Rogers wireless subscribers offered free 3-month subs to Rogers magazines

The power of cross-promotion is well demonstrated by a current offering to Rogers wireless subscribers (i.e. people with Rogers cellphone plans) who are being offered a "customer appreciation gift" -- a free, three-month subscription to one of several Rogers publications, including Chatelaine, LouLou and Canadian Business. It will be interesting to know what kind of retention offer those

Maclean's department of the crashingly obvious...

Maclean's issue on newsstands December 4, names Barack Obama as the magazine's "Newsmaker of the Year".

Time Inc. consolidation means it will now largely serve Europe from New York

Time Inc. says it will continue to have a European editorial presence, based in London, but for all practical purposes, the company's consolidation means than the magazine will be produced in New York. (Michael Elliott, the editor of Time International, has been based in New York since 2006.) This follows the announcement of 600 redundancies, according to a report in PaidContent.org, based in

Zoomer magazine reports $402k loss on $1.7 million in revenue

ZoomerMedia Limited has announced that for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, the Company had revenue (including its magazine) of $2,539,172 and expenses of $3,214,022 with a net loss after tax of $674,850. These results are coincident with the launch of Zoomer magazine; the company says they are in line with the company's 2009 business plan.Data released for the publishing side indicate the

Canadian Architect magazine critical of choice, display of Venice Biennale exhibit

A commentary in Canadian Architect magazine is sharply critical of Canada's contribution this year to the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Writer Rodney LaTourelle is critical of the way the Canadian pavillion installation was displayed and the way in which this particular entry was chosen.(Called 41° to 66°: Architecture in Canada--Region, Culture, Tectonics, curated by Marco Polo and John

Thanksgiving march kicks off 100th year of Good Housekeeping seal of approval

If ever there was a magazine that nailed branding, it was Good Housekeeping, with its eponymous Seal of Approval, a term that has entered common parlance. Well, that little exercise in brand building and limited product guarantees for readers is about to turn 100 years old.To commemorate the milestone, says a company release, Good Housekeeping has redesigned the seal and will be showing it

250 exhibitors at Montreal mag, book and zine fair this weekend

There are 250 publishers, comic artists, magazine and small press exhibitors in both French and English at Expozine, Montreal’s annual small press, comic and zine fair, this Saturday and Sunday, 29th and 30th, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.Over the past 7 years it has become one of North America's largest book and magazine fairs; the admission-free event is held at 5035 St-Dominique (Église Saint-Enfant

Chronicling The End, a superb piece of long-form magazine journalism

(photo illustration by Ji Lee)If you ever want to know what good magazines can do to make sense of the world, I can recommend to you the article The End by Michael Lewis in Portfolio. It's long form magazine journalism at its best and explains what went wrong in the financial markets by exploring who knew it was going to go wrong and how they profited by it. Lewis, who wrote the excellent book

Magazines Ontario receives funding to create "digital newsstand" for its members

The Magazines Ontario division of Magazines Canada has received a grant from the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s (OMDC) Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund to help fund the creation of a digital newsstand.The program, called Digital Discovery, will allow member magazines – with a particular emphasis on those from Ontario – to create digital editions of their titles, with

Alberta magazine bundles designed for sub shopping

Magazine subs are a tried-and-true Christmas gift. The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association has found a way to "bundle" those mag-a-gifts by category and throw in a nifty premium to sweeten the deal. Subscribe for any two magazines from a bundle, get 15% off; any three and get 25% off. AMPA will send a gift card and a custom made fridge magnet (see above) in time for December 25. And they'll

Key staff carry on with Ontario Out of Doors under OFAH ownership

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters has announced that, when it takes over Ontario Out of Doors magazine from Rogers Media, effective December 19, three of the magazine's current staff will still be running it, according to a release from the company.John Kerr becomes editor-in-chief, moving up from executive editor. He has been writing for OOD since 1976.Ray Blades continues as

Martha Stewart and Ann Moore (Time Inc.) honoured by U.S. mag industry

Apparently, being a convicted felon is no impediment to being given a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Magazine Editors. It was announced today that Martha Stewart, the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is being inducted into the ASME Hall of Fame, according to a story in Advertising Age."With the launch of Martha Stewart Living in 1991, Stewart created an

CBC accuses Quebeocor Inc. of using FOI to attack its VP

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation claims that Quebecor Inc. is using freedom of information requests -- 150 so far this year -- to undertake a campaign of personal harrassment against Sylvain Lafrance, CBC's vice-president of French services, according to a story published by Canadian Press.Tim Casgrain [chair of the CBC board of directors], in a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore, says

Briarpatch cuts back to 6 issues; wonders what's happening to CMF and PAP?

