (who had apparently indicated she was about to quit) was fired and an innocuous cartoon replaced the image

Discretion, what discretion?

"I am now 100% certain that The Walrus's future is secured," says Publisher Ken Alexander, according to Antonia Zerbisias's blog for the Toronto Star. Madame Z, as she archly calls herself, interprets this as meaning that Alexander has a commitment from Ottawa that his the Walrus Foundation will be granted desperately needed charitable status, previously denied. But, as one astute observer noted,

Options may make fetching wallpaper

Apparently Maclean's supremo Ken Whyte believed assurances from Hollinger executives that options he held to buy stock were safe, even after he was fired as National Post's Editor in Chief and the whole edifice was crashing around Conrad Black's ears. The Globe today reports that, last June, Whyte sued Hollinger International Inc. in New York to try and recover the $680,000 he says these options

A new template turns one

Warrior magazine celebrates its first anniversary Sunday with a DJ-driven party in Montreal. Warrior (despite a name that conjures up aboriginal manhood) is a 5,000 controlled circ cultural magazine published by Média Guerrier. Besides congratulating them on their first birthday, we can do no better job of describing the magazine than they do themselves:Warrior supersedes the inherently

Who will watch the watchers?

At first, with the stylized maple leaf, I thought it was a promotion for the new Maclean's design, particularly since the ad was on the Maclean's website. But no, it's for a new service called Canada's National Cybertipline (cybertip.ca), whereby you can turn people in for crimes against...we're not sure. Look at the website and draw your own conclusions.The service (?) sprang from Child Find

We're still here, really

The Toronto Star today published the results of a national poll that would seem to confirm what many people in the traditional media think, or desperately wish to think: that far from displacing traditional media like newspapers and magazines, online users actually use them more than those who have so far eluded the internet.

Bye bye back page

The Globe today reports this tidbit, in the midst of a James Adams article about the relaunch gala coming up for Maclean's: the back page column, a staple of the magazine for years, is moving inside as part of the radical new design to be unveiled at the Garth Drabinsky (who dat?) extravaganza on November 15. Paul Wells may have hinted at something to this effect in his blog the other day: Le

Club Sub?

Here's a new wrinkle: a "rewards" system for readers who bring new subscribers. The well-known self-help book Chicken Soup for the Soul in July spawned a new 6-time, 150,000 circ. magazine called...Chicken Soup for the Soul. This according to an item in MediaPost.The publishers, Modern Media LLC, has launched a "rewards program" that gives "shopping points" that can be redeemed from a "

Cosy for the holidays

The Media In Canada headline is certainly provocative: Microsoft gets between the sheets with Chatelaine. The article describes how a "branded section"called the Holiday Helpbook is being co-produced by the Rogers title and the online Microsoft Home magazine, included in the magazine's December issue and promoted on Chatelaine's website. Here's how the publication will look.

Where the boys aren't

A column in the November 7 issue of Business Week explores what is apparently a major or developing trend; the erosion of men's interest in print magazines. Research at Time Inc. indicates that women's interest holds up (6 of the top 10 A list magazines recently picked by Advertising Age are women's service titles) but men's involvement with magazines is eroding. Partly it is attributed to men's

Only kidding; as you were

An earlier post reported that Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was seriously considering breaking the monopoly of magazine distribution. Now, it appears from an article in the Guardian, vigorous lobbying by the magazine industry has convinced the agency to reverse course, or at least soften the impact. (For those who think it is at least unseemly for media companies to campaign against open

Lightbulbs and magazines

These have likely reached some of you via the Internet. But fun for those who may have missed them: Q: How many freelancers does it take to screw in a light bulb?A: No one's sure. The ones who can screw them in, we can't afford, and the ones we CAN afford can't screw in a light bulb. Q: How many production editors does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Only one, but that's going to cost us

No comfort as Statscan confirms cuts

Statistics Canada, in a survey published today about spending in all relevant departments federally, provincially and municipally, confirmed what the magazine industry already knows about -- major spending cuts -- even as overall spending on culture increased slightly.Federal funding for book and periodical publishers declined 11.6% to $162.1 million between 2002-o3 and 2003-o4. This was

Nice, you won't have to change the monogram

The official rebranding of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) to the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) comes next May, but the association is rolling it out already and urging its members to use the new name wherever and whenever.This still doesn't make PWAC a trade union with all that entails, but interestingly it has signed a letter of agreement with the the

Comment about charity status

A surprising number of people read the Globe and Mail, and James Adams's piece on Saturday concerning charitable tax status for magazines. If you were not among them, here is the text (please pardon the abnormally long post): We want your tax dollars: 'Idea magazines' claim they stand little chance against the niche-market glossy. Is charity status the only hope for a good Canadian

Oldies but goodies

An interesting article in the New York Times about the broadening sales clout of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). It's a lesson in cross-marketing and brand development that ought to be taken seriously particularly by agency people who dismiss anyone over 45 as "wrinklies", not worth paying attention to.Long known for its magazine, which has a huge circulation (AARP has an

New kids on the Maclean's block

Lest you think that Maclean's is to be put out by a skeleton crew after more than a dozen senior people were shown the door, Editor-in-Chief Ken Whyte has made a flurry of announcements about people he has hired: Nicholas Köhler as Associate Editor effective November moving over from the National Post where he has lately been a crime reporterCathy Gulli as Assistant Editor effective October

Is Chatelaine crossing the line?

Media in Canada reports that Baxter's Soups has a campaign running in subsequent issues of Chatelaine, complete with perforated stitch-in recipe cards opposite the full-page ads. So far, no big deal. But the interesting phrase that jumped out of the report (bold-face emphasis added) is the following, quoting Ed Weiss, media director at The Brainstorm Group, the Toronto-based agency behind the

New frontiers in magazine promotion

Zoo magazine has run afoul of the British Advertising Standards Authority for its promotional contest to win breast augmentation for some lucky reader's girlfriend. Read more about it here in The Guardian. Zoo, published by Emap, is one of the many "lad" books flourishing in Britain.

The CapeBretoner gives up the struggle

Blair Oake, the publisher of The CapeBretoner magazine, has announced that the magazine will cease publication effective with a final, December 2005 issue. It's a great loss. The magazine has struggled for 13 years to maintain itself as a publication for people who are Cape Bretoners, or wish they were.Advertising was always a problem, particularly given that more than half the audience was

Now Taking Poetry, Short Stories & Nonfiction for LIT 11

Our fall reading period is now open. Please send all poetry, short stories and non-fiction to:

LIT
The New School Writing Program
66 West 12th St., room 508
New York, NY 1001

Poetry: Please send no more than 5 poems or 10 pages of poetry.
Short Stories/Non-Fiction: No more than 25 pages, double spaced.

What's up with Canada Post and People magazine?

The Oct. 17th issue of People magazine on page 155 had an ad for Canada Post's "Ship-in-a-click" service, an ad we haven't seen in most Canadian magazines. True, People delivers a large Canadian circulation. But doesn't it rankle that the postal monopoly supports Time Inc. rather than titles that invest in Canadian content? On the other hand, it provides leverage and an excuse for Canadian

A copy is a copy is a copy...or is it?

