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