National Post dumps home delivery in two more provinces

The National Post, which cut out home delivery in the Atlantic provinces a year ago, has now dropped home delivery in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In its place, they are offering a reduced price on receiving a digital edition of the paper. So, while this doesn't mean the paper is not "national" in its coverage, it certainly means so in availability."We were losing money distributing the paper for

Throw out your 5-year plans, says Time Inc. CEO, it's 1931

Time Inc.’s decision to reorganize and cut 600 jobs had nothing to do with digital competition and was 100% to do with the economic mess, according to CEO Ann Moore. According to a report in Folio: She used her ABC Circulation Conference keynote address in New York City as an opportunity to explain that drastic action was based on drastic circumstances (that she and her management team did not

Magazines need to play to their strengths and nurture their audiences

While I take some of the responsibility for liberally spreading gloom with my posts and links about closures, cutbacks and depressing data in the magazine industry, it is doing no one any favours by glossing over such bad news. However it might be worth taking a pause and looking at the fundamentals that give magazines an edge when it comes to coping with the bad news and competing in a bloody

Men's Vogue shrinks back to supplement; Portfolio drops two issues and 20% of staff

Up and down in a few years, Men's Vogue is being cut back to be a twice-a-year supplement to parent magazine Vogue. And Portfolio magazine, launched just last year is being cut back to 10 times a year from monthly.In what is a sign of expected hard times to come at Conde Nast, the men's fashion spinoff that had grown to a standalone 10 times a year is shrinking back to appear in the spring and

James Moore of B.C. named Heritage minister

With today's federal cabinet shuffle, there is a new minister in charge of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Josée Verner is now to be Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister for La Francophonie.Replacing her is James Moore of Port Moody B.C., a radio broadcaster who became an MP in the 2000 election after working for a time as a

Azure lures 2-year subs with a handmade Italian collectible

Azure, the Toronto-based bimonthly design, architecture and interiors magazine, has taken subscription premium offers to a whole other level. People who sign up for a 2-year subscription get one of 2,000 rubber silicone fish especially designed for the magazine by Italian designer Gaetano Pesce (whose name means 'fish'). It's made of plastic resin and polyester fibre and each one is individually

Essay collection by former Weekend staff writer recalls life in Canada's corners

Back in what seems more and more a "golden age" for Canadian magazines, Weekend Magazine sent writer Ernest Hillen across Canada writing "portraits" of Canadian lives in various corners of the country. It's hard to imagine a magazine today doing such a thing.Now Oxford University Press Canada has gathered Hillen's essays together in a delightful collection called A Weekend Memoir. It will appeal

Quote, unquote: how much room in the internet lifeboat?

The print magazine business is dying and dying faster than many analysts thought it would. Its only life boat is the internet. A life boat only holds so many people. -- Douglas A. McIntyre, an editor at 247wallst.com (in Blogging Stocks; copied in several other analyst-written financial newsletters).

Quote, unquote: the best defense is a good offense

If you were running the New York Times, what would you do?Shut off the print edition right now. You’ve got to play offense. You’ve got to do what Intel did in ’85 when it was getting killed by the Japanese in memory chips, which was its dominant business. And it famously killed the business—shut it off and focused on its much smaller business, microprocessors, because that was going to be the

The essential paradox; paper is still how publishing is paid for

David Carr in the New York Times distills an essential paradox of the business:For readers, the drastic diminishment of print raises an obvious question: if more people are reading newspapers and magazines, why should we care whether they are printed on paper? The answer is that paper is not just how news is delivered; it is how it is paid for. More than 90 percent of the newspaper industry’s

Finkle says Canadian freelance industry just the right size to make agency feasible

Eye Weekly in Toronto has published a longish interview with Derek Finkle about his nascent Canadian Writers Group agency. He says the current system of compensating writers, which is paying them as they were paid 15 or more years ago doesn't make sense and that, while writing is "a valuable skill, a special skill", writers are often too timid to bring up issues of underpayment because they don't

Design Edge magazine has most prescient cover of the year

The prize for the most prescient magazine cover of the year, I think, must go to Design Edge Canada. Its September-October issue asks an apt question, for which the correct answer is, now, completely obvious.