For those of us who have accepted as holy writ that paid, subscriber copies are the gold standard for this business, there are now some fairly heavy duty voices that aim to knock us out of our complacency.Take for instance this startling article by consultant Rebecca McPheters in the October 10 Media Industry Newsletter (subscription required). It argues that advertisers (and, by extension,

Promises of just-in-time readership measure

McPheters and Company, a consultancy in the U.S. has announced the development of a new readership service called readership.com. It is said to give advertisers and agencies up-to-the minute measurement of the circulation and readership of the top 200 titles (by circ) in the States.We shall see if such a system is a) more widely applicable, b) picked up by advertisers and agencies (so far only

Canadian Family gets new publisher, editor

This from Media in Canada: Canadian Family adds two The St. Joseph Media family is growing. The media company has named Carina D'Brass Cassidy as publisher and Lisa Murphy as editor-in-chief of its consumer pub, Canadian Family. D'Brass Cassidy was most recently VP of sales and marketing at Avid Media, overseeing sales, sponsorship, and other brand extension projects for titles

Waiting room yuks

Stitches, the humour magazine aimed at doctors, owned and published by trade publisher CLB Media, announced some time ago that it would launch a spinoff, Stitches for Patients. That was due to roll out this summer, but now expected in January.Stitches itself is funny the way Reader's Digest is funny (in a"Life's Like That" and "Humour in Uniform" way) something that's not always to everyone's

Time wasters of the new century

Get back to work!This, quoted from an item in Advertising Age:U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years* reading blogs. About 35 million workers -- one in four people in the labor force -- visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week engaged with them. (*emphasis added)Of course Canadians are so much more sensible.

Nine Lives Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer/director Rodrigo Garcia, Producer Julie Lynn and Actress Kathy Baker.

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Dishing from the newsrooms

A new blog that may bear watching: Dirt. Find it here. The anonymous contributor(s) promise lotsa gossip-mongering, but without the $120 a year tha e-Frank costs. That remains to be seen. Curiously, while the contributors stay behind the curtain, they forbid anonymous comments about their items. (Ed.: Shurely not!)

Premium content given a pass at the Globe

Of possible use to publishers who are wrestling with the "free vs. paid" connundrum about their own website content, consider the experience of the Globe and Mail. Last year it launched its Inside Edition, whereby a lot of web content (columnists, financial stuff) was segregated behind a pay wall. Even subscribers to the print product had to pay. And what was the result? According to a recently

The blue glow lingers longer

If you ever wondered why people have less time to read magazines, it's because of a staggering long-term trend in watching television. Seems a commonplace observation, but we were struck by the following table, courtesy of the Center for Media Research, which shows U.S. household and individual television watching trends since 1950. The average household has the TV on more than 8 hours a day and

They're at the post

Canada Post is offering visitors to its website the opportunity to subscribe to magazines. Not just Canadian magazines mind you. When you go to their site, it links you to individual magazine subscription sites, including dozens of members of Magazines Canada. However, click on the Home and Garden category and the very first magazine that pops up is Architectural Digest, from Conde Nast. Still, a

Oh, THAT Saturday night

There, on the CNN website was the news, just minutes after the announcement was made by St. Joseph Media: Saturday night is dead. Wow, this must be a bigger story that we thought!Turns out the item, with eerie coincidence, is about the wasteland that Saturday night television has become in the United States.

Maclean's goes digital

Maclean's has launched a fully digital edition, which you can apparently try free, from Zinio. It seems to be the only Canadian magazine to have taken the plunge into this online system, which has hitherto been heavily weighted with skin books, car books, hobby books, technology and outdoor. To see the Maclean's offering, go here.

Saturday Night -- was this its ninth life?

St. Joseph Media just killed Saturday Night magazine (October issue at right). Faced with the daunting task of weaning it off its controlled distribution through the dwindling National Post (the contract is coming to an end, anyway) and the extraordinarily expensive and difficult prospect of taking it paid, the company decided to discontinue it. This, despite the valiant efforts of Gary Ross and

The good, the bad and the ogle-y

Matt Haber weighs in on the American Society of Magazine Editors' Top 4o magazine covers of all time in the New York Observer and, for good measure, reveals that there was a selection of the 40 worst covers, too. Nice part is that there are links to the offenders. (Remember, these are all American covers; it is never acknowledged that any other country, Canada, U.K, Australia, the European

Loyalty is in the eye of the terminator

Did Maclean's, which has recently had a major purge of more than a dozen long-serving employees, see the irony in their October 19 cover story about loyalty in the workplace? Apparently not.

The Treasury Board made me do it

Today, a packed roomful of concerned individuals, mostly involved in circulation, gathered at the Courtyard Marriott in Toronto to hear about the impact from the Department of Canadian Heritage's decision to cut Publication Assistance Program (PAP) support November 1.While doubtless there will be a fuller report in Masthead and elsewhere, here are some notes jotted down at the time:Michael J. Fox

But what to you REALLY think, George?

George Lois, the man who launched some of the most memorable and (to use an over-used, but apt word, iconic) Esquire covers of the 1960s, ripped into the industry yesterday with a speech deploring the "boring, adoring, butt-kissing magazine covers" of today. Here is the link to the report in Advertising Age (where you can also download the text of Lois's speech.)Above is one of Lois's best-known

Design can't be left to designers

"This is what judging magazines comes down to. Put any sampling of the great and the good together, feed them proper coffee and posh biscuits and they will soon favour the magazine with the most expensive advertising in it."So says David Hepworth in an amusing piece about magazine design and judging, published October 10 in the Guardian. Hepworth who, in addition to being an author (The Secret

Single copy system to get a workover

Andre Prefontaine of Transcontinental is heading up a Magazines Canada task force about single copy sales in this country, according to a report in today's Mastheadonline. Prefontaine says that the situation needs study in depth, which is probably true, but makes it sound like this has never been done. In fact, an excellent and in-depth report was done in 2003 for Canadian Heritage by Abacus

Product placement: view from the dark side

The Canadian Advertising Research Foundation (CARF) is having a breakfast and morning seminar at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on October 26 on the topic "Product Placement: Is it Worth All the Hype?" For editors and publishers who want to know what advertisers and agency people are thinking (as who doesn't?) this might make an interesting opportunity, though you won't have any change from

The apocryphal guidelines

Real Media Riffs from Media Post (you can subscribe, free, here) reports that there were several clauses that did not make the cut when the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) drafted their just-released advertising guidelines:FAJARDO, PUERTO RICO - OCTOBER 18, 2005--The American Society of Magazine Editors has released revised guidelines for editors and publishers of consumer magazines.

Redrawing the "church and state" line

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), basking in the warmth of the American Magazine Conference in the Puerto Rico sun, have unveiled a revised set of guidelines about advertising. It is something of a 10 Commandments, boiled down from a much longer document that used to be used.Like the old guidelines, however, the new ones call for anything that resembles editorial copy to be

People tops the Ad Age polls

People magazine has been named Magazine of the Year by industry bible Advertising Age. Since no magazines from anywhere other than the United States were considered, it is really the American Magazine of the Year.The Top 5 were as follows: People "For first anticipating, then foreshadowing and these days still flourishing amid a celebrity sector that's beginning to looke downright imperial in

Will there be aftershocks from Kraft move?

Many Canadian magazines, particularly in the women's service category, rely heavily on packaged goods advertising. So there are bound to be tremors caused by reports that Kraft Foods Inc. is restructuring its North American operations and having the company's Canadian business answer directly to its Illinois, U.S. headquarters. The move may have significant implications for pages and dollars.

The game's back, where's the magazine?

Leafs Nation, the magazine of the Maple Leafs hockey team fan club, was custom published until it was suspended when the season was suspended last year. Now that the teams are on the ice, is St. Joseph Media going to bring the magazine back? It was a pet project of Greg MacNeil, who has been gone from St. Joe's for a few months now. Perhaps enthusiasm for the project left the building with him.

A History of Violence Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Josh Olson.

