Dinner, with brains on the menu

Might this be what is called fleeting fame? Ed2010's Toronto chapter is having one of its periodic mixers tomorrow, at which (for a $5 fee), attendees are given a chance at dinner and the chance to pick the brain of Laurie Grassi, the executive editor of Style at Home magazine.The event is at The Duke of York (39 Prince Arthur Avenue) on Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. (Consolation could be provided

"Le Lux" to honour Quebec photographers and illustrators

Tomorrow, the Canadian Association of Photographers and Illustrators of Canada (CAPIC) and the Association des illustrateurs et illustratrices in Quebec, in collaboration with the magazine Infopresse will be presenting Exposition Lux, the 11th annual gala where photographers and illustrators are honoured. It is at the Just for Laughs theatre 2111, boul. Saint-Laurent, Montreal at 8 p.m., with

Primeau's gardener's memoir recalls when front yard gardens were leading edge

Liz Primeau, the founding editor of Canadian Gardening magazine, and former editor of Ontario Living, is in the midst of a whirl of publicity for her recently published memoir My Natural History: The Evolution of a Gardener. (Tonight she'll will be signing and selling copies at 7 p.m. at the Mississauga Central Library. On the weekend,she was reading from it at Word on the Street in Kitchener.)

Magazine world view

Washington Post Company acquires Foreign Policy magazine(Folio:)Rejected bailout decimates media stocks (MediaDaily News)Borders Books UK launches buy-one-get-one-half-price offerCreative Loafing files for bankruptcy"New York Sun" Sets (MediaDaily News)Revenue growth at largest media dips to 4.6% (Advertising Age)[U.S.] Senate creates "copyright czar" (Wired)

Jewish Living magazine folds after five issues

Since this blog has written several items in the past about the launch of Jewish Living magazine, we feel under some obligation to report, with regret, that publication of the magazine has been suspended after five issues, according to a posting on magazine's website.Publisher Dan Zimerman who, with his wife Carol Moskot as art director (formerly of Toronto Life magazine), moved from Toronto to

CBC.ca apologizes for columnist Mallick's article about Palin

[This post has been updated] The Publisher of CBC News, John Cruickshank, has written a column apologizing for publishing a column by Heather Mallick about U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.The volume of complaints played a part in prompting his apology and CBC Ombudsman, Vince Carlin, fashioned the justification. Cruickshank said:Mallick's column is a classic piece of political

Quote, unquote: Stephen Harper's hidden theo-con agenda

They see him as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep—so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation. If they’re right, it remains unclear whether those convictions would turn

Daybook : Cracking U.S. market; Marking TFEW's 10th

Reminders about a couple of worthwhile events in Toronto posted about before, that may be of interest to readers:Cracking the 49th parallel: Thursday, October 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ryerson University School of Journalism, 80 Gould Street, Toronto. Price is $20, $10 for students (free to Ryerson students). It's being sponsored by the American Association of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), a

British mag wins cover contest by taking a chance on "Dalek" concept

That it pays, sometimes, to take chances is apparent by the outsider win from Britain's Radio Times magazine in a cover competition held by the Periodical Publishers Association.( Of course it may also be an expression of a public write-in campaign on behalf of a wacky entry.) More than 10,000 members of the public cast ballots.The May 2005 "Vote Dalek*" cover (shown above in its full gatefold),

Search will drive sales, but content can build branding

I have often felt that so-called "traditional" magazine publishers are being mistaken in chasing after online dollars by trying to compete with search advertising. This doesn't play to magazines' strengths. I found some reinforcement for this view in a posting about a speech made by David Churbuck, Vice President, Global Web Marketing, at Lenovo (what we used to call IBM). He said that search is

Choke Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews debut writer-director-actor Clark Gregg, actress Gillian Jacobs and actor Sam Rockwell about Choke

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It's not nice to fool your readers

Some readers of women's weeklies in Britain are not only grumbling about inflated headlines, they're holding the magazines to account. According to a story in the Guardian, two separate complaints to the Press Complaints Commission were about tantalizing coverlines that turned out to be misleading.One reader objected to the front cover of Look magazine which pictured Jennifer Aniston with the

Rogers's Pharmacy Post relaunched as Drugstore Canada

Pharmacy Post, a 15-year-old Rogers Publishing business-to-business title, is being completely renovated,with a new name, a new size (from tab down to standard magazine) and a new look, according to an item posted on Mastheadonline.It will now be called Drugstore Canada and its new look and editorial structure will reflect changes in modern pharmacies which often seem more like cosmetic boutiques

National drive launched to "vote for culture"

The Canadian Arts Coalition is working with Quebec’s Culture Pour Tous to give everyone in , regardless of any age, sex or politics, the opportunity to vote online for arts and culture. To add your voice and your vote, click on the "I vote for culture" banner above.