Briarpatch magazine of Regina, in anticipation of a jump in postal costs has shifted to 6 slightly larger and slightly pricier issues a year from 8, starting in January. It plans to hold the price of a subscription where it is.Dave Mitchell, the editor, sent a note wondering what is happening in government funding programs:There's been an eerie silence of late regarding the future of the

ON Nature magazine unveils new look

ON Nature, the quarterly magazine of Ontario Nature (Federation of Ontario Naturalists)has an updated look unveiling with its current issue. The redesign was carried out by Levi Nicholson, who has been art directing the magazine since the spring of 2007. (Nicholson works now for Zaxis Communications). The new look is above right; the former look (Winter '07) is below.Victoria Foote, the editor of

Quote, unquote: Have U.S. magazine publishers lost their faith?

Retrenching during an economic contraction is one thing. But starving and killing off your brands one by one -- and refusing to invest adequately in the transition from print to web -- suggests that you're simply abdicating. You've lost faith in what you do. You've lost faith in publishing.-- Advertising Age columnist Simon Dumenco, asking, in a hard-hitting column, whether big U.S. magazine

Reader's Digest Association creating multimedia platform aimed at Christians

Reader's Digest Association is entering into a joint venture to produce "an inspirational multimedia platform" aimed at a Christian audience, including a magazine, DVDs and a "Facebook for Christians", according to a story carried by Folio:. RDA called it the "most important and far reaching ventures ever" for the company.The new venture will roll out beginning in February, in partnership with Dr

Economist publisher & Hong Kong design guru to headline MagNet

The MagNet magazine conference in June (2 - 5 in Toronto) will be headlined by a presentation by Paul Rossi, the publisher of the Economist magazine, it has been announced. A release from Magazines Canada says other highlight presenters will be Tommy Li, the international design guru from Hong Kong and three top Canadian independent publishers: Marion Lavigne, publisher and founder of

Hugh McCullum "risked all for a just cause"

If an obituary can be inspiring, the Globe and Mail's tribute to Hugh McCullum in today's paper certainly is. McCullum, who died in October of pancreatic cancer, was well-known as the crusading editor of The United Church Observer magazine and, before that the Canadian Churchman (Anglican Church). He was the first layperson to edit both and, notes the article, "was credited with infusing the

Slumdog Millionaire Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews screenwriter Simon Beaufoy about Slumdog Millionaire

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

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Might American editors bow to ad pressure and loosen ad:edit guidelines?

The American Society of Magazine Editors is revising its ad:edit guidelines and according to a story published by MediaDaily News, it appears that straitened circumstances (i.e. total ad pages down 8.5% at over 200 weekly and monthly titles tracked by MIN Online) in the magazine business may cause ASME to consider loosening its restrictions on integration of advertising into magazine covers and

Zinio launches a digital magazine sharing program that it calls "a game changer"

Zinio, the digital publishing company, has released a new service that it considers "a game changer" -- a program that allows web users free access to search content in 1,000 different magazines served by Zinio and share the pages with social networking sites.The system is called Zinio INSIDE and it enables readers to send digital replicas of magazine pages to friends and family via email, post

Worn magazine issue launches with a "slow dance" party

Worn, the unorthodox and eclectic twice-a-year fashion magazine, has launched a new website today, on the eve of its 7th issue (seen at right), which is being mailed to subscribers December 1. The magazine moved from Montreal to Toronto this summer."Editor-in-pants" and publisher Serah-Marie McMahon says the magazine has imported from Montreal more than its attitude, but also its successful

Bill Kaluski, a great friend of the industry, to retire from CDS Global December 15.

The staff at CDS Global Inc. (formerly Indas), Canada's largest fulfillment house, has been told that Bill Kaluski, the president and chief executive officer, is retiring December 15. No word yet on who will replace him.Kaluski, whose influence has been felt as a major booster for the magazine industry in general and various professional development and industry events such as the National

CPM disparity means trading digital pennies for print dollars

An interesting column in Folio: about the paradoxical spectacle of some magazine companies, while saying that digital is a large part of their future,cutting digital staffs with almost the same alacrity as traditional print publication staff. Matt Kinsman writes:The problem for consumer publishers are the financials. While publishers have long spoken of online revenue being smaller but more

Style at Home seasonal entertaining videos build traffic

Style at Home magazine is enjoying major success with a website series of "how to" videos on holiday decorating and entertaining, according to a report in Media in Canada. Styleathome.com got 224,000 unique visitors and 1.4 million page views in October. The step-by-step instructional videos feature advice from industry experts, and can be found at www.styleathome.com/videos.