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Moving pages

Siemens Corp. announced at a European trade fair this week that it is only two years away from marketing paper-thin TV screens that could be stitched into high end magazines. Probably only affordable at first for high impact ads in upscale publications, the materials now cost about C$70 a square metre, but that is bound to come down. It would allow moving pictures and flash animations on the page

Hurry up and wait

Mastheadonline reports that Federal Finance Minister John McCallum is "still considering" an appeal by The Walrus of its turn-down for charitable status. Publisher Ken Alexander is keeping mum but says he's hoping for something next week. Reading between the lines of McCallum's spokesman, it would seem the government wouldn't actually change the antiquated, impenetrable charity law, but would

"It's stylish and hip"

The era of the branded feature (as what used to be called advertorial has come to be called) is blossoming, judging by an article in Media in Canada about a deal featured in the current issue of 2 magazine. (You'll remember that 2 was one of the magazines started a couple of years ago with a $75,000 cash injection by the Ontario Media Development Corporation.)2 is for young, hip, urban couples.

Quote unquote

Somewhat off topic, but delicious nonetheless, a profile by Rachel Donadio in the New York Times Book Review of October 9 about Joan Didion (sparked by her new book The Year of Magical Thinking) refers to Didion writing essays for the Saturday Evening Post in the late '60s: "It was a great place to work," she said, since it was about to go bankrupt and "you could do anything."

A collector's item, perhaps?

The unhappy denouement of the startup magazine Zi is reported in today's Mastheadonline. It seems the front end costs were so high that the publisher has decided before the first issue comes out that there is not going to be a second. Proof once again that a business plan is the best investment a new publisher can make -- a proper and conservative analysis would have avoided such a nasty, and

Hope springs eternal

There are a number of magazine categories in which, despite many false starts, there is a perennial belief that the problem is simply not finding the right formula. Canada is a hard place to start certain kinds of titles. Sports is one. Men's fashion is another. As Samuel Johnson said of second marriages, it is a triumph of hope over experience. The impending launch of Sir, as a spinoff from

Waiting Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer/director Rob McKittrick.

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Well, maybe just one more termination...

It can't be entirely a coincidence that, a few days after Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Ken Whyte assured the Maclean's staff that there would be no more terminations, Deputy Art Director Gary Hall was shown the door. Staffers who remain at the magazine will doubtlessly draw their own conclusions about the value of any future assurances that their Publisher makes.It also can't be entirely a

Coming to final arguments

The case of Robertson versus Thomson, the 10-year marathon legal fight fronted by Heather Robertson against the Globe and Mail concerning digital rights to freelance work, comes before the Supreme Court on December 6.Robertson has sent a letter of information and thanks (for their ongoing support) to the Periodical Writers of Canada (PWAC) inviting Ottawa-area writers to attend as spectators.

It hurts more when it's true

Jon Stewart's recent demolition of a panel of magazine industry stuffed shirts in New York was probably deserved. It was reported by Simon Houpt on Monday in the Globe and Mail (regrettably, subscription required).If you have enjoyed the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, like me your recurring question is why anyone would agree to sit down with him or his team given what invariably happens. Didn't it

Shameless plug III

If you are overcome with the desire to start a magazine, start here or click on the link at the right. This is a reminder about a new course called So You Want to Start a Magazine? It's two days at Ryerson University in Toronto heavy on practical tips, tricks and tools to get that new magazine idea started right. Next session is Friday, November 11 and Saturday, November 12 from 9 to 5 each day.

Are you smart and competitive enough?

Another new quarterly lifestyle mag rides out of the west (Calgary) called Zi, due to be launched later this month. It's the creation of a woman from Calgary called Zinat H. Damji. The publisher says she is a Tanzanian-born entrepreneur who was "the first female in Canada to found a non-depository trust company". The magazine's web page is here. The magazine says it is designed to appeal to

Sell my stuff or I'll kill this magazine

At the egghead end of the magazine and advertising business, it is the done thing to talk in every conversation about "accountability", ROI (return on investment) and ROO (return on objective).Most magazine people are too busy putting out good publications and searching out new readership, but there is an intensifying pressure from agencyland for the medium to prove its claims of effectiveness

A miscellany

Things you can learn from reading of the classified ads: Somebody is planning a new, apparently controlled circ, guidebook for theatre-going in Toronto called Evening Out. It says it is going to be distributed in 370 locations across the Greater Toronto area.Vogel Publishing of Edmonton, which has been struggling to diversify away from its successful but doomed Satellite Guide and similar books

Dressy centenary moves uptown

Maclean's magazine's 100th anniversary gala, postponed until November 15, is also changing venue. It was to be at the Windsor Arms Hotel. Now it is to be at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in its Main Stage Theatre at 5040 Yonge Street (what some will remember as the North York Centre for the Performing Arts). The black tie event (!) is a sit-down dinner and "curtain" at 7 p.m. What the curtain

Better than money?

The Department of Canadian Heritage is planning to give more than money to successful applicants for its various support programs for magazines. Under development is a "benchmarking" exercise whereby each applicant will receive tables and graphs that allows comparison with other magazines, other types of magazines. These will be fairly specific analyses of various components of cost and revenue,

Capote Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Dan Futterman.

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St. Joes' team building

St. Joseph Corporation wasn't fooling when it said it was intent on becoming a major player. To do so, it needs the best management and it looks like it is well on its way to achieving this.Two pivotal managers have been appointed at St. Joseph Media, both hired away from Rogers Media Publishing. Andrew Crane has been consulting for the past few months with the Style Group at St. Joe's, after

The race is not always to the swift

A story out of the U.S. today from the Center for Media Reseach shows so-called "blue state" voters were more likely to have high speed internet access got us to thinking. First, the highlights: Eight states had broadband penetration over 35% - all voted for John Kerry in 2004 Eleven states had broadband penetration at or below 20% - all voted for George Bush in 2004 Cumulative

Good news, maybe, we'll see

The implications of today's article in the Globe and Mail about charitable status are far-reaching. The story itself is about the possibility that Revenue Minister John McCallum may loosen or change the regulations to allow foundation status for The Walrus, whose entire financing model hinges on being able to transfer money from one charity to its own (the famous $5 million). That's very good

Eponymous, but anonymous

Interesting that the newish blog from the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (see it here) intends to publish a monthly celebration of member achievements. September's is heavy on kudos for publishing books, being on radio and television, winning awards, teaching courses and so on. But there is very little about achievements in actually writing for magazines. Are magazines not giving

Ted's less than excellent adventure

If anyone was wondering what Ted Byfield, founder of the late Alberta Report, has been doing lately, the news is what he's not doing anymore. According to an item in the Western Standard's so-called Shotgun Blog his Christian History Project, to publish a series of books on the history of Christianity, is being wound up. The last straw, apparently (note the Biblical reference) was when someone

Only room for one in this garden

That sound you heard was a shotgun going off. Gardening Life moves under the sole ownership of St. Joseph Media, effective September 30. It ends an 8-year partnership between St. Joseph (and, before that, Toronto Life Publishing Limited) and House & Home Media (publishers of the hugely successful Canadian House & Home).Gardening Life's unusual partnership came about during a shakeout after a

To the barricades

The industry rumbles into action about PAP as Magazines Canada and the Circulation Management Association (CMC) hold a joint session on October 19 at 9 a.m. at the Toronto Marriott; there, Michael Fox of Rogers, Magazines Canada's postal guru, will brief the crowd on the sordid details of the major increases and impacts facing magazines effective November 1. The cost of $49.95 doubtless includes

Timely circ data: who'd a thunk it?

