A world of differences between editors and freelancers

Editors and freelancers can have very different perspectives. Recently there were a number of responses to the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list about the way editors treat writers. Here's some of what was said by some freelancers and some editors:I know every editor is overworked, but why isn’t it a high priority to deal in a timely fashion with queries – from the people who fill your

Deadline for CSME awards looms -- two weeks to go

Only two weeks left for entries to the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors awards. That's March 14. There are five categories:Magazine of the YearBest Display WritingBest Front-of-BookEditor of the YearBest Trade Magazine (new category)To find out more and download an entry form, go to the awards page on the website.

British journalists union calls for government probe of exploitation of interns

The National Union of Journalists in Great Britain has called for a government investigation into the exploitation of people on "work experience" in the British media; this is what we tend to call "internships" here. According to a story in the Guardian, Jeremy Dear, the NUJ general secretary, said the union had collected evidence that "some very big names" in the media sector were in breach of

Nuvo cover features Sophia Loren

Nuvo magazine is trumpeting its coup of having Sophia Loren as its cover subject in its spring 2007 issue, just published; the rather tenuous hook for the supporting story is that the 78-year-old sex and glamour icon is the oldest woman to be in the much-sought-after Pirelli Calendar. Nuvo's press release provides us with the factoid that only 100 copies of this calendar are allocated to Canada.

CanWest buys out editor-in-chief at The New Republic

CanWest now owns 100% of the New Republic. When it bought control, editor-in-chief Martin Peretz was said to be retaining a 25% stake. But according to a story in the New York Observer, that was just a negotiating hiatus and Peretz has now sold his stake, which means that, for the first time in 30 years, he owns nothing of the magazine he edits (at least for now).There are no guarantees in the

Bob Mercer back in the business at Vancouver lifestyle book

Nice to see Bob Mercer back in the game. The magazine publishing instructor at Simon Fraser University (a role he will continue to play) has become editor and art director of VLM (Vancouver Lifestyle Magazine), a glossy, upscale mag, according to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd).Mercer was once editor of Vancouver magazine and Calgary magazine, back when they were owned by Comac

Transcon information magazines acquired by IT World Canada

[UPDATE: A very good summary of Transcon's entry into and exit from, the world of IT publishing, is provided on Mastheadonline (sub req'd).]IT World Canada, a division of technology publishing giant International Data Group (IDG), has announced that is has acquired all the assets of Transcontinental Media's information technology division.The Transcon titles moving under the IT World banner are

Cruising to a new beginning

What looks like a launch of a brand new Canadian magazine for the dedicated luxury traveller is really a clever rebranding and rebirth. Cruise and Travel Lifestyles is a renovated and repositioned successor to Canadian-owned Cruise Lifestyles. And although the content of the new magazine will cover luxury vacations ashore, about 75% of its pages will still be be cruise-related. The new owner

Are these the 51 best magazines ever?

Good magazine has published online its list of the 51 best magazines ever, an amusing conceit that is based on the opinions of a selected group of magazine mavens and about which (see the comments) there is already some lively discussion concerning titles included or left out.Of course it should have been headed the "51 greatest AMERICAN magazines" since very few are from outside of the

Don't count magazines out yet

An article in the New York Review of Magazines lists 5 reasons why magazines are here to stay. (The NYRM is published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.)

Love for food works as a recipe for Burnt toast

People can start magazines for many reasons, often because they love their subject. This seems to be the case with the little foodie quarterly called Burnt toast, published out of Ottawa. It's a family affair: Cindy Deachman is the Editor, publisher and usually the artist, Helen Deachman is copy editor and contributor, Bruce Deachman is "Crumbs editor) and writer, Connor Deachman is an artist and

CanWest now owns The New Republic

CanWest Global Communications now owns The New Republic. Without much fanfare, the company bought control by acquiring 50% of the magazine from a pair of investment bankers to add to the 25% they already bought last January. Editor-in-chief Martin Peretz retains 25% . According to a story in the New York Times, CanWest plans major renovations, including reducing the magazine's frequency to every

Marketing trims back

Marketing magazine, whose long-time editor Stan Sutter was recently fired, will be changing substantially in the next while, probably in reaction to similarly substantial changes in the sector. "We are looking at every aspect of the publication," said John Milne, Rogers Publishing senior vice-president, Business & Professional Publishing Group and publisher of Marketing. "Many things are