Canadian Business Press buys the Magazine University name

Canadian Business Press (CBP), the service and lobbying group for many of Canada's trade publications has purchased the rights to the name Magazines University from North Island Publishing along with an associated web property. The deal means that CBP will continue running the annual Mags U event (and, possibly some sort of trade show) that had previously been co-produced with North Island's

B2B publishing comes to a fork in the road

Business-to-business media companies have two, possible, future paths to profitable revenue growth,according to a study released at the American Business Media top management meeting in Chicago.The paths, which will seem self-evident to anyone who is on top of their game in the b2b sector, are essentially serving marketers or serving readers. Of the two, serving readers (end users) with content,

Transcon RBW plant staffs up to handle rush of Rogers' magazine printing

The RBW division of Transcontinental is in the process of staffing up to handle the workload from its new contract to print 70 magazines for Rogers Media, including Maclean's and Chatelaine. The new hires, 30 entry-level employees, are in addition to 100 full-time employees recently hired. The Owen Sound plant's workforce is now well over 700, according to a radio report.Brian Reid, the RBW

Transcon bought a portion of Redwood it didn't already own, story says

[This post has been updated] Redwood Custom Communications' parent company in Britain may license the Redwood brand to go into competition with Transcontinental Custom Communications which bought the Redwood North American operations this week.According to a story in Brand Republic, Transcontinental had been (somewhat quietly) a 50% owner in Toronto-based Redwood CC and the sale was essentially

Do comments add to or detract from the conversation?

An interesting post on a blog we follow occasionally, on the subject of online comments (a subject that has come up more than once here as we have wrestled with whether, or not, to allow anonymous comments). The post on the site Lost Remote, by Don Day, a digital media producer in Boise, Idaho, questions whether comments add any real value to discussion. It refers to a Time.com piece from last

Transcon buys Redwood Custom Communications

[This post has been updated] Montreal-based Transcontinental Inc. has acquired Canada's largest custom publisher, Toronto-based Redwood Custom Communications.François Olivier, president and cIhief executive officer at Transcontinental, says his company's main goal is to aid customers in reaching and retaining their target audiences, and that Redwood is at the frontier between traditional

Magazine world view

Our occasional links to stories of interest from outside of Canada.Paper industry magazines merge (Folio:)Sweden rewards failing newspapers (Guardian -- Roy Greenslade)OK magazine struggling in United States (UK Press Gazette)Play Out: NYT shuts sports mag (MediaDaily News)

Love letters contest to celebrate Walrus 5th anniversary

In celebration of its 5th anniversary, The Walrus magazine in association with Vintage Canada is holding a contest that invites all comers to write a love letter.The contest coincides with the paperback publication of Four Letter Word, a collection of fictional love letters edited by Joshua Knelman (the former fiction editor of The Walrus) and Rosalind Porter.The book has already been published

Last manuscript standing wins in Broken Pencil writing contest

There seem to be many variations on writing contests, but one laden with irony is the Broken Pencil Indie Writers Deathmatch, a readers-choice contest in which one story emerges triumphant in what the magazine about 'zines says is "culture's bloodiest fiction contest". Plus, of course, it helps to build both the exchequer and readership as entries are $20 and include a one-year sub to Broken

Readership not the problem at Wish and Gardening Life; just not enough advertisers

About 20 people will lose their jobs at St. Joseph Media with the imminent closure of Wish and Gardening Life, according to an interview with Doug Knight, president, interviewed by Masthead magazine. Knight said that the closure was the "prudent" course in the face of an expected protracted advertising slump. The emphasis has to be on big and established titles lke Toronto Life and Fashion. "

Quote, unquote: our real business

"In this coming century, the form of delivery may change, but the potential audience for our content will multiply many times over. Our real business isn't printing on dead trees. It's giving our readers great journalism and great judgment."-- Rupert Murdoch, quoted in the Guardian from an Australian radio address.

Not such a mystery; just produce an interesting magazine

The Globe and Mail today publishes a story about the fifth anniversary of Vancouver Review magazine but, yet again, manages to damn the entire magazine sector with faint praise. Vancouver novelist Timothy Taylor starts his story thus:One of the great mysteries of our day is how anyone survives in the magazine business. Then goes on to catalogue how visionary partners, editor Gudrun Will and

Canadian firms win big at custom publishing awards

Custom publishing has a different vocabulary to reflect its goals. Hence its awards reflect those goals, with categories that other magazine awards wouldn't use (e.g. best achievement of corporate objectives; proof of return on investment). Still, in this major, growing, marketing industry, Canadian publishing expertise is making major waves.Last week, the Custom Publishing Council's "Pearl

Gardening Life: "there will never be another magazine started to take its place"

Marjorie Harris, the editor-at-large of Gardening Life, the demise of which as abruptly announced last week, reflects in her blog on what the magazine (which started as Toronto Life Gardens) meant to her and what she will miss:So after eleven years as the central part of my life this wonderful magazine is gone like a puff of smoke. There will be one more issue. I guess it’ll be a collector’s item