Ravary campaign to abolish Quebec status of women council prompts boycott call

There's quite a storm over at Châtelaine magazine where readers are threatening boycotts and subscription cancellations because editor-in-chief Lise Ravary is campaigning for the abolition of the Quebec Status of Women Council (QSW).Her proposal, published in the September issue, said that the current council is unrepresentative and holds back today's modern Quebec women. In its place, the

Take our digital magazines...please, say publishers

Faced with a slower-than-expected uptake of digital magazine subscriptions and the fact that many consumers don't know the difference between a digital magazine and a website, a bunch of U.S. magazine companies are giving 50 million free digital magazine subscriptions away.According to a story in Folio:, 200 companies like Hachette, Wenner Media and Reader's Digest are using a new site mounted by

Individual magazines given tools to lobby campaigning local MPs in favour of PAP

Magazines interested in lobbying their local member of Parliament about the publications assistance program now have the tools to do so. Magazines Canada has prepared a riding-by-riding spreadsheet tally of the number of PAP-supported subscriptions in each riding, along with the e-mail address of the sitting MP. Even if, perchance, a magazine isn't sure who their member is, MC provides a handy

Mix it up with magazines: Word on the Street this Sunday across Canada

Sunday, September 28 is one of the biggest opportunities for readers to meet magazine-makers and for magazine makers to meet each other in the annual Word on the Street book and magazine festival, which takes place all day long in Toronto, Kitchener, Vancouver, Halifax. Over 250,000 people attended the regional festivals in 2007.Related post:Canadian Magazines Tent at Word on the Street features

Does the internet "democratize" or "commoditize" information online

Interesting exchange:A writer in Folio: says that the internet allows corporations to communicate with end users without the mediation of traditional media, like magazines.A reader rebukes the writer, saying that, far from "democratizing" content, the internet "commoditizes" it, which undermines the ability of content providers to be paid for it.

Tougher ad:edit guidelines needed to counter pressure from advertisers

With the considerable, and apparently inexorable, pressure of advertisers, editorial integrity is under seige. And to withstand the pressure, says an opinion piece by Lucia Moses, a senior editor of MediaWeek, editors need something more than well-intentioned ad:editorial guidelines.Both the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) have

Finalists announced for best (U.S.) covers of 2008

The finalists in the American Society of Magazine Editors best cover awards have been posted. Above are the 2008 Cover of the Year finalists: "Andy is 80", from Interview (June/July); "Eliot Spitzer's Brain" from New York (March 24);"Short Stance", from the New Yorker (October 8). The latter is by Canadian expat illustrator Barry Blitt.Other best cover categories are celebrity, concept, fashion,

Mark your calendar: TFEW 10th anniversary on Oct. 6

A friendly reminder that the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list is marking 10 years of existence with a major celebration of Monday, October 6 from 6 p.m. on. The list grew from 6 people who gathered in freelancer and teacher David Hayes's living room to 270 members signed up today. It's being held at Big Mamma's Boy, 554 Parliament St*. (2 blocks north of Carleton on the west side, in

New York memorial service being held to pay tribute to Clay Felker

A tribute is being paid tonight in New York (you might just have time) to the late Clay Felker, the founding editor of New York magazine. The memorial service is being held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture and Tom Wolfe, Gloria Steinem and Lesley Stahl will speak. Felker's legacy, which Wolfe in July described as nothing less than the restoration of vitality to a bloodless,

Columnist Mallick's Palin commentary provokes rage and threats

CBC.ca and occasional magazine columnist Heather Mallick seems to have touched a particularly tender nerve with a recent commentary about U.S. vice-presidental candidate Sarah Palin. In her article, she said Palin appeals to "the white trash vote" with her "toned-down version of the porn actress look."The column (from a woman who has been renowned for her strong opinions) had already been

News magazines an endangered species in North America

In the last five years (2003-2008) 39% of newsmagazines in North America have disappeared, dropping from 75 publications to 45, according to a story in Folio: about data published in the National Directory of Magazines. As but one example, this year, U.S. News & World Report became a biweekly.)The Directory (misnamed, since it catalogues some 20,500 U.S. and Canadian titles)says that shelter

Is Maghound the future? And do we want to go there?