One of the largest auditing firms, BPA Worldwide, has announced its intention to move to release of at least the "top line" circulation of magazines for each issue, rather than in six-monthly reports as has been done since...forever. According to a report in Media Daily News, advertisers and agencies have long complained that data takes so long to be processed that it is next to useless in

Ten Years of Ricepaper

Ricepaper magazine is celebrating 10 years of publishing, an evolution from a hand-stapled newsletter into a slick and authoritative magazine of Asian Canadian culture. Many magazines with similar roots have flagged and failed over the past decade, but Ricepaper has grown to become one of the leading sources of information about established and emerging Asian Canadian artists, publishing such

Sneak peek at the Beav

We said earlier that The Beaver (never noted for its covers) was going to have a whole new look effective with its 85th anniversary issue, out October 3. Here's a sneak peek of what new Art Director Michel Groleau has wrought:

So we think we've got problems?

In Britain, newspapers and magazines are distributed together to retailers and newsagents, mostly by three large wholesalers. Some 90% of British magazines are sold by single copies or by "standing order" with the corner newsagent.Now, because this distribution system in some way is considered to contravene European Union regulations, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in Britain is considering

Credit where it's due

The magazine industry is quick to complain that newspapers either slothfully or wilfully misreport the issues that affect us. So credit should be given where it is due: today's column by Kate Taylor in the Globe and Mail is as succinct and pointed an explanation about the PAP controversay as you could hope for. (Alas, the Globe charges for online access to its columnists. Search out a hard copy.

More news from the Rogers campus

The redoubtable and excellent Paul Wells, who has a lease on the back page of Maclean's, has taken to defending the changes at his employer and points out in other conversations that more people were poached from the National Post by the previous incumbent, Anthony Wilson-Smith, than the present incumbent, Ken Whyte. He also confirms that Scott Feschuk is going to write a weekly column, and that

The newsstand

I honestly don't know what to say.See Masthead Online today, lead story (the longest I recall them ever publishing online). [Subscription required]Let's just throw it open for discussion. What's everyone think about this?

E-surveys cramped: not enough E-addresses

Many trade publishers, at least in the U.S., have e-mail addresses for fewer than half of their readers, according to an article in Media Business. Many have valid e-mail addresses for only 20 or 30 per cent of their records. This can cause some concerns about validity of results in what is now a headlong trend towards online or e-mail reader surveys. The savings that are possible by online

Murdoch Davis now wears Beaver hat

Perhaps it was summer, perhaps we were not paying attention, perhaps it was Ontario-centricity, but somehow we missed reporting that one of Canada's oldest magazines, The Beaver, has a new Editor.Murdoch Davis, dumped in April as Publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press, is in the chair for the redesign and relaunch of the venerable Winnipeg-based history magazine. (Its redesign is due to be

Fact-checking, some other views

Back in June, the blog carried an item about fact-checking. Recently, it made the rounds of a newsgroup of freelancers in Toronto and at least one of them posted a comment (three months late, as he said) that's worth reading because it argues against fact-checking. Click here or on the head above to read the item and the belated comment.In addition, another correspondent of the newsgroup, a

Looks aren't everything

In June 2002, Maclean's underwent a complete and substantial redesign, under the auspices of then-AD Donna Braggins. Now, it is being redesigned again by the new AD Christine Dewairy. And since the new look is wanted for its 100th anniversary, it explains why the huge black-tie party was pushed back to November. Apparently (despite having 100 years lead time) the anniversary issue was in danger

It ain't what you pay but the way that you read it

How much readers pay for a subscription is a less important indicator of value to an advertiser than how engaged they are with the content (edit and advertising). This said during a high-powered panel in New York, reported by Media Daily News. Rebecca McPheters, president of McPheters and Company, said her company's research showed price did not in fact predict the quality of the reader. Much

Another county heard from

A relatively new blog has been started by the Periodical Writers Association of Canada. It can be reached here. Of interest was the take of some of the freelancers about the sturm und drang in the industry about the cuts in PAP (see earlier items). One writer says: I'm sympathetic with those who ask: why should writers support publishers in their quest for subsidies, when they never bother to let

Tut tut

Lewis Lazare, a columnist at The Chicago Sun-Times described the New Yorker decision last month to publish an entire issue sponsored by one national retail chain, Target, as “the most jaw-dropping collapse of the so-called sacred wall between editorial and advertising in modern magazine history.” The August 22 issue had 18 pages of Target ads He and other critics aren't impressed by the rather

Everybody into the boat

The chattering classes have always dismissed Maclean's as yesterday's magazine, quite unreasonably. It has a large and largely loyal readership. But what the chatterers haven't thought of is Maclean's as a lifeboat, which is what it seems to be for journalists fleeing the floundering (or is that foundering?) National Post.Latest word is that Scott Feschuk, ex Postie, ex PMO speechwriter, is to

PAP flap

In the recent kerphuffle over Publications Assistance Program's funding levels, Heritage's director general of publishing policy and programs Gordon Platt has suggested on Masthead Online [subscription required] that the industry should have known funding percentage decreases were coming in the current fiscal year ... i.e. (as I interpret his comments) that due to the lack of an increase in 2005-

Osprey swoops down and swallows Town

With all the kerfuffle about income trusts, very little of it has seemed to touch magazine publishing so far. But quietly, over the summer, a few quite good magazines were absorbed into the Osprey Media Income Trust, with its purchase of Town Media. Town's longtime President and Publisher, Wayne Narcisco, brought with him into the management fold the following titles: Hamilton Magazine, Biz,

Who's left to put out the magazine?

The continuing Maclean's watch: 17-year veteran Senior Editor Barbara Wickens got her walking papers on Monday. We're losing count of the experienced, senior people who've been shown the door.

Smartmoves (TM) and privacy

Today (Monday, September 12) is the deadline for responses to Canada Post's invitation to Canadian publishers to collaborate in launching a "consumer" magazine tentatively called Smartmoves. It would apparently be a controlled circulation title, sent to everyone who files a change of address with the post office. At the moment, the content can only be speculated upon -- likely to be a highly "

Make that leave permanent

Another casualty at Maclean's. Writer Sharon Doyle Driedger, on leave for the past year to work on a book about the Irish in Canada, was due back at work today. That is, until Publisher Ken Whyte personally called her at home over the weekend and told her not to bother coming in. (The book was sparked by an article she did for the magazine about her Irish neighbourhood in Montreal.) Depending on

But are they read?

It has been reported that Mediamark Research International (MRI) will conduct a series of studies on readership comparing digital magazines with print magazines. It is being done in conjunction with Zinio Systems, a big purveyor of on-screen versions of some major magazines. This is in the U.S. of course, but measured audience and readership methodology is one of those things that must be settled

The pinch in The Walrus wallet

Today's Mastheadonline records rumblings among freelancers about slow/late payments from The Walrus. To his credit, Ken Alexander, the Publisher, give a guarantee that everyone will get paid, eventually. But Mastheadonline notes that, as it always has, the long-term health of The Walrus hinges upon getting charitable status from Canada Revenue Agency.The charitable status is necessary so that

Wasn't there 100 years to get ready?

And, speaking of Maclean's, a cryptic e-mail has been winging about, pushing back the black-tie, by-invitation-only celebration at the Windsor Arms of the magazine's 100th anniversary. It was to be September 30. Now it's November 15. No reason was given. What to make of that?

Buy my magazine, puhleeze!