Breaking and Entering Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer-director Anthony Minghella about Breaking and Entering

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Osprey continues to struggle with ads and unit value

Osprey Media Income Fund, an owners of small daily and weekly newspapers and small magazines, has written down about$170 million of its value, blaming a slumping advertising market, particularly automotive.The company has seen the price of its units steadily erode, threatening its ability to make the kinds of distributions that keep people happy with income trusts. Last fall, the value of its

Things are a bit different up here; you can say that again

Up Here, the lifestyle magazine published out of Yellowknife, is promoting itself with a TV ad that says, as the ad tagline puts it "Things are a bit different Up Here." It shows people playing volleyball and cards on a snowswept plain, wearing rabbit fur gloves. The ad is to run starting the end of this week and over the next two or three weeks on TSN and APTN.

Wanna buy a magazine? Please?

There are many sources of magazine subscriptions, including the term "agency", which can mean many kinds of independent sales methods. One of these is door-to-door sales. And while conditions in the U.S. can be quite different than in Canada, and only a very small proportion of subscriptions are sold this way, that doesn't make an investigative report of the practise in the New York Times any

Tribute magazine bumped out of Cineplex cinemas

The movie magazine Tribute loses half its circulation outlets with the substitution of Famous magazine in 128 Cineplex Odeon theatres,starting in March, according to a story in Media in Canada. Famous Magazine's circulation will now be over 650,000 copies. The readership per issue is estimated to be 1.5 million, but that could jump to two million with the March issue. Its French counterpart

Remi Marcoux of Transcon named to the Order of Canada

Remi Marcoux, the founder of the multi-media printing conglomerate that dominates the world of Canadian consumer magazine publishing, has been named to the Order of Canada.Marcoux took a step back from active management in 2004, before which he was president and CEO of Transcontinental. He is now executive chairman of the board and two of his children are now part of the executive suite running

Flipping advertising to girls

“It’s not like anything we’ve done before in that, with this, we don’t have to follow the ASME guidelines on separation of church and state. It’s a very innovative way to market the site and a real pull to advertisers.”-- Dee Salomon, senior vice president of sales and marketing for CondeNetThis somewhat offhanded dismissal of ad:edit guidelines as a nuisance was made in reference to the Condé

Toro's last issue posted online

The staff of Toro magazine have posted its last issue online for all to see, stripped of most ads. At the time of the announced closure of Toro, it was said that the magazine's March issue would not be distributed. Well, a way was found, and we are grateful for the opportunity to see what might have been...

British mag industry to release comprehensive sub study

The Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) of Great Britain have carried out a major research campaign about the views about magazine subscriptions called The Loyalty Challenge: How Consumer Subscriptions Work. It's to be launched next month with a series of events starting March 19, at which point advanced copies of the document will be made available to registrants. The printed report will be

Intervenors sought in supportof accessible TV license

Steve Trumper, former managing editor at Toronto Life, now a magazine instructor at Ryerson, has asked (through a post to the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list) for backing (moral, rather than financial) for a project in which he's deeply involved through an organization called VoicePrint Canada.He's asking people to intervene in support of a license application before the CRTC for a new

Small titles finding it harder and harder at Indigo

One of the paradoxes of single copy sales of magazines is that you have to waste magazines to sell them. The average consumer magazine in this country sells less than 40 out of every 100 copies in its "draw", the magazines that are sent through wholesalers to the retail stores. The rest are eventually shredded.Magazines haven't been able to find a better way to get to miscellaneous individual

Complaint against Western Standard stalled for a year, so far

Almost one year ago, the Western Standard was the target of a complaint by Syed Soharwardy, President of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada to the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal. It was about the Standard's decision to publish the "Danish" cartoons lampooning Muslims. Mr. Sayed wanted to have Levant arrested, but had to settle for the tribunal complaint.Today, almost a year later, there has not

Notes On A Scandal Live Event

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews novelist Zoe Heller, screenwriter Patrick Marber and composer Phillip Glass as they perform their work in front of a live audience.