I don't like to rain on the innovation parade, but an article in the National Post hymning the wonders of Time Inc.'s new Maghound single copy service (see previous posts) suggests that this is an unalloyed good thing and that the sooner it begins servicing Canadians, the better.Masthead editor Marco Ursi is quoted saying: You don't get as much revenue selling copies on Maghound, but attracting

Liberal reply to magazine industry says party would maintain PAP

The Liberal Party of Canada has told Magazines Canada -- in response to a series of questions about funding and other matters -- thatit would support the continuation of the publications assistance program (PAP) andcommit to continued funding of the Canada Magazine Fund at current levels.However, it declined to say it would do anything to introduce competitive postal delivery for magazines.And it

Reality check demonstrates that arts support has been cut under Tories

The Globe and Mail has done us all a favour by pursuing the federal Conservative party's claim that its support for arts and culture has increased during its time in power. The story in Saturday's paper, by reporter James Bradshaw, demonstrated that, depending on your definition of "culture", arts support has actually declined under the Tories. A close look at federal budget documents suggests

Idea for three covers of Maclean's claimed by advertising agency

[This post has been updated] So we thought the three covers idea of Maclean's magazine last week was a good one -- with excellent art direction and each cover featuring one of the three leading candidates in the federal election. What an original idea, we thought.And it appears it was original, but not to Maclean's. The idea came from an advertising agency, according to the president of the

Sarah Polley - Away From Her Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews debut writer-director Sarah Polley about Away From Her

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Green Living magazine; grown up and now also contains electrons

Green Living magazine is growing, in more ways than one. Not only has it moved from digest size (having started out as Enviroguide in 2004) once a year to a quarterly, now to full size with a circulation of 150,000, it is also launching a digital edition.

Striving to be hard to ignore, The Walrus celebrates its 5th anniversary

The Walrus magazine is 5 years old. A statement published in the October/November issue from Shelley Ambrose, co-publisher and executive director, The Walrus Foundation and John Macfarlane, co-publisher and editor, gives due credit to co-founders David Berlin and Ken Alexander and to creative director Antonio de Luca and former publisher Bernard Schiff..The Walrus won more National Magazine

Holding Canadian media feet to the fire

A nice piece by Sheldon Gordon on the Ryerson Review of Journalism is published in the October issue of University Affairs magazine. It's a wholly-student written magazine which, if it didn't exist, we'd have to invent it, precisely because it covers the media in a way that no one else does.We can hope that the article will galvanize the magazine community to make some donations to keep this

Will Canadian Forces vote Conservative? Embassy Magazine says so

Rabble.ca in its election blog notes that Embassy Magazine, the foreign policy newsweekly, manages to report that most soldiers will be voting Conservative, without quoting any soldiers."I would suggest that most of the members of the Canadian Forces would probably vote Conservative in this election," said retired colonel Alain Pellerin, executive director of the Conference of Defence

Al Gore may buy into magazines, environmental title Plenty

[UPDATE: Jeff Bercovici of Portfolio now says that it is not Gore who is interested in the magazine, but Kevin Wall, a collaborator of his in the Live Earth concert last year.] Al Gore may be getting into the magazine business according to a story in Portfolio magazine.Sources familiar with the former vice president's plans say he is set to announce the acquisition of a stake in Plenty, a

Cottage Life editor's 50th issue marked by a surprise hijacking, and bubbly

Penny Caldwell's staff at Cottage Life magazine wanted to mark the occasion of her 50th issue so they hit upon simply hijacking her editor's blog, posting a message about the occasion, surprising her in her office and then cracking open a bottle of champagne. Her first issue as editor (left) was in July/August 2000 (though she'd been on staff in various other capacities before assuming it). Her

Magazine world view

Readers Digest names Altman publisher (Folio:)Times Educational Supplement to lose nine staff (Guardian)Financial Services Pullback Drives Display Ad Spend down 6 per cent in first half 08Nielsen Online via paidContent.org) (Facing 'cataclysmic' changes, Source Media strengthens its bench (Folio:)

Buy online, get print free?

