Rogers and Quebecor forge online alliance

Content from some of the best known magazines and websites from the Rogers Publishing stable will be showing up within the next few weeks on Canoe, the online portal operated by Quebecor Media. The two companies announced the strategic alliance today.So Rogers, the one of the country's largest consumer publishers, well known for developing eleven comprehensive magazine websites of its own (

British Columbia magazine to publish special issue on devastated Stanley Park

British Columbia magazine is publishing a special issue in early May 2007, devoted entirely to Vancouver's Stanley Park, which was devastated in a recent series of storms. The magazine, will sell for $9.95 and a portion of the proceeds from the special issue to the park's restoration and sponsorships are being offered to raise additional funds."Stanley Park is an icon of natural beauty in British

KRW Awards deadline Feb 23

The deadline is less than a month away for entries in the 2006 Kenneth R. Wilson Awards, recognizing excellence in trade, professional and farm publications. If you're in one of these categories, you have until 5 p.m., Friday, February 23. Each entry costs $85 for members of the Canadian Business Press (CBP), which runs the awards, or $200 for non-member publications. Winners will be announced at

Former Fashion columnist signs on at Flare

Tim Blanks, who used to be a contributing editor for St. Joseph Media's Fashion magazine, has now been hired at rival Flare (Rogers) as an editor-at-large, and his first column will appear in the March issue (on sale mid-February).Blanks, well-known as the voice of much of independently produced Fashion Television File, which airs on CBC Newsworld, will remain based in London. He writes

Masthead releases salary survey results

Congratulations to Masthead magazine (sub req'd) for its new, improved salary survey data in the just-published Jan-Feb issue. Among the many improvements is the use of median figures, rather than misleading averages and its division of consumer magazine data into small/medium and large (>50,000 circ). In addition, the survey tried to get a handle on sales commissions and to pinpoint how

Now, I guess, we know the price

It's so brazen, so upfront that I'm not sure what to make of Creative Review, a magazine serving the design side of the British advertising industry, selling the guest editorship of its 10th anniversary February edition to an advertising agency.According to a story in the UK Press Gazette, there is nothing stealthy about it; the ultra-trendy agency Mother put a big, yellow sticker on the front,

Could the "song" model work the same for "articles"?

On Saturday, the Globe and Mail carried an interesting and provocative article by Robert Everett Green about the ascendancy of the song over the traditional "album" approach in pop music.It occured (and perhaps not a moment too soon) that this has potential implications for magazines. If the song is the unit of commerce and interaction in music, could it be that the "article" could similarly

Who counts ads in Canadian trades?

It has always seemed odd that a Canadian company tracks ad spending for U.S. trade magazines, but can't get Canadian trade publishers to buy its services. According to a story in Mastheadonline (sub req'd) database managment company Inquiry Management Systems (IMS), made a presentation to the Canadian Business Press (CBP) earlier this month and it's being considered; a few years ago, it made a

Muslim Girl launched in U.S. by Toronto firm

A Toronto-based communications and contract publishing company called execuGo Media has launched a new bimonthly magazine called Muslim Girl, aimed mostly at the U.S. market. Its premier edition has a circulation of 25,000, mainly distributed in areas known to have large Muslim populations, including New York; Jersey City, New Jersey; Dearborn, Michigan; Chicago, Los Angeles and areas of Texas.

Mmmmm, spicy. Chili Pepper is colour of the year, says Pantone

Chili Pepper (Pantone 19-1557), a deep, spicy red, is this year's colour of the year, according to the colour correction mavens. As reported in Design Edge Canada: Pantone chooses Chili Pepper as the colour of 2007 “Whether

Some truths about indie mags

Several indie magazine publishers in Toronto submitted to be interviewed for an excellent cover story in eye weekly that delivers some home truths, among them being how hard it is to make a living doing what they do.The story is by eye columnist Dale Duncan, who was also one of the founders of Spacing. She talks with women who work as editors at Broken Pencil, the late Lola, Kiss Machine and

Family-owned Stockholm publishing group buys Time special interest mags

Official word has confirmed the unofficial word that a Stockholm-based publishing company has pipped the other contenders at the post to buy the 18 special interest titles being sold by Time Warner's Time4Media and Parenting groups. The price -- which is not confirmed -- is said to be about US$200 million, less than had been expected or hoped for (as much as $300 million).[UPDATE: The New York