Unruly commenters sent to go sit in the corner...

Maclean's columnist Paul Wells has apparently had it with unruly commenters and has temporarily suspended comments on his Inkless Wells blog.I’m closing Inkless to comments for at least the next several days. I had been urging readers to show better manners, and while most didn’t need any encouragement in that direction, a few can’t control themselves. This policy applies only to my blog and it

Christian Science Monitor abandons print

Two months ago, we carried an item about how the Christian Science Monitor had reinvented itself, giving priority to its website, though continuing to publish and sell a print edition of 55,000. Well, the other shoe has dropped as the Monitor has announced that it is abandoning its print edition. In light of that, managing publisher Jonathan Wells's comment in August takes on new meaning: "We had

U.S. big mags suffering "tremendous advertising attrition"

Spoiler Alert! If you're already sawing at your wrists over the economy, approach the following item with caution![This post has been updated] Magazines are likely to follow newspapers down a very slippery slope with a nasty bump at the bottom, according to the financial newsletter 24/7 Wall Street.As the year wears on there is growing evidence that the magazine industry will not escape the fate

Frank magazine folds, saying "it is time to move on"

Frank, the obstreperous, occasionally scurrilous, Canadian magazine of satire and gossip, which has survived several changes of hands and near-death experiences, has apparently run out of runway. The following notice has gone out to subscribers from publisher Michael Bate: To our regret, we have decided to stop publishing Frank Magazine. Effective immediately, both the online efrank.ca and the

Few magazines have committed to the web, says Ad Age editor

There is a major gap between what magazine publishers say about their websites and the reality of those websites, according to Jonah Bloom, editor of Advertising Age. In a column (unfortunately behind a pay wall), he said:Major magazines’ corollary websites still account for only a tiny percentage of all web activity. Very few magazines — the exceptions being ESPN, National Geographic, Real

If Obama were a magazine, he'd be People, says survey

If he were a magazine, Barack Obama would be People, while John McCain would be Business Week, according to a survey conducted in the U.S. by Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland associating the presidential and vice-presidential candidates with various brands and fictional characters. Even weirder, Obama and Sarah Palin have many characteristics in common: coffee (Starbucks); magazine (

National Post discontinues Toronto "magazine" section

[This post has been updated]While it falls somewhere outside my definition of a "magazine", being really a newspaper tabloid section, it nevertheless is an unhappy indicator when the floundering National Post discontinues its Toronto magazine section. Yesterday's issue was the last and whatever is salvaged from the section will now be subsumed in the main, broadsheet pages of the weekend

Annals of design: Marchbank archive worth a look

(This has nothing to do with Canada, except for those who like excellent magazine design.) Pearce Marchbank, a well-known London designer, has put up a new website showing his work in various media, including some stunning magazines. He did everything from Architectural Design to Oz and much in between. (In fact, when the three editors of Oz were jailed for obscenity in 1971 after a landmark

U of T nursing faculty launches twice-annual magazine Pulse

The University of Toronto's Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing has a new magazine called Pulse which has been distributed across Canada in the last couple of weeks. The editor is Lucianna Ciccocioppo (who is the communications and media relations coordinator at the school) and the art director is Levi Nicholson of Zaxis Publishing Inc. (who is also undertaking the redesign of This Magazine)

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Sarah Fulford to tell editor hopefuls how she landed her dream job

Ed2010 Toronto is presenting Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford. next month as part of its semi-regular speakers' series.The newly minted editor of award-winning city magazine Toronto Life – who at 34 is the youngest editor to hold one of the top media jobs in the country – will share her advice on how to land your dream job. Sarah's brief talk will be followed by a Q&A period. Shy? Send Ed your