Publishing 2.0 blogger Scott Karp asks whether this promotion is an indicator of the future, selling online ads by giving print advertising as a bonus in the New York Times.

Copies up, dollars up, but Canadian magazine market share slips

Canadian magazine publishers get a 38% "share of wallet" for the approximately $870 million spent on audited magazines in this country, according to a study by released by Rogers Publishing.The data and commentary is compiled by Michael Fox, the senior vice-president of circulation and development at Rogers (and a stalwart supporter of Magazines Canada).Using available single copy and

Vita adds a French twist to More

Transcontinental Media has launched a French-language version of More magazine called Vita. It will be on newsstands in the Québec market tomorrow. The magazine is customized for 40+ women in the French-speaking market.“Since Transcontinental announced the launch of Vita, the magazine has surpassed its target subscription goals by nearly 80%,” said Francine Tremblay, senior vice president of

Toronto duo celebrate a year of publishing Corduroy in New York

Corduroy, a quarterly arts/entertainment/fashion magazine, recently celebrated its first anniversary being published in New York, according to a story in the Toronto Star. The magazine's fourth, October, issue is due on newsstands in and around New York this week.Peter Ash Lee and Tim Chan, both 26, both from Toronto, live in New York where they run Corduroy, editing it at a table in a coffee

New web-based tool helps sniff out people using magazine content without permission

Magazine publishers who want to detect if someone is using their content without permission may be attracted to a new tool from iCopyright called Discovery. It works by "fingerprinting" a publisher's content and searching the web for sites using all or part of the material, according to a story in Folio:. The service identifies Web sites that have obtained a valid license and verifies that they

Magazines hurting for ads but research shows their audiences are UP

Financial sector advertisers may be in meltdown and ad pages may be down, but according to first half figures from Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI), U.S. consumer magazine audiences are up. That's right. Up.According to a story in MediaDaily News, a comparison of MRI data for 95 leading consumer magazines shows that 74% increased their audience between spring 2007 and spring 2008, for a

Canada Post's smartmoves signs up for three years with Transcontinental

Canada Post's venture into publishing its own magazine, smartmoves, for people who move house and use its change of address service, has apparently worked out, but not for its original partner, Rogers Publishing.It has just been announced that Canada Post has contracted for the next three years with rival Transcontinental Media to provide creative design, editorial content, printing, distribution

Newspaper readership is holding up, says NADbank study

Just released data from the Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank) for selected markets shows that newspaper readership remains strong, with over 75% of the population reading a daily each week.This is particularly true in the most competitive markets in Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montréal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, according to a story in Media in Canada. Ottawa-Gatineau led the pack with

If elected, will you protect the PAP, asks Magazines Canada of MPs

Magazines Canada has sent a letter to every member of Parliament in the country trying to impress upon them the importance of the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) to the Canadian magazine industry and the threat to the industry from recent decisions of Canada Post.The letters detail the number of magazine subscribers in each MPs constituency who benefit from the postal subsidy. The letter

Transcon closing print edition of small business magazine PME

Transcontinental Media is discontinuing print publication of PME, a French-language magazine aimed at small business and entrepreneurs. The October issue will be its last, according to a story in lesaffaires.com.The company, through Sylvain Bédard, publisher of business publications for Médias Transcontinental, said that the changing media industry and new technologies meant that there had to be

Did big business titles in U.S. lead investors down the garden path?

Several of the biggest U.S. business magazines have reason to be shamefaced for the way they promoted companies that are now wards of the state. With perhaps over-much glee, Gawker, the Manhattan media blog, catalogues the hymns of praise that the likes of Fortune, Business Week and Forbes were singing not so very long ago about of Lehmann Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG. For instance, in

Transcon rolling out paid, digital editions of 170 papers across Canada

Transcontinental Media, which has developed robust online versions of all its consumer magazines is now rolling out digital editions of all its daily and weekly newspapers. The company says this is a natural progression of its ongoing online strategy.Twelve dailies in the Atlantic provinces have already been released as digital editions, available to paid subscribers, including the Journal