Vertical wins award from rotorcraft peers

Trade publishing is often a way for ambitious individuals to get into the business, serving a specialized audience in a highly focussed way. There are few better examples of this than Kitchener-based Vertical magazine, run by a husband and wife team, Linda and Mike Reyno.The magazine is about the helicopter business and Mike, a photojournalist, provides much of the spectacular photography, and

Transcontinental launches eNBusiness in both digital and print

A Sackville, N.B.-based division of Transcontinental Media is launching a regional business publication called eNBusiness that will be made will be available in both print and digital editions. The digital edition (free) will use the services of Advanced Publishing Corp. and will have interactive and full search capabilities. Advertisers will be able to increase their brand exposure in the

The Giller Prize is rigged and corrupt, says Geist columnist

Geist magazine columnist Stephen Henighan says the Giller Prize is rigged. He isn't elliptical about it; in his Kingmaker's column he calls the prize "the most conspicuous example of corporate suffocation of the public institutions that built our literary culture".Nothing signalled the collapse of the literary organism as vividly as the appearance of this glitzy chancre on the hide of our culture

Regina's wounded civic pride doesn't change facts of Maclean's article, columnist says

The Regina Leader Post's political columnist, Murray Mandryk, in a January 24 column, essentially accepts that much of what Maclean's magazine's Jonathan Gatehouse reported about the beleagured North Central neighbourhood is true. [See earlier post]Mandryk criticizes the hyperbole of some of the writing and presentation ("Canada's worst neighbourhood") and digs back to make the point that

LNA ad page count essentially flat in 2006

The number of ROP advertising pages reported by Leading National Advertisers (which tracks about 95 Canadian titles) in 2006 was essentially flat, down 0.1%. Actual revenue, due to rate increases, was up about 4% to $698.5 million. In 2000, the similar basket of magazines sold $454 million.There is an excellent summary of the winners and losers in Mastheadonline (sub req'd).

Time Inc. special interest salemay fetch US$200 million

Time Inc. may not get the US$250 million it was hoping for from the sale of 18 special interest publications. Betting is that the whole package will sell for about US$200 million, $100 million of which would be for the Time4Media enthusiast titles, such as Popular Science, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Motorboating, Yachting and Ski. Second round bids for the titles are due today.According to a

Games and the people who play them

Wonderful, colourful, macabre cover on Broken Pencil magazine's current issue -- The Games Issue -- with a stylized presentation of Twister, mixed with homage to Clue (with a crescent wrench, on the Twister board). The new issue of the magazine about zine culture is being launched tonightwith a games night at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street West in Toronto where various board and other games

This is what's meant by a growth industry

The closest most of us get to the Canadian seed industry is, this time of year, poring over a catalogue, dreaming of spring. But for the seed trade itself, it's more than mooning over the latest vegetable variations.Every year, in its January issue, Germination magazine, published in Winnipeg by Issues Ink (a communications company that also does everything from graphic design to speech writing

Shameless plug III

Enrollment is now being accepted for So You Want to Start a Magazine? at Ryerson University's Chang School for Continuing Education. The course is held February 10 and 11 (Friday and Saturday). You can read more about it here or by clicking on the link to the right.

Time Inc. will eventually cut 2.6% of staff winding up with 10,500 employees

[NOTE This post has been updated and corrected.] By the time Time Inc. is through with restructuring, in order to invest the money in its magazine-related websites, the toll is estimated to be about 800+ people from its workforce, according to a story in the New York Times. It cut 600 last year; 289 yesterday and should shed about 530 people when it sells 18 of its special interest publications

Regina mayor says Maclean's articles one-sided

Mayor Pat Fiacco of Regina predicted in advance that a just-published follow-up article by Maclean's magazine on the troubled North Central neighbourhood (characterizing it as the country's worst neighbourhood) wouldn't help matters."I said 'Don't expect anything better,' he said Thursday. "And that's exactly what we got: Nothing better ... Again, no one is disputing the challenges that North

Here's your hat, what's your hurry? Hello! dumps its Canadian management

So much for the Canadian edition. So much for a particularly Canadian spin on celebrity coverage. Gone yesterday were Hello! Canada's publisher, Shelley Middlebrook, editor Christopher Loudon and art director Benjamin MacDonald. Rogers Publishing, which launched a joint venture Canadian Hello! magazine only six months ago, has essentially ditched the Canadian operation in favour of it being run