Must have been its ninth life...Radar folding

Radar magazine, which has had more than one revival, is folding for good, according to a report in the New York Observer. Or, at least, its print magazine is folding. The website is sold to AMI to be redesigned under the editorship of David Pecker, the editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer. (You can't make this stuff up.)According to the Observer:Started by Maer Roshan in 2003, the magazine

Major awards to be made to journalists researching, writing about health issues

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is encouraging journalists in Canada to engage in research and creation of projects that promote health research. Five $20,000 awards and five $10,000 awards are to be made and the program is open to all working journalists in Canada and Canadian journalists working abroad, in all mediums.Projects are expected to include a period of investigation to

Former Esquire cover guru decries electronic cover "gimmick"

Recently, Esquire magazine published a battery driven "electronic" cover that caused some buzz, but only a few ripples in the business. Now, legendary Esquire art director George Lois (1962-72) has waded in with a video interview with Ad Age, decrying the "silly gimmick".

U.K. magazine launch aims at getting those young people involved

A young publisher in Britain is launching a magazine to try and engage young people in politics. According to a story in Press Gazette, University of Bristol lecturer Laura-Jane Foley, a former editor of Cambridge University's Varsity magazine has started Politick, a quarterly publication aimed at getting young people interested in politics.“I wanted to find some way of tapping into that

Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, NY Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer-director Charlie Kaufman about Synecdoche, NY

Copyright Unlikely Films, Inc. 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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Masthead closure has major implications for the Canadian magazine industry

The word today that Canada's magazine about magazines, Masthead, is closing after 21 years (see post below) is lamentable news. The magazine, which started out in print and was an early adopter of the web, has striven over those years to find a viable business model, from print subs, to pay-wall website, to free web access, but apparently without success. [Disclosure: I have for some time been a

Newsflash: Masthead and MastheadOnline to fold

Unfortunately, it appears that the issue of Masthead currently in production is to be its last.

Next month? Scratch and sniff pop-ups

Half the ads and many of the photos in the Sports Illustrated Kids November issue are in 3-D, demonstrating that gimmicks sometimes work. According to an article in Mediaweek, the number of ad pages for the issue increased 26%. Yet whether the stunt delivers a longterm benefit for SI Kids remains to be seen. In general, kids' magazines have fought a tough battle for ad pages as packaged foods,

Twitter as a new tool for engaging with magazine audiences

The U.S. quarterly Make — claims it is the first magazine to offer customer support via the social web messaging platform Twitter. It allows its tech-savvy readers to send the magazine instant messages, or “tweets” as they are called in Twitter-speak and get an all-but-instant reply. However, we are aware of some other magazines with their own Twitter account. For instance, Canada's venerable

Strange but true! Reader's Digest finds pointed differences between Canadians and Americans

Canadians and Americans have pointed differences on some key issues, according to a global poll published in the November issue of Reader's Digest."The results were revealing, though not altogether surprising," said Peter Stockland, Editor-in-Chief of Reader's Digest Canada. "We have long suspected Canadians and Americans are different - our poll found those differences to be pointed on a number

First, Zoomer magazine; now a show for the Zoomer consumer

On the heels of the launch of Zoomer magazine for the over-45s, Zoomer Media is launching a Toronto-based consumer lifestyle show that it hopes will be the template for going national next year. According to a story in Media in Canada, the Zoomer Show is said to be expecting 10,000 attendance over two days at the Direct Energy Centre at Toronto's Exhibition Place, Nov. 1-2. Admission will be

British magazine distribution could do with some competition, report says

British magazine publishers and retailers may soon see greater competition in distribution of titles, after a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading (OTF). According to a story in the Guardian, it means thatNewspaper distribution will continue to be protected by an opt-out from competition law under guidance handed down today by the Office of Fair Trading.However, the regulator said magazine

New freelance agency formally announced; more than 80 writers already signed up

The Canadian Writers Group (CWG), the fledgling agency for freelancers, including freelance magazine writers, has announced not only details of its service but also a stunning list of people who have signed on for it. As many of you will know, former Toro editor Derek Finkle has launched the new agency with the intention of negotiating better rates for writers. Until now, only informal,