Early in August we reported a rumour about Maclean's magazine deep-discounting its subs. Then, it was only a rumour. Today, as a freestanding insert in the Globe and Mail, it is a fact:The handsome, 12-page digest-sized FSI makes an offer of 4 issues free, plus 24 issues for $29.95 and 24 bonus issues for no extra cost. The total, including taxes, is $32.05 in Ontario, $34.44 elsewhere.The

Magazine postage bills take it on the chin

Magazines Canada is reeling from a massive slap in the face from the Department of Canadian Heritage. DCH has quietly announced, without consultation and with less than 60 days notice, a huge cut in the Publications Assistance Program contribution to individual magazines. This came right after Magazines Canada had been able to take some comfort from a restoration of some funding to the program

New sales boss at St. Joe's Urban Group

Tracy Miller has been promoted to Director of Sales at the Urban Group of St. Joseph Media. She replaces Associate Publisher Kim Peacock who is leaving to become Publisher, Western Magazines for Transcontinental Media, responsible for Vancouver and Western Living. This is one of the first moves announced by Sharon McAuley, who just started as Vice-President and Group Publisher of the division

Way out west

Another in our sporadic series about Canadian magazines we love. This time, Prairies North.When a magazine is published so far off the beaten track as is Prairies North, it had better be good. And it is. Norquay, Saskatchewan is a village with one restaurant and one magazine about three good hours drive east of Regina. The magazine is published out of an airy, sunny, renovated house in the town,

That fabled wall between church and state

Apparently Don Obe, retired head of the magazine program at Ryerson, is writing a piece for Masthead's back page on the crumbling wall between editorial and advertising, exemplified by the Maclean's deal with Cadillac last spring to "brand" an excerpt from Peter C. Newman's book. (I'm looking forward to Don's usually trenchant prose.)Now, we have a suggestion that -- at least in part -- Kim

One after another after another...

More word on the wholesale changes being made to staff at Maclean's. Senior Editor Rob Sheppard is the latest to be let go. Recruited from the Globe and Mail, Sheppard has been at Canada's national newsmagazine for 8 years and was considered among its most seasoned reporters and craftsmen.Apparently disheartenedby the steady erosion and demoralization of the staff, former Assistant Managing

Stirred, not shaken

Search as we might, we cannot find a Canadian magazine that has its own cocktail. Which seems a shame. It came to us upon learning that Tin House, a hip new literary publication in the U.S. had a custom-made martini designed for it by the Four Seasons in New York (where it can be ordered). Now let's not argue about whether a martini can be anything except gin, vermouth and a garnish. The secret

She was outta there!

Kim Pittaway jumped from the editorship of Chatelaine, apparently, because she felt she was being pushed by Publisher Kerry Mitchell. This from today's Michael Posner article in the Globe and Mail. No notice or severance pay was involved -- she just quit and cleaned out her desk.Her departure was the culmination of a series of exchanges, some written (I'd love to read that e-mail) and some

PAP reprieve

Minister of Canadian Heritage Liza Frulla today announced her department will put off a $4 million reduction in the Publications Assistance Program until 2006 in order "to enable Canadian publishers to complete reconfiguring their business plans in anticipation of the previously announced reductions."The Publications Assistance Program subsidizes the mailing costs of Canadian magazines. So the

Phew, that was quick!

Here, from Antonia Zerbisias's excellent blog at the Toronto Star, is a story we wish we'd reported first: August 30, 2005 Not Miss Chatelaine That weeping and wailing you're hearing in the downtown area is the sound of Chatelaine magazine staffers mourning the sudden ''resignation'' of editor-in-chief Kim Pittaway. Pittaway, a longtime writer and columnist with the women's monthly,

Herding Cats

Word (from mastheadonline.com) that the Communications Workers plan to organize on behalf of freelancers. Good luck to them. Not that there have been many examples of successfully corralling such a ragtag bunch of independents.It should be recalled that the the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) was intended to do just that, from dictating pay scales to providing a contract template

Web shadow looms large for newsweeklies

An interesting question is raised in a recent USA Today report on the declining circ of newsweeklies such as Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report (no mention of Maclean's, of course). In it, Samir Husni (who claims and is granted the title "Mr. Magazine" for reasons that continually evade me) is quoted arguing that the pursuit of website development carries with it the seeds of

Another one bites the dust...

Brian Bergman, a 16-year veteran of Maclean's, is gone from the magazine's Calgary bureau.

Outlook index

A hopeful student asked the other day what I thought were the prospects for someone coming into the magazine business. She wasn't asking if she'd get rich, only if she had a reasonable shot at making a career and a living. I realized that I didn't have a very good handle on the attitudes of people working in the business so perhaps we should start trying to nail down an outlook or expectations

Thumbsucker Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer/director Mike Mills and actors Lou Taylor Pucci, Kelli Garner and Vincent D'Onofrio

Not Currently Available

Post-less delivery

Interesting that the Guardian Weekly, whose Canadian edition is printed in Montreal and fulfilled under contract by Time Canada, should be informing its Ontario customers that -- where possible -- it will be abandoning Canada Post for its delivery and using a private service. It does not say what that is, but it is likely the same contractors who deliver the Globe and Mail. Consideration of

Bully for us

In all the newspaper blather and commentary about the North American Free Trade Agreement and how awful those mean Americans are to us and how we ought to stand up for ourselves and punch that bully right back, magazine people with even a moderately long memory may wish to remind the nation what happens when you even think of sticking up for yourself.The so-called Canada-U.S. Agreement on

Stretching the shoestring -- The New Quarterly

As another in our irregular series about little magazines we love, we present The New Quarterly.Started more than 20 years ago with $3,000 ($1,000 donated by each of Edna Staebler, Farley Mowat and Harold Horwood), The New Quarterly has had the usual ups and downs of a small literary magazine. But it has always enjoyed the loyalty and help of its friends, particularly the original Editor, Peter

New Art Director for Maclean's

This just in: the new art director of Maclean's is Christine Dewairy, being brought over from the National Post where she was art director and fashion editor for Post Fashion. She steps into the job lately held by Donna Braggins, let go recently by Editor and Publisher Ken Whyte. Whyte told his staff: "Christine has an excellent eye and good judgment and I'm sure she will be a great fit with our

Reading the tea leaves...

A friend recently pointed out an interesting sentence in the press release by St. Joe's Chairman Tony Gagliano, announcing Donna Clark's hire. Boldface added:St. Joseph Media recently moved into state-of-the-art offices in the Queen Richmond Centre. From there, it is focusing on enhancing existing brands and launching and/or acquiring new ones; creating dynamic online brands; and funding

St. Joe's hires the A team

St. Joseph Media has hired Donna Clark to be its President. She starts September 12. Clark, it will be easily remembered,was with Rogers Media where she was responsible for the women's services division including Chatelaine, Flare, and Today's Parent and associated websites.She and Paul Jones were both shown the door at Rogers earlier this year, despite being two of the most senior and

The product placement rot sets in seriously

An article in AdAge reports that Black Book, a quirky, but seriously contending U.S. lifestyle mag, recently crossed -- nay leapt -- across the church/state line with an editorial item about a band that had featured in a Hummer commercial, with the edit featuring the Hummer in the display. (To read the whole story, click on the heading of this item.)“There was and is absolutely no quid pro quo,”

Fibs from FIPP

Noticed in a recent browse, looking for something else, that Canadian Heritage swallows the World Magazine Trends data from the Federation of the Interational Periodical Press hook, line and sinker. It publishes a table under the heading "Fascinating Facts" that shows Canadian magazine adspend share at 6.8% compared with U.S. share of 11.8%. All of which is based on FIPPs database which somehow

U.S. Biz mags to make statement on placement

An article in Folio: reports that the American Society of Business Publishing Editors (ASBPE) is drafting a new guideline on product placement in editorial. We shouldn't hold out much hope for a ringing declaration, since past ASBPE efforts at guidelines have been notably mealy-mouthed. But it is an indication about how seriously the softening of the church and state line has become that they are

Fast company

Media Post has published the results of an international study about broadband use by country. This is a subject that many magazines are -- or should -- be interested in, since broadband users tend to be the largest users of magazine websites.The story is interesting because, for once, Canada is leagues (54%!) ahead of the United States. BroadbandSubscriber Penetration Korea 24.9%

Fantastic Four Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writer Mark Frost

Not Currently Available

Playing the game

I guess it's just doing what everyone else does, but doesn't it seem a bit cheesy for Magazines Canada to try and kite the vote on a spurious Globe and Mail online poll? The poll question asks if the respondents were advertisers, which medium would they use to be most effective. Not only are such online polls just plain stupid, they are made more stupid by such write-in campaigns, although I

Yeah, we heard that too

Mastheadonline today published news of the lawsuit by Saltscapes magazine against the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, (habitues of this blog had this July 27). New to us, however, was that the suit has galvanized several magazines to band together with Saltscapes as the Nova Scotia Magazine Association.