Red faces at Consumer Reports on child car seat story

Consumer Reports , a highly trusted and reliable magazine which has a large Canadian circulation and following, has taken a real hit to its credibility. It has had to retract a story published a couple of weeks ago that said about a dozen well-known brands of children's car seats that are sold in Canada were unsafe. According to a story on the CityTV website:"It turns out the tests were conducted

Liberal culture critics named

The new Liberal shadow cabinet has been announced by Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. Several appointments are relevant to the magazine industry:Tina Keeper is the new critic for Canadian Heritage, which is responsible for the Canada Magazine Fund and the Publications Assistance Program (postal subsidy). Keeper is a first-time MP from Churchill, Manitoba. Keeper is a member of the Norway House

Volunteers make a big difference to small magazines

A lot of magazines in this country rely on volunteers to keep them running; either formally, as in upaid internships; or informally. Statistics Canada's last survey (2003-04) said that there were 5,260 voluntary or unpaid staff working for all kinds of magazines, an average of 2.2 volunteers per magazine.Of course this is in inverse proportion to the magazine's circulation, with small and

Canadian titles continue big discounting ways

The current offer from the Rogers Magazine Service continue to demonstrate that Canadian titles are the big discounters when it comes to trolling for subs.The leader is Maclean's, which offers a $39.95 annual price, an 83% discount off the newsstand cover price. (This is no change from previous offers)Next are Toronto Life ($24/77%) and Flare ($12/77%)Chatelaine is $14.95, or 71% off the cover

Alternatives and The New Quarterly "twin" their issues

It's not that often that Canadian magazines work as closely together as Alternatives magazine (an environmental journal) and The New Quarterly (a literary journal) have. Both are published on the campus of the University of Waterloo; the "twinned" issues on Creative Communities (Alternatives) and the Artist-as-Activist (TNQ) will be officially launched this week. Creative Communities is a double

If you can't say something nice... Regina hates Maclean's article

Last week, Maclean's magazine published an article saying that Regina was home to "Canada's worst neighbourhood", a crime and problem-ridden slum. Predictably, there is a backlash, said an article in the Regina Leader Post. The article asked"How did the province where medicare was born end up with a city this frightening?""We're not scum, we're very proud people," said an e-mail to Maclean's from

Charlene Rooke succeeds Jim Sutherland at Western Living

Charlene Rooke, the editor of enRoute magazine and, before that, of Avenue magazine in Calgary, is to succeed Jim Sutherland as editor-in-chief of Western Living magazine, as reported in an item on mastheadonline (sub req'd). As reported in an earlier post here, Sutherland decided to step down from the top job after 20 years in the business, in order to pursue other, freelance, opportunities.

Volunteer of the Year Award nominations sought by Magazines Canada

Magazines Canada is accepting nominations until March 1 for its Volunteer of the Year award.It recognizes one individual's outstanding volunteer contribution to the Canadian consumer magazine industry. The award honours a person whose volunteerism has had a national impact, and who has been in the magazine industry for a minimum of 10 years. The award will be presented at an industry

Ubiquity is the new exclusivity

"Ubiquity is the new exclusivity."This paradoxical remark is part of a New York Times story about how advertisers, those people we love who give us money for the privilege of holding our stories apart in magazines, now believe people's time is so fractured that the best place to advertise is everywhere; on eggshells, subway turnstiles, the bottom of urinals (I made that one up, but it's probably

Four of big five U.S. mag companies suffered ad page declines in 2006

Four of the big five U.S. magazine companies experienced over all declines in ad pages during 2006, according to a story in MediaDaily News (based on Publishers Information Bureau data):Time Inc. (4.8%)Hearst (0.7%)Hachette Filipacchi (7.1%)Meredith Corporation (1.4%)Only Conde Nast saw an increase in ad pages sold of 3.5%.