Roundtable created to recommend how Ontario can fix flaws in blue box program

Citing continuing "glaring flaws" in the Ontario blue box recycling program, Magazines Canada has announced the creation of a roundtable to make recommendations to the province to change it . Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, John Gerretsen released a discussion paper on the Waste Diversion Act on October 21 for public consultation. The proposed roundtable will reach beyond magazine

Wannabe a magawards judge? Here's your chance

The National Magazine Awards Foundation is accepting nominations from the Canadian magazine industry for jury members for the 32nd annual National Magazine Awards. Individuals interested in judging should send names and a brief description of relevant expertise to NMAF Communication Manager Richard Johnson at staff[at]magazine-awards.com by October 31. The NMAF’s judging guidelines are available

OMDC planning document notes challenges magazines share with other media

Magazine publishers in Ontario would do well to look over a recently published document from the Ontario Media Development Corporation. The OMDC has always been weighted a bit heavily towards its origins as the Ontario Film Development Corporation, but it is good to see that their planning document "towards a strategic plan" gives due attention to magazine publishing and other media as well.

Making fashion mag where fashion shopping is done

The British fashion weekly Grazia, published by Bauer Media, is trying audacious move that is apparently intended to engage with readers -- it is moving offices for a week and producing the next weekly issue in a west London shopping centre.According to a story in UK Press Gazette, computers, telephones, fashion cupboards and a photographic studio will all be shifted to a perspex pod in the

subTerrain turns 20

subTerrain, the literary magazine of “strong words for a polite nation,” celebrated its twentieth year in print last week at Cafe Montmartre on Main Street in Vancouver. Brian Kaufmann, the never-aging publisher of both subTerrain and the equally venerable Anvil Press, had a seat at the table selling copies of Number 50 as well as some handsome T-shirts which (I discover as I write) are

CDS global teams up with Magazines Canada on national co-op DM promotion campaign

CDS Global, the fulfillment giant, has entered into a multi-year partnership with Magazines Canada in support of the association's highly successful cooperative direct marketing campaign. According to a release, CDS will provide subscription fulfillment for the entire campaign, which represents up to 200 English- and French-language titles in the Buy 2, Get 1 Free promotion.What's noteworthy is

Magazine world view

Financial Times posters urge firms not to cut ad spend in economic downturn(Guardian)Amazon's UK launch of Kindle delayed(paidContent.org)Granta to launch in Italy and Spain (Publisher's Weekly)Writers pen protest at terror bill (Guardian)Christopher Buckley says he's been 'fatwahed' (The Daily Beast)

Readers feel squeezed, but so far sticking with high-end glossies

While a pessimistic pall seems to hang over the magazine industry in some quarters, there is a view that one of the things that will save some magazines in times of tight money and advertiser skittishness is the tight relationship they have with their readers. An article in the Observer, from Britain, suggests that not only are magazines good value, but that readers will be reluctant to give them

The Secret Life of Bees Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood about The Secret Life of Bees

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Downtown park being named after late, great June Callwood

A park in Toronto, especially designed to serve toddlers and their caregivers, is being named after the late magazine writer and crusader, June Callwood. It's just south of Fort York and connects the fort to the lake. Nice to see such a tribute. [Thanks to spacing.ca for alerting us to this.]

The wayback machine

From time to time, we look back to see what was happening around this time a year or two ago.A year ago...PWAC fighting back against contractual rights grab (16 October 07)Five culture ministers in Ontario in 7 years (12 October 07)Feeling nervous, are we? Canadian Lawyer tries to squelch upstart competitor (10 October 07)CanGeo makes clean sweep of its circ department (10 October 07)Western

Drawing entries

I suppose it is only fitting that illustrators should be expected to put out some first-rate material to invite entries for the annual compilation of the Society of Illustrators called Illustrators 51 (for which Canadian illustrators are welcome). But, oh boy, what a nice piece of work John Cuneo has done with the poster, which can be downloaded as a pdf. Above's a detail: (thanks to the blog

Quote, unquote: Playboy's layoffs

Not even nekkid women can convince people to buy magazines these days.-- Manhattan media blog Gawker, reporting Playboy's cutting of 80 jobs to save $12 million.