Circulators to ponder state of the newsstand; then it's time to party

The Circulation Management Association of Canada (CMC) is holding a high-powered panel discussion/seminar about the state of the newsstand. Then, having taken their medicine, they're having a party.All people working in the magazine industry have their own particular stake in how many copies get sold at the newsstand [says a release]. You could be a publisher, a distributor, a wholesaler, or you

Quote, unquote: Suzanne Boyd is serving the "then" with the "now"

"When you're young, all you have is your youth. When you're older, you have not just a now but a then. It's a spectrum and the magazine, I believe, can reflect that."-- Suzanne Boyd, in a profile by the Globe and Mail's James Adams about the forthcoming launch of Zoomer magazine. (It's now in the mail to subscribers and will shortly be on newsstands.)Related posts:Zoomer launch lineup includes

Shameless pitch for Bitch

[This post has been updated]Bitch magazine of Portland, Oregon is in trouble and in sisterly fashion, Canada's Shameless magazine is making a plea on its behalf, saying that, without Bitch, Shameless and other magazines like it might well not exist. Publisher Stacey May Fowles says in a post on the Shameless blog:Bitch is not only the reason that magazines like Shameless exist, but it’s also the

Bottled water industry blows its cap over Canadian Water Treatment article

An article in Canadian Water Treatment magazine about the industrial component Bisphenol A leaching out of plastic bottles and cans lined with BPA epoxy resins has been slammed by an industry association as "inflammatory" and "biased".In a release from the magazine, it was reported that, in response to Chad Born's article "Eliminating Exposure to BPA," the Canadian Bottled Water Association's

Machinery & Equipment MRO wins APEX award of excellence

Machinery & Equipment MRO magazine, the Toronto based trade magazine for people involved in the machinery & equipment and maintenance, repair and operations industries in Canada, has won an award of excellence from APEX. The magazine is part of the Business Information Group, now owned by Glacier.Sponsored by Communications Concepts, the APEX award is for excellence in graphic design, editorial

Source Interlink loses for the first half, shutters three titles

Source Interlink, the distribution giant which a little over a year ago bought Primedia's enthusiast titles, recently reported a net loss of $296.7 million for the six month period ending July 31, compared to a $4 million net income for the same period last year. As result, says a story in Folio:, the company has folded three titles. Net revenue for the period was $1.1 billion, up from $909

Text us for more on this story, Smart Money tells its readers

Hearst's SmartMoney magazine is offering readers a way to text a code from their mobile phones and receive an e-mailed PDF with additional editorial content from the magazine's feature stories as well as advertising, writes Folio:. The program is available through a partnership with ShopText, which receives the texts and forwards the PDFs. The first ad sponsor for the additional editorial is

Knock-on impact of financial crisis may be felt longer term in advertising

The current turmoil in the financial sector, in the U.S. and in Canada, has spawned uncertainty in other sectors. According to a story in Advertising Age, the immediate short term effect on magazines won't necessarily be dramatic, but in the longer term there may be some repercussions from battered consumer confidence."We knew over a year ago that the credit crisis was going to have an impact on

Time Inc.'s Maghound single copy service rolls out, in beta

Time Inc.'s online single copy magazine site Maghound was finally, and quietly, rolled out yesterday, in beta form, and what's interesting is who's aboard and who's not, according to a posting on paidContent.org.At launch, it has 240 titles, about 40 less that what Time Inc said at a trade show in June, Folio notes. In addition to all Time inc titles, of course, it has titles from Conde Nast (not

Quote, unquote: talent needs to push back

“I think this period where anybody thought that anybody could write a posting for a venerable brand is a terrible mistake…. There hasn’t been enough pushback from the creative world…. The great con of the 20th and 21st century is the way that talent has been exploited by this technology boom….”-- Tina Brown, talking to the Online New Association about her forthcoming aggregation site The Daily

Aboriginal youth magazine publisher to produce mainstream newspaper blog

Sometimes the mainstream media just wants to capture that magazine magic; that certainly seems to be the case at the Regina Leader-Post, which has hired a young aboriginal publisher to blog for them.Chris Ross, now 28, started a little newsletter called Generation X when he was still in high school in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan (the publication grew out of an English class project) and

Fun with photographs

Outdoor Photography Canada magazine has taken on board a regular humour columnist, Ethan Meleg, a freelance nature photographer. We guess you can be funny from anywhere, since Meleg is leaving soon to tour North America in a Volkswagen camper van for the next 18 months. His new column is called Out of Focus, natch.