The good, and no-so-good, of art direction by remote control

"It works a lot better than I thought it would," says Darryl Brown, the art director of Geez magazine. You see Brown, who has a full-time day job at Staccato Design in Portland, Oregon, does all his work over a high speed hookup with Geez headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba.In a video taped by the internet channel Yamhill.TV, from Yamhill County, Oregon, Brown talks about the upsides, and down, of

NYT Magazine leads US in ad pages sold

No big surprise, but according to early data from the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB), reported by Folio: magazine, the New York Times Magazine sold the most ad pages of any PIB-tracked magazine in 2006. It sold 3,965 pages, compared with People, with 3,741, InStyle with 3,487 and Forbes with 3,389.

Bobby Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer-director Emilio Estevez about Bobby

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Crack appears in U.S. magazine common front on postal increases

Consumer magazine publishers in the U.S., particularly the big ones, and small and medium-sized publishers, particularly trade publishers, are a wee bit testy with each other this week in their submissions to the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission about proposed mailing rate increases, according to a story in Folio:Unlike in Canada, where there is a more-or-less united front of consumer and trade

National Magazine Awards pleads for entries

[This item has been UPDATED]Design editors at various Canadian magazines recently received a plaintive e-mail from the President of the National Magazine Awards Foundation because of a record low number of entries in the Homes and Gardens category this year (the deadline for entries was yesterday, January 10).[Similar e-mails went out for Service, Personal Finance and Business categories (see

Making the rounds with Gotham

Even if you wouldn't know a "stemless glyph" if you found it in your soup, you may be interested in what is considered a very big deal in the typography world with the release of Gotham Rounded; apparently Gotham is a favoured typeface among the cognescenti and rounded faces are de rigeur for Web 2.0 applications. This, from an item in Typographica, an online journal about type. (There's no

Urban environments and the media projects that explore them

(From Spacing -- illustration by Marlena Zuber)The Montreal-based website UrbanPhoto, whose mission is "the exploration of cities through words and photography", has nice things to say about three media projects, two of which are magazines and one of which is...something else, sort of like a magazine.The story highlights the work of Spacing magazine and [murmur], an audio project, both based in

Mags Canada makes "Buy 2, get 1 free" offer to a million+ potential magazine readers

Magazines Canada is launching a national subscription-selling campaign promoting a Buy 2, Get 1 FREE offer. It will be targeted to over 1 million magazine readers across the country.Inspired by the Canadian Marketing Association award-winning 2003 campaign, it will be

Quote, unquote

Magazines that are prospering now offer an environment that cannot be replicated online. You cannot open your browser and have an experience akin to the September issue of Vogue, with its hundreds of pages of brutally trendy ads mixed in with aspirational articles. The thingness of a magazine, its physical properties, have become increasingly important.-- from a New York Times article by David

Raffi writes to Mr. Rogers: Just say no to kiddie cellphones

Raffi, the well-known children's songwriter and performer (and composer of "Bananaphone"), has written a letter to Ted Rogers, the Chairman of Rogers Communications, and head of the wireless and magazine publishing empire (Maclean's, Chatelaine, Canadian Business etc.), pleading with him not to market cell phones to children.The text of the letter was published in a California blog. We have

Canada Wide's TV Week picks up some valuable pieces from the TV Guide closure

One of the beneficiaries of the Transcon's discontinuation of the print edition of TV Guide was TV Week, the magazine published by Canada Wide Media of Vancouver. According to a story in mastheadonline (sub requ'd), Canada Wide negotiated a deal to attempt to fulfill the remaining issues of some 25,000 TV Guide subscribers and only 400 of them cancelled rather than take up the offer (leaving TV

Fables and journalism students II

There has been some considerable talk about the earlier item pointing readers to the essay purported to be by a former journalism student, saying she had cheated her way through assignments, making many of them up.I should reiterate that the reference to Ryerson was my own speculation and has since been made unlikely, given a few clues I didn't pick up on in the story. Further speculation, by

Maisonneuve: Warning: may contain nipples!

A classic case of getting a lemon and making lemonade: Maisonneuve magazine's current issue is polybagged because of the overheated sensibilities of Chapters magazine buyers concerning some nudity.In the winter of 2003 the magazine ran a tasteful photograph of performance art by Italian artist Vanessa Beercroft in the back of our Sex and Death issue -- several naked women either standing or

Quebecor World shutters Quebec printing plant

Quebecor World is immediately closing one of its Quebec magazine printing plants, resulting in the loss of 155 jobs; work from the L'Eclaireur facility in Beauceville, Quebec will be consolidated into Quebecor's 7 other plants in Quebec, employing approximately 2,000 employees printing magazines, catalogs, retail inserts and directories.