Spun sugar coating won't hide bad magazine news

Dylan Stableford, a columnist for Folio:, asks an apt question about the "happy talk" approach of such organizations at the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) and American Business Media (ABM) in reporting what are -- by anyone's definition -- lamentable information about the state of the U.S. magazine industry.He says that the organizations do no one any good by "burying the lead", such as

Ontario says magazine support so far this year tops $1.3 million

The Ontario government has so far this fiscal year invested $1.3 million into the Ontario magazine publishing sector, including $862,500 that has gone to 37 Ontario-based publishers for various strategic initiatives through the OMDC Magazine Fund, according to a release from the Ontario Media Development Corporation. (OMDC is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture and concerns itself with

PWAC executive director Degen named literature officer of the Ontario Arts Council

[This post has been updated] John Degen, the executive director of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) is leaving the organization to become the literature officer of the Ontario Arts Council. He replaces the retiring Lorraine Filyer.We read about it in a posting on the Creators' Copyright Coalition website (which is somehow fitting, since Degen has been an outspoken champion of

Mygazines.com folds in the face of industry fury

A brief item on its website signals the end of the pirate magazine-sharing site mygazines.com. It was re-published on Folio: today. While this particular site is gone, no word on what the industry is doing about other sites like this one.Related posts:Blame Canada: Publishers reach settlement with pirate mygazines siteMagazine pirating site in crosshairs of British and U.S. publishersWhat's yours

Rogers sells Ontario Out of Doors to Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters

Rogers Publishing has sold Ontario Out of Doors magazine to Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. The magazine has been closely associated with OFAH and the magazine is said to be going to carry on with much the same management team, according to a memorandum to staff from Marc Blondeau, Senior Vice-President, Consumer Publishing.Originally founded in 1969, OOD was purchased by Maclean

U.S. TV Guide was sold for $1 plus its liabilities

There's a lot of hidden meaning in the term"conditions of the sale were not disclosed". This week, Macrovision "sold" the print edition of the U.S. version of TV Guide magazine, as reported in an earlier post. But, according to a posting on paidContent.org, based on an SEC filing, the price was...$1.Wow, we knew Macrovision (NSDQ: MVSN) was desperate to get rid of the print version of TV Guide,

Access Copyright urging content creators to register

Access Copyright is urging writers, publishers, photographers and visual artists to register with them so that they can receive payment for secondary use of their work. While registration is free, Access says, reproduction of your content shouldn't be. For more information call 1-800-893-5777 or go online to register as an affiliate.

Thin, light, flexible and not paper

From the BBC, a video story on a plastic "e-paper", a super-thin electronic reader that was developed at Cambridge University and is now going into production in Dresden, Germany. Looks kinda grey to me, but this is probably a future option for some kinds of magazines.

Magazine world view

Vogue Declares Victory for Democrats in November Issue Cover Line (HuffPo)Conde Nast's digital chief swaps Vogue for Glam (UK Press Gazette)Magazine Ad Pages Fall 12.9 Percent During Third Quarter (Folio:)Esquire's E-Ink Cover Inspires Hacker Community (Folio:)Bloomberg reports bids for Reed Business Information have declined (BtoB online)

Europeans may relax direct-to-consumer drug ad restrictions

European pharmaceutical manufacturers seem to be prevailing in their desire to advertise direct to consumers. The High Level Pharmaceutical Forum, a once-a-year meeting convened by the European Commission, concluded at its recent meeting that "all the relevant players" should be able to provide an improved "quality of information" to consumers – though the forum fell short of supporting

Will readers turn against magazines because of environmental impact of paper-making?