Is old news better than no news?

A reliance on syndicated material from the U.S. and Britain is commonplace in newspapers, but occasionally it leads them to publish breathless features that a) are old news and b) give no local angle at all. Case in point is today's Globe and Mail business section feature from the New York Times syndicate about the "value added" gimmicks that magazines are using to lure advertisers. The huge

Customers at any price?

Has anyone out there received a direct mail offer for Maclean's that effectively means it is being sold to some subscribers for 57 cents a copy? If so, it is the lowest rate ever having been charged for the magazine. Its usual and published rate is 56 issues (52 + 4 free) for $55.08 or 98 cents an issue. In the past it has offered the magazine for as low as 78 cents an issue as an incentive for

His money is where his mouth is: a class act

Paul Jones is a class act, and his thank you note in the current issue of Masthead is proof. He took out an ad to thank his friends and supporters in the industry for the honour of receiving the Outstanding Achievement award at the recent National Magazine Awards in Toronto. It is worth noting whom he thanked (including wife Rona Maynard, his son, and longtime Maclean Hunter and Rogers colleague

The Island Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

Not Currently Available

Our First Podcast is up!

Folks -

Without further delay - look above - and you'll find our first ever Podcast which features The Island Q&A we did with co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. In our interview they talk about breaking into TV with Sam Raimi, writing for JJ Abrams on Alias and Mission Impossible 3, working with Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks on The Island and next summer's tentative film The Transformers.

Not sure what a podcast is?

Think - Ham Radio mixed with drunken CB radio, but as a downloadable file on your computer.

Don't have an Ipod? No worries.

You can still listen to these shows for free on your regular computer desktop, through your computer speakers. Of course, if you do have an Ipod, you can transfer the file to your Ipod and then take it with ya wherever you go.

While there's a ton of ways to listen to a podcast - here's the easiest Eight Step process:

1. Download the LATEST version of the program, Itunes (version 4.9) for FREE (on Mac or PC) at:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

---you must use version 4.9 since the Podcasting features described below can only be found in that version.

2. Follow the easy directions to install Itunes 4.9

3. Open Itunes 4.9

4. Click on the purple button toward the top of your left menu which reads: Podcasts

5. In the bottom of the new page that opens - click on the circle with the arrow for: Podcast Directory

6. The Itunes window will take you to the Podcast section of the Apple Music store and in the blank search window toward the bottom left - type in Creative Screenwriting Magazine - and you'll be taken to a new page.

7. This is the homepage section for our podcast and here you should click the grey Subscribe button toward the upper center of the window to subscribe for free to this Podcast.

By subscribing you will automatically begin downloading our most recent Podcast and then have the option to download others as they appear, so don't forget to check back from time to time by re-opening that first podcast window you did in step 4- since once you subscribe - our new casts will appear ready for download in that window.

This is about a 20 megabyte file and could take up to three or so minutes to download on a DSL or Cable Modem connection.

8. Press play to begin listening to it on your computer!

Or if you have an Ipod that can accept a podcast - transfer the file over to your Ipod and listen to it on the go. You can do this manually (by dragging the file into your library then onto your Ipod) or by synching your Ipod.

Our first Podcast is of the Q&A that followed our screening of The Island and is with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. During our conversation they discuss; working with Spielberg, JJ Abrams (on Alias and MI-3), Michael Bay, and of course their process for re-writing The Island. The sound begins slightly muffled and then fixes itself - so enjoy!

COMING SOON - possibly later this week - so don't forget to check - we will upload podcasts of co-writer Mark Frost discussing Fantastic Four and a podcast of our Four Brothers Q&A with co-writers David Elliot and Paul Lovett - with many more to come!

Drop us a line and let us know what you think?

Write to us at: rsvp@creativescreenwriting.com

Thanks for listening!

Jeff Goldsmith
Senior Editor
Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Some of us are outa here...maybe

The Western Standard, a handsome, idiosyncratic and feisty publication tried to make news this week by publishing its own poll that says that 36% of westerners consider separatism an option. Of course that means that 64% think it's not. But it still makes for entertaining and stimulating reading, particularly the magazine's weblog called, somewhat ominously, The Shotgun. The Standard's publisher

First project: proofreading

The just-released guidelines for the Ontario Media Development Corporation's Magazine Fund (previously Volume Two, son of Volume One) contain an error. The deadline at the top of the information form says September 30. The deadline for applications at the end of the information form says September 9. The application form itself says September 30.

Pressure for placement

High end advertisers are starting to push for product placement on magazine spreads and covers south of the border. According to an article in AdAge, Lexus is openly asking for exposure for its pricey automobiles. It's not clear yet whether this is a straight payment option or whether the advertiser is making it a condition of signing a contract; perhaps a little of each.Deborah Wahl Meyer, Lexus

Suppose they couldn't call it Star Weekly, eh?

Another weekly magazine? This week the Toronto Star announced that it was going to launch the Weekly Scoop, a star-struck newsstand celebrity title (gawd knows, we don't have enough of those) starting October 3.The Star's track record at producing publications other than the daily has not been stellar; eye is a perennial also ran (though it allows Torstar to keep its dignity and somehow still

Integrated advertising -- is THAT what you call it?

Media in Canada, a website run by Strategy magazine, published the following item in recent days: 2 Magazine takes ad integration to new level by Paula Costello Due to popular demand, Toronto-based book 2: The Magazine for Couples is expanding its integrated advertising opportunities. The pub, which celebrates its first anniversary with its summer issue due on newsstands this week,

We're Podcasting!

Howdy Folks,

Welcome to the Creative Screenwriting Magazine blog page which will begin to include PODCASTS from our screening series!
Don't have an Ipod? Don't worry? You can download Itunes for FREE as an MP3 player from http://www.apple.com/itunes/ and you can then begin listening to us in Itunes on your computer.

The Creative Screenwriting Magazine screening series is entering its third year and is hosted in Los Angeles, CA. It's a popular event in which we show a film and then have the writer(s) and director come down for a chat afterwards. The first part of the Q&A is moderated and then we open it up to the crowd for questions. You can sign up for free to join us live at one of our screenings at www.creativescreenwriting.com - just look for the signup box on the right hand side of the page.

Please check back here soon - as we hope to continue updating our podcasts by digging through some of our older/popular screenings from the last few years.

Bear with us - as we're just getting our feet wet - so sometimes the sound won't be as perfect as we want it - but it still will transport you into the room as if you were with us at the screening to hear what our guests have to say.

Thanks for checking us out!