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Tyler Brûlé's Monocle debuts Monday in Canada

Expatriate Canadian wunderkind Tyler Brûlé launched his new magazine Monocle on Thursday in London; copies should be available Monday in Canada, priced at about $12 a copy, according to a story on CBC.ca. The Winnipeg-born visionary behind the distinctive title Wallpaper* (now owned by Time Inc.) could be said to have taken Wallpaper's style and annealed it to serious news, mostly financial. Like

MagsCan projects among 14 cluster fund recipients

Fourteen Recipients of a total of $1.8 million in the first round of grants under Ontario's Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund were announced today.Among them were two projects in which Magazines Canada is a partner:Web Weekend -- in which Magazines Canada is the lead partner, with Centennial College as the secondary partner in developing a series of two-day itensive digital

Quote, unquote

The New York Times's David Carr, reporting on the shrinking of the previously proudly broadsheet New York Observer (a paper I liked a lot) to a tabloid:"There is good news to be found in the redesign. It is still pinkish, and still plays host to some terrific writing, annotated by cheeky headlines and pointillistic graphics.But reading the new Observer also provides a palpable feeling of loss. In

Lord Black holds forth at U of T

Conrad Black took a tutorial with the Culture and the Media in Canada class at University College at the University of Toronto yesterday, according to an article by Matthew Katz in The Varsity, the student paper.Despite the demands on his time what with all the legal matters occupying him, Lord Black of Crossharbour spoke and submitted himself to the questions of the members of the class (which

British ABC results report that news mags are hot

British ABC results show that news-oriented magazines are doing very well in circulation compared with other categories, according to a story in the U.K. Press Gazette. While newspapers are taking circulation hits across the board, news magazines appear to be in rude health, according to the official ABC magazine circulation figures for the second half of 2006.Dennis Publishing’s The Week

Single copy sales of Maclean's show that the Whyte touch works

Maclean's magazine publisher and editor Ken Whyte said that he placed great stock in single copy sales as a metric for the success of his shakeup of the magazine. While the magazine is still in the process of "managing down" its subscriber base to the vicinity of 350,000, which he thinks is optimum, there is no question that his provocative direction of the magazine's cover stories has had the

You media guys need a shakeup, say U.S. advertising buyers

A survey about investment expectations in the U.S., carred out by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) says that executives think traditional media categories like magazines are in need of a shakeup; 46 per cent of those surveyed say that business magazines need to innovate if they are to remain competitive, followed (in descending order) by: Women's Service (25 percent) Fashion and

Radar editor-at-large Dale Hrabi to be keynote speaker at AMPA conference

Dale Hrabi, the editor-at-large for the resuscitated New York-based magazine Radar, will be the keynote speaker at the Alberta Magazines Conference. Hrabi, former creative director at Maxim and Details and former creative editor at Madamoiselle, will talk about branding and packaging.The conference is hosted by the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (AMPA), March 9 and 10 at Calgary's

Mixed results in U.S. single copy sales

The latest FAS-FAX analysis from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, reported in Folio: shows that some, but by no means all, well-known titles suffered a significant single copy sales decline in the second half of 2006. Cosmopolitan was down 5.8 per cent, Glamour down 7.06, Woman's Day off 19.6, Maxim off 12.4. Despite its almost 6 percent decline in sales, Cosmopolitan closed out the second half

Driven says it's no Toro

Perhaps it is just self-defence against any fallout in the ad marketplace from the death of Toro. Perhaps it was dancing on Toro's grave. But Driven, a Canadian men's magazine, issued a press release yesterday to say why it is more successful than its now-dead "primary competitor":The failure of other men's lifestyle publications in the Canadian magazine marketplace is further validation of

Letters From Iwo Jima Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Iris Yamashita about Letters From Iwo Jima

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Lefebvre leaves coup de pouce to become editor-in-chief at Châtelaine

Rogers Publishing Ltd., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., has appointed France Lefebvre as editor-in-chief at Châtelaine.Lefebvre had been editor-in-chief of coup de pouce, the French language companion to Transcontinental's Canadian Living for the past eight years. She had been with the magazine in various capacities since 1995. Previous to that she was editor-in-chief at Fleurs,

Wonder where the money went? GM cut one-quarter of its adspend last year

One of the most subtantial legs supporting magazine advertising has been significantly whittled away. General Motors, according to TNS Media Intelligence, slashed more than $600 million, or almost a quarter, of its ad spending last year. This, according to a story in Advertising Age.The story pointed out that the cut was greater than the total advertising spending of Nike or Volkswagen.GM said

Is there a golden future for Zinio?