Avrim Lazar, the president of the Forest Products Association of Canada, delivered a sobering message to the American Magazine Conference last week in San Francisco -- he predicted that environmentally minded Americans would focus in future on the connection between magazine paper and global climate change."What you're selling when you sell a magazine is identity for the consumer; you have a

Eagle Eye Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writer Travis Wright about Eagle Eye

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TV Guide U.S. sold to private equity firm

While TV Guide (Canada) soldiers on as an online-only product of Transcontinental Media, TV Guide magazine (U.S.) has been on the block. Now its owners, Macrovision Solutions Corporation has sold it to OpenGate Capital. Macrovision announced in January that it was going to divest the print magazine after it acquired the previous owners, Gemstar-TV Guide, although keeping the online

Best and worst magazine design trends of 2008

Luke Hayman, a highly respected designer (partner in the New York firm Pentagram) is featured on the Society of Publication Designers blog talking about the best and worst magazine design trends. The video was filmed at Folio: Show 2008.

U.S. fulfillment operations merge under Palm Coast brand

In a consolidation that was anticipated following a takeover, Palm Coast Data of Florida and Kable Fulfillment Services will be merged and centralized in Florida , closing in the process Kable's Colorado and Illinois operations. Ironically, though Kable took over Palm Coast and the combined entity will still be managed by Kable, it will operate under the Palm Coast name. It is expected that

Maclean's cleared of hate speech by B.C. human rights tribunal

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled Friday that a controversial article about Islam by columnist Mark Steyn (left) in Maclean's magazine did not violate the province's hate speech law. The decision was released late Friday afternoon.The tribunal ruled that the excerpt from Steyn's book America Alone was not likely to expose Muslims to hatred or contempt. The excerpt dealt with the

Cosmogirl magazine folds as print product

Cosmogirl magazine is closing, being folded into big sister title Seventeen. Hearst Magazines CEO Cathie Black made the announcement of the "strategic decision" today and we saw it reported in several places, including Jeff Bercovici's column in Portfolio magazine.Effective with the December issue, CosmoGirl will continue to exist online cosmogirl.com. Cosmogirl subscribers will be offered

Sarah Palin, up close and unretouched

Oh, for heaven's sake. Magazines get slammed for airbrushing cover models or putting starlets heads on other people's bodies, fair enough. But then to turn around and criticize Newsweek for showing Sarah Palin in closeup without airbrushing is a bit much. Folio: quotes a Republican media consultant, Andrea Tantaros, saying she is "outraged" that the magazine didn't photoshop the facial wrinkles

Reader's Digest Canada one of few bright spots for parent company

Reader's Digest Canada is one of the few bright spots for Reader's Digest Association, which has posted an operating loss of $337 million for fiscal 2008, compared with a lost of a tenth of that last year. Most of the loss is attributed to writedowns in its school and educuational services division, according to a story published by Folio: According to the report, RDA’s fiscal 2008 net revenue

Alberta magazine business is booming, study says

According to a new study for the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association, the business in Alberta is booming. A story on Masthead says that the study, by Rowland Lorimer & Associates, puts the revenue value of Alberta magazine publishing at $83.4 million and its share of national revenue has doubled over the last decade to 4%. Alberta has 40% of the periodical publishing revenue in Canada’s

Setting a whole new standard for selling magazines

A new magazine store (note, not a newsstand) in Berlin called Do You Read Me? is setting a very high standard for serving people who love magazines. It carries a curated assortment of contemporary magazines, a comprehensive range of art, culture, fashion, photography, design, architecture, literature, music, theater, society, politics and business titles usually of the the high-end and glossy

Canzine shows the roots of magazines and alternative culture

If you want to see the grassroots of the magazine industry, there is no better place than at Canzine, the annual 'zine fair and display of alterrnative culture held in Toronto.This year's event is on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 from 1pm-7 pm at the Gladstone Hotel Downtown Toronto, 1214 Queen St. West (Queen just East of Dufferin). The event has been organized for many years by Broken Pencil, the

Quote,unquote: What the economic crisis demands

The dramatic events of recent weeks have destroyed the idea that markets are best left to their own, unregulated devices. The enormous costs of this complacency have been clearly demonstrated. Government and its institutions must now show leadership and play a more active role in stabilizing financial markets, stimulating real investment, and maintaining employment and incomes.-- from an open