Jeff Goldsmith
Senior Editor / Screening Series Director
Creative Screenwriting Magazine

Fighting the good fight

Up against a government monopoly, Saltscapes magazine, published out of Dartmouth, is suing the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission for stealing its idea for a new food, drink and lifestyle magazine. Jim and Linda Gourlay, the co-publishers, set out the facts in the "publishers pencil" column in the magazine's July/August issue (the one with the handsome Atlantic puffin on the cover).Saltscapes

How the mighty have fallen -- TV Guide retrenches

According to the Associated Press, TV Guide in the U.S. is effectively getting out of the listings business, cutting its guaranteed circulation by two-thirds and relaunching in a larger format with an emphasis on lifestyle and entertainment. The new format will launch October 17, with just 25% listings (currently it is 75%).There is no indication what impact this will have on the Canadian edition

Meteoric rise

Announced today that Sharon McAuley will join St. Joseph Media as V.P. Group Publisher of Toronto Life and Saturday Night, at the end of August. Few in the Canadian magazine industry can have had such a steep career curve. Not so long ago she was publishing the tiny affairs of Quill & Quire. Now she is charged with the -- some would say unenviable -- task of revitalizing Saturday Night magazine,

Stamp of disapproval

The recent flurry of releases from Magazines Canada (formerly the CMPA) concerning postal rates and the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) is taking a new, tougher attitude and a more public stance towards the issues. Previously, CMPA releases were long, technical and somewhat mealy-mouthed and most grumbling took place behind closed doors. Now a spade is being called a goddam shovel, although

Texting and the young and single

In most of the discussion about the relationship between magazines and various kinds of new media and technology, texting hasn't figured very much. Magazines seem much more concerned about "monetizing" their websites and making them effective sub-generators, but they may be missing a bet.Instant messaging is still the preferred means of communication for youth, but recent research demonstrates

In-house sub fulfillment software for tiny magazines

DB Scott is on vacation and I told him I'd try to think of something exciting to say in his absence, but I've only now found something exciting to say:For any small-maggers who aren't already familiar with the CLMP database template for subscription fulfillment, AND for any other small-maggers who knew of its existence, I've just heard that a new version has just been released.As before, it's a

Selling product placement

Editors on the a recent panel in New York about product placement in magazines bristled at the very notion. "I don't believe if you blur the line between editorial and advertising it makes either one better. It just makes them blurry," said Martha Nelson, Managing Editor of People. But MindShare Senior Partner-Group Media Director Debbie Solomon, moderator of the panel, cited consumer research

Not everybody believes in fact-checking

An old friend (chronologically and actually) took a strip off recently about fact checking. From the perspective of this experienced writer, poet, essayist, and frequent travel writer, the function of a fact-checker at a magazine is redundant or counter-productive. He also thinks it's insulting. He is not alone.It's not always clear why some people see fact checkers as problems rather than

Zinio: Digital editions ... boring? thrilling?

OK, folks, whaddaya think? Pretend, just for a moment, that you're a consumer [grin].How many of us would really want to read full-scale magazines entirely online? Am I just a neo-luddite -- are digital magazines the wave of the future? Check this out:http://img.zinio.com/corporate/preview_now.htmlI can certainly understand subscribing to brief newsletters on subjects of interest to people's

Remaking Maclean's in his own image

The Ken Whyte stamp is being well and truly put on Maclean's with the severance of virtually his entire senior editorial management: longtime Executive Editors Michael Benedict and Bob Levin and Art Director Donna Braggins. The terminations were effective close of business on Tuesday.Levin, characterized by former Editor Anthony (Tony Two Names) Wilson-Smith as someone who is "exacting,

Now THAT'S missing a deadline!

Cartographica is one among the many specialist journals published by the University of Toronto Press. And included in a notification about a new editorial team taking over (with thanks to the previous editor) is the following notice:Although there have been a number of efforts to bring the journal's publishing schedule up to date, this is very difficult in the face of such a severe delay, and

No more paper?

A small storm seems to have blown up towards the academic edge of the Canadian magazine publishing industry as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is said to be on the verge of adopting a policy to restrict its financial support to only those journals which publish electronically. Many small, specialized journals depend upon SSHRC grants for their very existence.Last year,

Core values

How's the Canadian magazine business doing? On the surface, it looks good, with revenue and profits up in the most recent Statistics Canada data (2003-04). But we've been drilling down a bit to make some comparisons over time and it's a lot more sobering than initial impressions.Using Statscan's own data, albeit with more titles captured in the recent research than early in the '90s, it is

Winning ways

The choice of maisonneuve as winner of the President's Medal at the National Magazine Awards on Friday night was very well received, although there was an awkward pause as the Publisher/Editor Derek Webster had to be fetched from outside the room. (A continuing problem for the awards is that up to 1/3 of the crowd bail before the presentation is complete.)There was, as usual, some grumbling among

More books, but profit? That's another thing

Over the past five years, according to the new 2003-04 Statscan data, there have been about 357 net new magazines of all kinds. 72% are under 50,000 circulation per issue 28% are less than 20,000 11% less than 5,000 2003-04 <5,000 5,000 – 19,999 20,000 – 49,999 50,000 – 99,999 100k+ All Profit 589 465

More mags, fewer profits, more part-timers

Here are some early highlights from an analysis of the just-published 2003-2004 data from Statistics Canada about the Canadian Periodical industry. (Comparisons are with the 1998-99 data and are for consumer magazines only.) The total number of reporting magazines went up from 860 to 1,085 (+26%) Advertising sales went up 30% Single copy sales went up 32% Subscription sales declined by

You can't get that up there

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, has been through some rough times recently, batted from pillar to post by Primedia, who then sold it to Red 7 Media LLC. Now, suddenly, this expensive trade book is being offered free to the first x thousand who respond, according to an e-mail sent to subscribers. In other words, converting from paid to request. One catch: if you're from Canada, this

Online subscription sales

So has anyone else out there noticed what's going on with http://www.amazon.com in the USA? It doesn't seem to be happening in Canada, but it IS happening to Canadian magazines:In the menu on the left-hand side of the amazon.com page, follow the link to "Magazine Subscriptions". In the search box at the top of the page, enter the name of your magazine and click "Go".Interestingly, they're

Currents under the surface

The usual frenzy is about as Magazines Week is upon us. Mags U at the Old Mill in Toronto is the place where magazine people work on their upper thighs traipsing upstairs and down in search of the room for their seminars. The trade show is where everyone practices eye-avoidance, as near-desperate vendors and exhibitors try to snag passersby who are only passing through in a search for a cup of

A new style magazine for politics

An interesting items in the Guardian Media site is this from Stephen Armstrong, about a relatively new British magazine (started August 2004) that gets at politics through a very stylish back door. Any young Canadian editors looking for an interesting model? Lurking at the back of a Clerkenwell workshop is the office of London's latest style mag Diplo. Just like its hipster rivals Good For

The cheapest of shots

David Zimmer's back page comments about the National Magazine Awards in Masthead's June issue is as mean-spirited a piece as has come along in some time. It think it is meant to be witty. But it is ill-informed and shockingly rude towards one individual who does not deserve it.There are lots of ways that Zimmer could have attacked the MagAwards, but it is the cheapest of cheap shots to attack

We'll believe it when we see it

Statscan has had to delay, again, for the third time, its release of Canadian periodical publishing data. Date now is June 8.

Worth quoting

"People don't watch TV. They don't listen to radio. And they don't read magazines. What do they do? They make personal choices. I don't think you sit there and think, 'I have an hour to kill, I think I'll spend it with print.'" -- Dave DeSocio, media strategist, OMD.