Zinio Systems has been purchased by a private equity company backed by David H. Gilmour, the co-founder of Canadian-based Barrick Gold Corporation, the world's number 1 gold producer, who clearly sees a future in non-paper publishing. Financial terms were not disclosed.Zinio is one of the larger (it would say 'leading') companies involved in publishing and distribution of digital magazines and

Annex gets noticed for its acquiring ways

Annex Publishing & Printing Inc., which has made a tidy business out of publishing small, specialized trade magazines out of the decidedly non-magazine location of Simcoe, Ontario, was highlighted in a "Mover of the Week" feature in the National Post on Monday.The Post story catches up on the news that Annex, a 10-year-old company which now owns 26 titles, is aggressively growing by acquisition,

Toro magazine folds

The trend information didn't apparently add up for Christopher Bratty, the scion of the condominium kingpin Rudy Bratty. Because he has decided to discontinue Toro magazine, effective immediately. The March issue, well into production, will not be printed or distributed in the usual way, through the Globe and Mail. (Shown is Toro's November 2006 issue.)The announcement by Publisher Dinah Quattrin

As the congregations shrink, so shrinks the United Church Observer

The United Church Observer is more like a trade than a consumer magazines because its fortunes depend on the industry -- or in this case, the denomination -- to which it is attached.According to the Observer (an article available only in the print edition), the United Church membership has been declining at about 2 per cent a year since 2000, when it was about 651,000. In 2005, it declined by 3.4

Children of Men Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writer Timothy J. Sexton abut Children of Men

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Holding Conrad Black's defenders to account

There's something about Conrad Black that causes a tendency to excess poundage. Black's own books, like his on Roosevelt and Duplessis, were doorstoppers of gargantuan proportions. His legal troubles are being played out on a grand scale. A vigorous defence of Black appeared -- 25,000 words worth -- the Books in Canada magazine's December issue, penned by BIC publisher Adrian and editor Olga

Canada Council for the Arts turns 50

Since it is celebrated all year, I guess these are not belated good wishes to the Canada Council for the Arts on its 50th anniversary. The CC has put up a special website to mark the occasion and it is well worth viewing.The Council was started in 1957 at the urgings of the Massey Commission, and with the stealthy intervention of some well-placed mandarins, using the $50 million proceeds of the

Writers groups stand with Toro editor against subpoena in Baltovich case

The professional writing community is coming together in support of Toro editor Derek Finkle who has been subpoenaed to turn over to the court all of his research materials for the book No Claim to Mercy. Mr. Finkle wrote the book about the original trial of Robert Baltovich for the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain. Baltovich is out on bail while appealing his conviction.The Professional

Laurie Alpern to handle FIPP communications

Laurie Alpern, the communications director of Magazines Canada who a few months ago followed her heart to London, Eng., has fetched up as editorial and communications manager of the The International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP). The association has a membership of 255 in 57 countries, which consist of 43 national associations (including Magazines Canada), 154 publishing member

Michael Arndt Post Nomination Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews Michael Arndt after he was WGA and Oscar nominated for his original screenplay Little Miss Sunshine

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Western Magazine Awards deadline looms

Prospective entrants to the Western Magazine Awards have just over a week to get it together. The deadline is Friday, February 16. Details can be found at the website in the "How To Submit" section. The Awards will be held on Friday, June 22nd in Vancouver. The WMAs now require visual and written entries to be submitted on disc in either JPG or PDF format, although hard-copy format for

The New Quarterly, Border Crossings, PRISM International are Journey finalists

Finalists for the Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize have been announced. (The $10,000 prize was made possible by writer James A. Michener's donation of his royalties from his 1988 novel Journey. It is for the best short story or excerpt from a novel-in-progress by a new and developing writer that had its first publication in a Canadian literary journal in the previous

Toronto Life asks readers to pick its April cover

Toronto Life is asking its readers, or at least subscribers to its e-letter(s), to help them pick their April cover. They are asked to complete a 5-minute survey and as an incentive, are entered into a random draw for a $200 Sears gift certificate. The request to complete the survey is signed by Clarence Poirier, the VP, Research at St. Joseph Media.The virtual focus