U.S. b2b revenue down 6% in first half

Business to business revenue in the U.S. was down 6 per cent in the first half of 2008. And even trade show revenue, which had been growing as a proportion of over all revenue for the sector, was down 1 per cent. 20 of the 21 b2b categories reported declines in pages. This according to a story in Folio:Gordon Hughes, the president and CEO of American Business Media said: “Considering the current

Douglas Bell blogging the election for the Globe and Mail

Followers of Douglas Bell's writing on Toronto Life blogs now no longer with us may be interested to know that, at least for the duration of the federal election, he has fetched up blogging for the Globe and Mail.A recent post was about a conversation with a madly spinning Liberal operative who says, more in hope than from evidence: “Hey…listen…my guy's got a shot…”

Maclean's law school rankings called into question

Maclean's magazine's recent rankings of Canadian law schools has been criticized for its methodology and for its intentions. Alice Wooley of the University of Calgary law faculty) writes on the Legal Ethics Forum (to which she is the only Canadian contributor) that these, the second such rankings compiled by Brian Leiter, a professor of law from the University of Chicago, are a useful

Are magazines losing contact with utility? James Truman thinks so

Former Condé Nast editorial director James Truman says print magazines are becoming more luxurious on their way to obsolescence. Truman said he left the company in 2004, depressed when he saw 10 years of brutal cost-cutting on the horizon. After some thinking time in Morocco, he has come to some conclusions about the future of magazine publishing, according to a post in the io9 blog (part of the

Alan Ball - Towelhead Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer-director Alan Ball, actress Summer Bishil and actor Peter Macdissi about Towelhead

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First anniversay for Precedent magazine features lawyers on the fashion catwalk

Precedent, the magazine for young lawyers in Ontario, is celebrating its first anniversary (fall '08 cover at right) on October 23 with a by-invitation-only fashion show. Toronto lawyers will be on the catwalk at an as yet unrevealed location, modelling the latest fashions for fall and winter.Anyone who is a lawyer in Ontario can enter to win a pair of tickets to the show. The magazine, in

enRoute magazine more tightly integrated with Air Canada marketing site

It appears that enRoute magazine, the inflight for Air Canada produced by Spafax Canada, will now be even more closely integrated with the airline and its travel marketing with the launch of a new website www.enroute.aircanada.com. Previously, enRoute had a standalone site (though there was never any question about its relationship with AC). According to a story in the Gazette, now readers will

Many different strands coming together in arts funding cuts protest

It's interesting the variety of approaches to responding about the federal cuts in arts funding.There is the enlightened Bay Street approach of Business in the Arts which says "the cuts send the wrong message to the arts community, the business community and to all of our citizens that Canada doesn’t value or appreciate the social and economic benefits our artists bring to our country". It

CanWest drops libel suit against The Tyee

Canwest Global Communications Corporation has dropped a libel suit against The Tyee online newspaper, based in Vancouver. It concerned a column by Rafe Mair published in December 2007, found to contain a factual error and later removed and corrected. According to a story carried today on the blog The Hook, published by the Tyee, the paper published apologies on December 27 and later on January 17

¿Might you be a winner?

A couple of months ago, we alerted readers to the whimsical contest at Emdashes.com (the independent website that is fixated on all things New Yorker magazine -- as in the magazine) to find a name for the upside down question mark(¿) usually used at the beginning of questions in Spanish text .The finalists are:the qué marksplainuquiggleinterroverti¿nu?pre-QPraskaskinYou can make your choice here.

Freelance writers briefed about plans for new agency to represent them

According to those who were there, former Toro editor Derek Finkle's plans for a freelance writer's agency, to be called the Canadian Writers Group, engendered a good deal of enthusiasm. The first of two off-the-record briefings left veteran freelancer and teacher David Hayes encouraged. He wrote on the listserv of the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list:What I like about Derek’s plan is

Health spinoff from Saltscapes delivers some valuable advice

Living Healthy is an interesting cooperative venture between Saltscapes magazine of Halifax and the QEII Foundation, situated somewhere in a zone between an editorial supplement and a contract publication, but providing some valuable health information.The second, annual issue of the publication is polybagged with the September/October issue of Saltscapes and is an indication of what a determined

Quote, unquote: just putting it together, getting it out the door

"We didn't really feel we had an elegant magazine, nor did we ever have an elegant magazine... I'm always amazed that people think it was well designed because we didn't think we were designing anything. We were just putting it together so we could get it out the door." -- Milton Glazer, art director, speaking in a panel about New York magazine at 40.