LIFE takes a dive

Now I'm not one to pine for the good old days; a lot of today's magazines are leagues ahead of yesterday's titles. But I except LIFE magazine, which always set a standard for excellence that is really unmatched today. Until its demise a few years ago, it presented lavish, involving photographic spreads in a way that cannot be replicated by TV. But die it did. Only to be ripped from the ground and

LIT 10 is now available

LIT 10 contains poetry and prose by Amy Allara * K. E. Allen * Jonathan Ames * Neil Azevedo * Andrea Baker * Eric Baus * Mark Bibbins * Sherwin Bitsui * Malachi Black * Ana Bozicevic-Bowling * Oni Buchanan * Erin Burke * Dan Chiasson * Billy Collins * Joshua Corey * Justin Courter * Laura Cronk * Christina Davis * Jordan Davis * Ceri Eagling * Thomas Sayers Ellis * Landis Everson * Emily Farranto * Miranda Field * Ryan Flaherty * Joseph Freda * David Gates * Adam Golaski * Justin Goldberg * Paul Guest * David Hajdu * Anthony Hawley * Bob Hicok * Cathy Park Hong * Lauren Ireland * Major Jackson * Shelley Jackson * Tennessee Jones * Ilya Kaminsky * Valeri Kiesig * August Kleinzahler * Mark Lamoureux * Adrian Matejka * James Meetze * Chelsea Minnis * Marie Mutsuki Mockett * K. Silem Mohammad * Honor Moore * Chris Murray * Joshua Poteat * Chris Pusateri * Matt Rasmussen * Stephen Ratcliffe * Srikanth Reddy * Spencer Reece * Elizabeth Scanlon * Melita Schaum * John Schertzer * Zachary Schomburg * Patrick Somerville * Dorothea Tanning * Hannah Tinti * Tony Towle * Catherine Turner * Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon * Sally Van Doren * Jonathan Weinert * Emma Wunsch * Stephanie Young * Matt Zambito * Cover art by John Evans * Six drawings by Elizabeth Zechel

Bookstores may order LIT from our distributor Bernhard Deboer. Individuals and institutions may order single copies or subscribe by sending a check or money order to the address below:

LIT
Writing Program
New School University
66 West 12th Street, Room 514
New York, NY 10011

$8 single issue
$14 one-year subscription (2 issues)
$25 two-year subscription (4 issues)

Queries to LIT at new school dot edu.

LIT 10 MASTHEAD

Shanna Compton & Justin Marks, Editors
Joseph Housley, Poetry Editor
Geoff Kirsch & Danielle Winterton, Prose Editors
Meridith Rohana, Managing Editor
Dan Hoy, Associate Poetry Editor
Mark Bibbins & Kathleen Ossip, Editors at Large
David Lehman, Robert Polito & Jackson Taylor, Faculty Advisors

The longer view

The recently published Top 50 list by revenue for 2004, compiled by Masthead magazine from various sources, indicates that the industry is doing well, with 4% overall growth. There are some standout performances such as Canadian Geographic, up 22% in revenue over last year, Inside Entertainment (19%), Today's Parent (18%), Outdoor Canada (16%) and Canadian House and Home (12%).We looked at the

Circle this date, we mean it

There is a trendy development in wedding invitations -- the pre-invitation postcard, asking the recipient to reserve the date with a formal invitation to follow. Pre-invitation invitations may be thought of as giving "insider" status; you are so important, and so busy, that the inviters wanted to make sure that you'll have room in your daybook.The same trend has now apparently flopped over into

It's an honour just to be nominated...

Looking forward to the forthcoming discussion the Masthead about why prize money has shrunk in the National Magazine Awards. Well, duh. It's because the NMAF has a devil of a time getting industry heavyweights to support the event.On morning of June 8, a distinguished panel at Mags U will try to get a grip on what it takes to win a National Magazine Award. Not to prejudge the outcome, but we'd

First birthday for spunky left coast magazine

It started out with a funereal cover showing a drawer in a morgue (see above), but things must be looking up for the Vancouver Review after surviving a year in a tough market (regional, cultural publications) as evinced by its sunny current cover.(Check out the the magazine's website by

Little mags we like

Occasionally, we like to promote magazines and independent magazine publishers that, while well known locally, or regionally, don't travel well (or at least their reputation doesn't).DvL Publishing of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, is a remarkable success story. Grown over 30 years, it now publishes five titles: Rural Delivery (the flagship); Atlantic Forestry; Horse & Pony; Atlantic Beef; and Pets

Trend watch

Five shopping magazines, five shelter magazines, four fashion magazines, 16 magazines targeting women, 12 aimed at males, eight targeting the affluent market; these were among the 75 new magazines launched in the last quarter in the United States, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. Many of the titles were line extensions of existing magazines. Here's what some of the larger

Strike two

The Teamsters's strike at ProLogix is beginning to bite. Overheard near a small grocery store newsstand in Cambridge: "The magazines haven't come in, we won't see them 'til Friday, if then. They're on strike, you know." Oh, dear.Since most magazines can't change their publication schedules and since 75% of a magazine's sales come in the first two weeks after its issue's on-sale date, this is not

National Magazine Awards nominations

Click on the headline to go direct to the National Magazine Awards Foundation website and see the 2005 nominees. The winners will be announced June 10 in Toronto.Nice to see that the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement will be given to Paul Jones, until recently the Publisher of Maclean's, Executive Vice-President of the News and Business Group at Rogers and one of the stalwarts of the

Food and Dreck

Today's Globe and Mail Review section has finally caught up to a month-old story: the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association criticism of Food and Drink magazine. In this weblog (passim), we have talked about the issue. How the Liquor Control Board of Ontario uses the glossy controlled mag as a marketing device, paying roughly $5 million to publish a free magazine that brings in about $3

Northern exposure

Utne magazine's May-June issue contains a glowing article by Associate Editor Leif Utne called Maple Leaf Rags, celebrating the boom in indie magazines in Toronto. It trumpeted successes such as The Walrus (repeating the overblown claim of 50,000 paid circulation) and misspelled Maclean's as McLean's. But it's nice to be noticed.

Hurry up and wait

After five years, what's another month? Statscan says the data on all Canadian magazines, due out April 26, will now be published May 26. Reason given: delays in checking and translating the data.

All your distribution eggs in one basket

The 81 unionized workers who have struck ProLogix Distribution Services have proven the old adage that it is dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket. ProLogix is the heavy lifting part of the magazine distribution system in central Canada. And, according to Mastheadonline, Teamsters Canada Local Union 419 president Tom Fraser says his members rejected the company’s contract offer on April

A whole different kind of cover story

If there was ever any question about the place of Glow in the panoply of real magazines, the book published by Shopper's Drug Mart out of Rogers Media pretty much answers with its current contest to have consumers select the cover image for the magazine.The controlled magazine, which is not sold by subscription but is for sale on select newsstands, has essentially sold its cover image to one of

Bullish on China

Here, thanks to a report on the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) website, is some useful intelligence for any Canadian publishers who might want to launch into the China market.Jeff Sprafkin, CEO Media Pacific Limited, who has twenty years media experience in China, told a recent MPA Breakfast Forum he expects between 30% and 50% growth in ad spend for major magazine categories. there

Kid stuff

There's a new kid's book on the block and it looks like fun. Aimed at 7 - 11 year olds, and published by Canada's National History Society, Kayak: Canada's History Magazine for Kids is short on ads (not the idea, mind you) but long on corny kids' comedy and the most soft-pedalled sort of instruction. [Click on the headline to go to the Kayak website.]CNHS also publishes a history magazine for

Ten points of IQ

No comment necessary:From an article by Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 22 Apr 2005 Researchers at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry have found that the constant distractions of email and texting are more harmful to performance than cannabis. Those distracted by incoming email, phone calls and text messages saw a 10-point fall in their IQ, more than twice that found in studies of the