U.S. Newsweek provides "tobacco-ad-free" editions

This is purely of academic interest in Canada, where tobacco advertising has been banned for years, but U.S. subscribers to Newsweek can apparently now request tobacco-ad-free issues of the magazine, according to a story in the St. Petersburg Times. These selectively bound issues have been available for quite some time to schools, but apparently they are available to ordinary subscribers,

Changes at The Beaver

The editor of The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine, based in Winnipeg, Doug Whiteway, and the associate editor, Jennifer Nault, have resigned.Their resignations are but the latest example of a great deal of change at the venerable magazine (86 years old), which is published by Canada's National History Society. In recent months, Catherine Burns, the Director of Finance and Development, left to

It depends on the audience, we suppose

Paul Wells, the lead columnist for Maclean's, also a well-known and respected blogger (Inkless Wells), begged off talking about magzine blogs to an industry audience at MagNet in June because he said he was sick of talking about blogs. However, we note that he is speaking about just that to a group of public relations people in Ottawa on the third Monday in February:Paul’s Inkless Wells blog is

Enhancing the "sponsor-driven" experience

2 magazine, the couples magazine which launched a few years ago with a $75,000 boost from the Ontario Media Development Corporation, has created an online video series based on its "Couple Makeovers" feature in the print magazine, according to a story in Media in Canada. (The magazine has become known for its unabashed selling of product placement in the pictorial spreads.)The new

Who you callin' 'ephemera'?

Interesting item on the blog torontoist, about zine-making. These handmade magazines are classed as 'ephemera', meaning nobody expects them to last long. But some collectors have formed the Toronto Zine Library -- collected hundreds of zines, and organized them by subject and title -- you can browse the catalogue online.On Sunday, February 4 at 1:00 at the Tranzac Club in Toronto there's a free "

Now THAT'S marketing!

Spend Valentine's Day with the author of "The Sex Lives of Vegetables"! -- The New Quarterly finds an intriguing way to promote a reading by poet Lorna Crozier on Feb. 14.

Freelancer's union getting organized

The Canadian Freelance Union (CFU), launched with ambitious hopes and minimal fanfare a year and a half ago, has now signed up about 350 people and is hoping to launch a newsletter and hold an inaugural convention this spring or summer. (See earlier posts here and here.) This, according to a note published on the Toronto Freelancers and Editors list from Michael O'Reilly, the president.Along

Swerve becomes Outwords; gives up its fight with CanWest for its name

Swerve, the little magazine published out of Winnipeg for a gay, lesbian, transgendered audience (circ. 6,000), has decided to switch, rather than fight in its battle with CanWest MediaWorks over its name. According to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd) the original Swerve has renamed itself Outwords. This leaves CanWest's Calgary-based Swerve with the name to itself. There is word of a

Babel Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga about Babel

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City and regional magazines booming in the U.S.

Capell's Circulation (Feb. 12) reports that city, state and regional magazines in the United States have doubled their circulation in the past decade, and have become the largest publishing category, with 300 titles. This, according to a story in Folio: magazine. Thirty-three of the 76 magazines audited by ABC posted gains and just 17, losses.The 76 titles audited by the Audit Bureau of

Paying the piper and editorial independence

I've only just caught up with the December editor's column of Briarpatch, Dave Mitchell, who thoughtfully explores the magazine's obligations when it comes to advertisers. One advertiser, mentioned in a less-than-flattering light, cancelled his subscription and his advertising. When you've got a total budget of $100,000 and two staff, these things can make a big difference.This incident got us

"A rebel yell in a sea of grey"

This item is related peripherally to magazines only because Quebecor, which owns the Sun chain of papers, also is one of the big players and printers in the magazine business. But it's interesting, nonetheless, that there's a lot of conversation in blogs about the spiralling decline of The Sun papers.Some time ago I predicted that under Quebecor's rough handling, the Toronto Sun would dwindle,

ABC launches its Subscriber Profile with data of The Beaver

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has released its first Subscriber Profile, a sort of halfway measure for magazines that don't or can't qualify for including in the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) study, but want to have their research results validated by an independent third party. It costs, of course, but less than PMB, which represents mostly larger, national consumer magazines. The