Pinch being felt by U.S. mag publishers, down 9.2% in pages through August

Through August, consumer magazine total ad pages in the U.S. are down 9.2%. According to a story in MediaDaily News, based on counts from the Publishers Information Bureau, virtually all major publishers are feeling the pinch. Of 37 big publishing groups measured by TNS Media Intelligence, 86% have seen pages fall. The average decliners were down 14%.Some publishers* such as Rodale (Men's Health

Financial Post Magazine redesigned and reverts to an older name

This is a real case of going back to the future. Financial Post Business magazine, the supplement to the National Post, has been rebranded and redesigned to become Financial Post Magazine.Which was once the name of the magazine back in the early '80s when the Financial Post supplement was owned by Maclean Hunter and publishedby Paul Rush and edited by Rush and then Catherine Collins.Douglas

Magazine world view

Marie Claire partnering on new reality docu-series "Running in Heels" (MediaDaily News)US Weekly to Launch Fashion Mag (Media Daily News)Media must embrace online advertising (UK Press Gazette)Glamour's 'Age issue'; act your age, just don't look it (Jezebel via Gawker)

U.S. ad campaign promoting magazines -- what a creepy concept

The Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) have just unveiled a new "playful" ad campaign promoting magazines (above, left, is one of three ads produced by the New York ad agency Toy).Like the Canadian campaign (one example below) from Magazines Canada ("Make the connection with magazines") that preceded it by a year or more, the U.S. ads are supposed to promote the role magazines have in

Wired brands Esquire's e-cover a flop

An article in Wired News brands the flashing electronic cover of Esquire magazine as a flop. The magazine's 75th anniversary September issue has a flashing message that says "The 21st century begins NOW".The whole cover feels thick, like one of those musical greeting cards your friends really don't want you to give them anymore. The batteries have a life of about 8 to 9 months, but as a static

Circ audit firm CCAB/BPA offers member magazines web traffic measurement at no extra cost

The circulation audit firm CCAB/BPA Worldwide has struck a deal with Nielsen Online to bundle website traffic measurement for magazine audits without increasing existing dues and fees. According to a release from BPA (whose Canadian arm is still often known as the Canadian Circulation Audit Bureau or CCAB), there will be "near real time" online auditing of web activity using a new tag-enabled

Fashion magazine supremacy; it helps to have a lot of online traffic

Forbes magazine says that Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine, is America's most influential fashion editor. What gave her the edge and nudged her ahead of Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue was Leive's online performance. The magazine considered annual gains in revenue, circulation and price but also used the monthly unique visitors measurement to determine how well the editor's title was

Those amusing little Canadian magazines -- so nice in a fight

We imagine that Kim Jernigan, editor of The New Quarterly (TNQ) and Daniel Wells, editor of Canadian Notes and Queries (CNQ) expected to stir some controversy with their Salon Des Refusés joint issue(s) that was critical of the choices made in the Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories. The two editors disagreed with the selections made by novelist Jane Urquhart and published 20 people they

Dressing up a workhorse: messing around with folios

Designer Jandos Rothstein laments, on his blog Designing Magazines, about the tendency to gussy up folios "that tiny little workhorse of unobtrusive function" and use it as a "design opportunity". Above, a Wired magazine folio from its September "Star Wars" issue.

Magazine world view

Vibe redesigns, slashing trim size (Media Week)A bigger Women's Health (WWD Media)Economist wins libel battle with Berlusconi (UK Press Gazette)After 40 years, Private Eye hands over distribution to Comag (UK Press Gazette)Time Out New York boss decries, confirms gossip (Gawker)

Magazine direct-to-consumer pharma ads may not be very effective, study says

A study by the Harvard Medical School, sponsored in part by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) suggests that direct-t0-consumer advertising in magazines for pharmaceuticals may not be as effective as previously thought.Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is banned in Canada. Canadian magazine publishers