The Dead Girl Q&A

Journalist Jeremy Smith interviews writer-director Karen Moncrieff about The Dead Girl

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Back to the future for Playback

Playback, the film and television production trade magazine, is making significant changes, splitting out its breaking news coverage into a daily online newsletter linked to a redesigned website and focussing the magazine (which will still appear every two weeks) more on features and opinion. The creation of the newsletter hearkens back to an earlier time when Playback subscribers received a

100 Years of magazine covers

We've all had the experience of looking at a five- or ten-year old magazine and being surprised at how old-fashioned it looks. For instance, I was looking at the Golden Anniversary issue of Esquire published in December, 1983 and was amazed at how dated the layouts were, at the continuing excellence in illustration. I laughed out loud at times (mostly at the ads for such things as the

Deadline looms for National Magazine Awards entries

Next Wednesday, January 10 is the final deadline for submissions to the National Magazine Awards. You can find out more at the National Magazine Awards Foundation website.

Fables and the journalism students who tell them

For those who may not have seen it, a friend points out the fascinating article in the current issue of Maisonneuve, written by a former Ryerson University journalism student [UPDATE: the story didn't specify the school; consensus now is that it was probably not Ryerson but Carleton or some other school], confessing how she faked many of her reporting and writing assignments. Entitled

Common Ground carries column by dismissed writer

Common Ground, a Vancouver-based health and wellness magazine carries an article by a woman who it says was fired as a freelance monthly columnist for the Western Producer. for attending a rally in support of the Canadian Wheat Board.Further, an accompanying editor's note connects some dots between the agribusiness firms most likely to benefit from the demise or neutering of the Wheat Board and

Don't want an ad? Can I sell you an event?

Sobe News--the Miami-based publisher of 11 regional luxury magazines including Ocean Drive and Atlanta --has created a parallel strategic marketing group to serve advertisers that aren't interested in advertising in luxury magazines. This, according to a story in MediaDaily News.This is not that much different, except in scale, from the line extensions that most magazines do (trade shows, event

Independent Press Association folds

Suddenly, in San Francisco, from causes related to operating a newsstand system, The Independent Press Association (IPA) in the U.S. has died.A notification to its members and directors December 27 attributed it directly to the brutal realities and the consequent indebtedness incurred by trying to run an alternative distribution system for independent magazines in the hairy and competitive U.S.

World Trade Center Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Andrea Berloff about World Trade Center

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Ranking, listing and backscratching

Starting every fall and running through to the first issue of each calendar year is the season of congratulatory lists, whereby (primarily business) magazines trumpet the 100 this, the 50 that or the 1,000 whatever. It may be some of the least-read* material any of these magazines do, but the purpose is not readership but symbiotic promotion. (*I'd be happy to see research data that shows

Tyler Brûlé names international staff for Monocle launch

Expat Canadian editor Tyler Brûlé, who made his name (if not a fortune) launching the conspicuous consumption magazine Wallpaper* launches his new magazine Monocle in February, with a staff drawn from around the world, according to a story in UK Press Gazette. The new magazine is to be international in scope and combine print, web and broadcast coverage of global affairs, business, culture and

Red Herring to expand Canadian presence with conference

Red Herring, a well-known U.S.-based technology magazine, is extending its reach into Canada by launching a huge conference in Montreal this spring. It's part of an effort to 'globalize' content and readership.The Red Herring Canada conference, expected to host about 700 players in digital technology and venture capital markets, is scheduled for June 13-15 in Montreal and will be modeled on the

Moms relax with magazines

Moms turn to magazines to help them relax more often then any other platform, according to a study by The Parenting Group, a U.S. research firm. Its 24/7 MomConnection study says that in a typical week 88% of moms have read a magazine, compared with almost 100% of moms who have watched TV, been online, listened to the radio or received a direct mail promotion; 91% of moms shopped at a retail

New Year's resolution: should we consider fair pay for freelancers?

In earlier posts, I've suggested that fair payment for freelancers was one of the great, unsolved and unaddressed problems of the Canadian magazine industry. At the management level it is a topic either avoided or treated as of being of marginal importance. Rates for professional freelance writing are not remotely keeping up with inflation. By any reasonable measure, an experienced freelancer