We knew that! Magazines beat TV and online in return-on-investment

A new study of ROI in magazine advertising found that magazines influence people more than TV or online media at two critical junctures: familiarizing people with brands; and forming an intent to purchase. The study by Marketing Evolution is reported in MediaDaily News, and is a compilation of 38 different studies, most focussing on big advertising categories like automotive, entertainment,

e-Mag Ruckus launched by York university arts students

York University art students have launched what they call and "e-mag" (as opposed to a blog) called Ruckus magazine, according to a story posted by BlogTO. Created by grads and current students at York University, the web site is still a work in progress but ultimately plans to feature local artist profiles, info about grants and art focused events, news, reviews and event previews in all arts

Magazine world view

TV Guide Network Being Sold Separately From Mag; Book Finally Out(paidContent.org)Bleeding 'Times' Blood (New York magazine)Sony Updates Its Reader (paidContent.org)Dennis Publishing expands with photography mag buy-up (UK Press Gazette)Some Bright Spots in a Gloomy Year for Magazines (Advertising Age)

Brainy brand magazines using clever, inexpensive means to attract readers

Catching up with a New York Times article of October 2 on the way two so-called "brainy brand" magazines are using whimsical devices to attract readers.The Economist is spoofing the game Twister, distributing it on pizza boxes.The Atlantic is putting out videos of streeter interviews asking passers-by the question on a recent cover 'Is Google Making Us Stupid?' accompanied by a campaign slogan:

Constance Rooke, former Malahat editor, dead at 65

Constance Rooke, a former editor of The Malahat Review, a former president of PEN Canada and a champion of Canadian literature, has died at the age of 65. She and her husband Leon also founded the Eden Mills Writer's Festival.

Magazines Canada ranks swell by 37 titles, including Rogers stable of b2b titles

Magazines Canada just got substantially bigger, with the approval for membership of 37 magazines, the most ever welcomed at one time. This includes 7 consumer magazines and 29 to its new business media category. The new business media membership is largely made up of Rogers Publishing trade magazines that decamped from the Canadian Business Press to join Magazines Canada after the organization

Magazines urged to review new charitable fundraising rules

Changes to rules and procedures at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) should be carefully reviewed by magazines who have charitable status or are associated with a separate organization which does, according to a bulletin just released to its members by Magazines Canada.As part of its crackdown on charities who spend too high a proportion of their fundraising revenue on expenses, CRA) is

Prairies North turns 10

Prairies North, Saskatchewan's Magazine for Good Prairie Living, is this month celebrating its 10th anniversary publishing one of the west's best indie titles. The anniversary event is on Friday, October 17 at the Yvette Moore Gallery in Moose Jaw and will feature a prairie auction highlighted by a painting by the self-same Yvette Moore.The quarterly magazine, which started life as Saskatchewan

Alberta magazines get a promotional boost

The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (AMPA) is putting on a month-long blitz called RAMM (Reading Alberta Magazines Month) that kicked off Thursday in Calgary. It puts the emphasis on regional talent of which there's considerable. As AMPA puts itNot only is there geographical relevance, but by buying, subscribing to, and reading Alberta magazines, you’re supporting a community of creative

Editorial management of Canadian Home & Country and Canadian Gardening merged

The editorial management of Canadian Home & Country and Canadian Gardening have been merged. Erin McLaughlin (right),editor of CH&C is adding the duties of editor-in-chief of Canadian Gardening, effective January. She replaces Aldona Satterthwaite (below right) who a Transcontinental Media press release says "moves on to explore new opportunities next year".McLaughlin has been with

Here we go again; another magazine-sharing site pops up

Fresh from their relief at having their lawyers stomp on mygazines.com, the pirate magazine file-sharing site, publishers may well want to start looking around for other such sites. Mygazines will not be the last. For example, issuu.com. It describes itself as a "web 2.0 document-sharing company".According to information available online, issuu (pronounced "issue") is still a beta site backed by