Twenty-one pounds of glossy fall fashions

Our appreciation to Folio: magazine's Dylan Stableford (and, probably, some huffing and puffing interns) for this year's compilation of the fall fashion magazine weigh-in. For those who have ever felt the September Vogue should come with its own set of wheels...[UPDATE: Stableford leafed through these pages and came up with seven things he learned.] WEIGHT PAGES ALLURE

Over-capacity crowd at town hall on funding cuts

The Toronto town hall meeting about arts and culture funding cuts was bursting at the seams Wednesday night. Whether that turns into a volunteer tidal wave intent on defeating marginal Tory MPs is still an open question, but those who attended were enthusiastic and appreciative. You can read a post about it at mastheadonline and see videos of Naomi Klein and others, or download an audio feed of

Indigo will be demanding 50% recycled paper in magazines within 5 years

A friend has passed along a brochure in which Indigo Books & Music, Canada's largest magazine retailer, has published its plans to reduce its paper use by 25% by 2012.While this may seem like a paradox for a company that deals in paper, a brochure distributed in the chain's stores says that the company intends to have 30% post-consumer recycled content in their internal paper use within 12

Canadian newsstand box scores released

Continuing a great service to the Canadian industry, Coast to Coast Newsstand Services has published its box score for the sales of Canadian and U.S. titles on Canadian newsstands, this time for 2007. Among the interesting developments were not only who was up and who down, but that the figures tend to shine a very different light on the recent Audit Bureau of Circulations data which gave a

International fashion magazine about fashion magazines, Distill, launches

A new international design-focused fashion publication entitled Distill has been launched in London by Craft Publishing. Essentially, it is a digest-sized magazine about fashion magazines. Expected in March, it had its launch late last week.You can read more about it in this post from MediaBistro's Unbeige blog. Former Wallpaper publisher Christopher Lockwood is creative and publishing director

But it will be great experience...

The rather stern and (unintentionally) hilarious internship rules for the New York Sun newspaper have been published by Gawker, the Manhattan media and celebrity blog. We've seen continuing dispute in Canada about paid versus unpaid, but as far as we know nobody has ever dictated such a preppie dress code or how long your subway ride can be. And asking for a byline? The horror.[UPDATE click

Canada Post: No time for Canadian mags, but lots for U.S. competitors

We find it interesting that Canada Post, which has generally treated the magazine industry as something between a nuisance and a "rounding error", is so cozy with other industry organizations.For instance IDEAlliance, which is a U.S. organization representing the publishing,information technology and direct mail sector. Canada Post has four staff sitting as members of its Canada Mail committee,

Tips for journalism first years: work, work, work, work...

J-source.ca has published a list of tips for hopefuls starting out today in journalism schools across the country. What was the single most important thing some grads recommended?"Work on your weaknesses." -- Marco Ursi (Ryerson), now editor of Masthead"Write to get published." ----David Hutton (Carleton), Saskatoon StarPhoenix."There is one simple way to survive J-School: Get out of class." --

Former Toro editor Finkle plans literary agency for freelance writers

Derek Finkle, the former editor of Toro magazine, is hoping to launch a new literary agency to represent freelance writers, starting in January . While the official launch will be sometime in October, he is holding two, off-the-record preview meetings in Toronto for interested writers. In an e-mail message distributed today, Finkle said: Ultimately, I think this agency can be of great benefit to

Toronto town hall protest about arts cuts now to promote electoral activism

The protests against the federal arts and culture funding cuts are revving up; the Toronto town hall meeting this Wednesday, organized by Fuse magazine, has evolved into something bigger and more sweeping. It focuses not just on the arts cuts but on social issues and activism in the imminent federal election, including unseating key Conservatives in the greater Toronto area and across

Magazine world view

Four redundancies and major restructuring at PPA (U.K. Press Gazette)Google Chrome: Will this be one of the hyped GOOG products that sticks? (paidContent.org)Consumer Reports launches redesign (Folio:)Vogue's fashion photos spark debate in India (New York Times)

Time Out publisher considers going controlled, moving listings onto web

Forty years ago, Tony Elliott launched a weekly magazine in London called Time Out, chock full of alternative news and information and brimming with music and events listings, some counter-culture and some not.It has spawned many imitators, including its own branded versions around the world (23 magazines alone or in partnership) and dozens, if not hundreds of imitators. It could be said that