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.