Canadian Oxford Dictionary staff (all of them) laid off

Dictionary def. 1. A printed and bound book of definitions and a spelling aid, made redundant by the proliferation of free online sources. 2. A place where real, knowledgeable lexicographers used to work. 3. An icon whose disappearance is a sad sign of the times. (See Canadian Oxford Dictionary)According to a story in the Globe and Mail, declining sales in recent years mean two full-time and two

Carbon atoms adding up to earth; the end of the (news) article

Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor, prolific blogger (Buzz Machine) and columnist for the Guardian, has written an article (you'll see the irony) about the death of the article as the building block of journalism, at least when it comes to news. The article has attracted a lot of comment, both in his blog and elsewhere. Jarvis writes fairly frequently about an important trend: "link journalism".

Parsing your audience; Parenting mag splits itself in two

The U.S. magazine Parenting magazine is splitting itself into two, separate magazines, one for "early years", one for "school years", according to a story in Folio: (This idea resonates with yesterday's posting about Reader's Digest creating a second edition of Our Canada called More Our Canada. The "more" in both cases is followed, we presume, by the words "money" or "audience growth" or both.)

Blame Canada: Publishers reach settlement with pirate mygazines site

Quietly, the major U.S. publishers have reached a settlement with the rogue file-sharing site mygazines.com that will see it remove all copyrighted material. And for the first time it is apparent that the site's originator was a Canadian, Darren Andrew Budd of Toronto, according to a story posted by Folio: and backed up by copies of the various court documents obtained by the magazine.Mygazines

National magazine compensation study launched

A national compensation study for the Canadian magazine industry has been launched by Magazines Canada. With support of the Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC), Mercer Limited has been engaged to gather data on market compensation levels for approximately 40 benchmark positions, including base salary, annual incentives, long-term incentives, pensions, benefits and other perquisites.The study

Nothing against editors: Mixing the purists with the barbarians

"Inside the company all the digital content was driven by editors. Nothing against editors, I am a journalist myself, but I thought we needed specialists. So we mixed the purists with the barbarians - I asked a lot of people to join the company to mix with the traditional Conde Nast culture." --Stefano Maruzzi, president of CondeNet International, Conde Nast's digital division, in a story in U.K

Success of RD's Our Canada results in spin off More of Our Canada

Our Canada, one of the most successful launches of recent years, has been so successful that Reader's Digest Magazines Canada has launched a spinoff called More of Our Canada, according to a report in mastheadonline. The bimonthly Our Canada has a circulation of 300,000, six times a year. The new magazine, which will come with a $20.96 sub price (same as OC) will have similar content, generated

Circulation Management to become Audience Development

Circulation Management magazine, considered something of a bible for circulators and publishers, is changing its name to Audience Development effective with the November issue. According to a post from trade journalism blogger Paul Conley, the name change reflects changes in the industry. I applaud the move. There can be no doubt that the jobs and tasks of what we once called the circulation

Magazines Canada discontinues small magazines blog

Magazines Canada has discontinued publication of its Shoestring blog, which served small magazines. The Shoestring had been piloted by Claire Pfeiffer, now Member Projects Manager (who was given to leavening her news items with the occasional piece of doggerel verse -- we'll miss that).MC President Mark Jamison says the decision was part of a review of the whole "communications toolkit". The

Folio: special report asks "What does it mean to be green?"

Folio: magazine has published a special report on being green that is well worth looking at. It addresses the problem of "green fatigue" as every magazine publishes its own version of a "green issue". But what does it really mean to be green in publishing in 2008? it asks, looking at production, distribution, event marketing, operations and digital publishing.The issue contains a really useful

Books in Canada no longer published but hasn't told funders

Globe and Mail arts writer James Adams asks the apt question about the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, (which is being given out in Toronto tonight at the Drake Hotel. Namely, why is it still called that when the magazine Books in Canada has ceased publication. It wasn't an announced closure or suspension; the magazine simply hasn't come out since January/February of this