Quote, unquote: telling the truth about not telling the truth

And so we’ve reached an uncomfortable situation, it seems to me, where the government is committed to keeping information from Canadians, but not to explaining the need for it to do so. Witness the Prime Minister’s “no ransom,” “no political prisoners,” “no dangerous criminals” line when, as Norman Spector observed somewhere on this website, he could far more easily have said national security

Raging Grannies protest "pro-military" journalism award

A protest is being mounted against a journalism award by a group which feels it encourages pro-military propoganda, according to a post on the J-source website. The Ross Munro award is given by the Conference of Defence Associations in Ottawa, an Ottawa lobby group. It comes with $2,500 in prize money. This year, the award will go to Alec Castonguay from Le Devoir and L’actualité. The protest is

Mark your calendar: coast-to-coast professional development

Web Weekend Toronto is Saturday, November 29 and November 30, 2008 (Saturday & Sunday) at Centennial College, The Centre for Creative Communications, 951 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto. It's an intensive, hands-on marketing program created specifically for magazine professionals. Fees are $495 for Magazines Canada members, $595 for non-members, including all coffee breaks, lectures,

Three Canadian mags win big at 28th annual IRMA awards

We're late catching up to the Canadian winners last month in the 28th International Regional Magazines Association (IRMA) awards. IRMA has 43 member magazines, largely regional and tourism-oriented. The 2008 president of the association is Jim Gourlay, the publisher of Saltscapes magazine of Halifax. The Canadian winners were:British Columbia magazineGold, travel featureSilver, culture

Wish and Gardening Life closed by St. Joseph

I realize that this only contributes to the pall that I am struggling against in the post below, but I regret to report that two of St. Joseph Media's magazines, Wish and Gardening Life, are being suspended. A memo to staff from President Douglas Knight, reported in Mastheadonline, says, in part:The global financial crisis has triggered such a dramatic decline in advertising markets that prudent

Take a deep breath, cinch up your belt, get back to work

I have been noticing an increase in the figurative rending of garments over recent bad news for the magazine industry. In some perverse way, magazine people (and other media people) can't resist an "if it bleeds, it leads" approach and the internet allows instant forwarding of increasingly hysterical reports about vaporizing ad budgets and the end of life as we know it.This real appetite for

It's not you, it's me...

This requires no comment, a posting by Ian Alexander in a Folio: column:Dear Advertorial,I don’t know how to say this nicely but ... it’s just not working.I’ve tried for years to include you in my circle. I’ve never made you play the uncomfortable host, I’ve sat you in between features and ads and even given you your own tagline: “Special Advertising Section.”But no matter what I do, you always

Transcon restructuring creates new marketing communications sector

Transcontinental Inc. has announced a restructuring of its operations that further emphasizes the importance to the company of business other than its core printing and publishing (including being Canada's largest consumer magazine publisher). The result has been various appointments and departures. Custom publishing and other custom communications, printing of marketing products (flyers etc.),

U.S.magazine prescription drug ads down 20% so far in 2008

Canadian magazine publishers lamenting the unfairness of the fact that their U.S. competitors can carry direct to consumer advertising while they cannot, it may be interesting to know that all is not joy in that sector.U.S. pharmaceutical advertising in magazines is down almost 20% for the first 8 months of 2008, according to a recent report by TNS Media Intelligence. Prescription drug

How good editorial leads to good audience and to good advertising

Editors, the good ones at least, always have their antennae up, sweeping the world for trends and opportunities to serve readers. That critical relationship between readers and advertisers are discussed in another of Magazines Canada's magblast videos, The Power of the Editorial Surround, featuring Lisa Tant, the editor-in-chief of Flare magazine and Kim Pittaway, a magazine writer and consultant.

Maclean's editor Whyte on book tour to resuscitate Hearst's reputation

Ken Whyte, the editor and publisher of Maclean's magazine, is making an extensive tour across Canada, being interviewed at each stop about his new biography called The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst (Random House Canada).The book attempts to resuscitate the reputation of Hearst who has pretty much been pigeonholed as a robber baron publisher both by his own, often

Time magazine says Montreal's public bike system rocks

Time magazine has pronounced that Montreal's public bike system is among the 50 best inventions of 2008. It was number 19 on the list.When lots of people use a communal resource — like, say, a cheap public bicycle-rental program — they tend to abuse it. So when the city of Montreal built its Public Bike System, nicknamed Bixi, the designers packed in all the technology they could find, in a

Magazine world view

Another in our occasional series of links to stories outside of Canada...Average age, household income of (U.S.) magazine readers on rise (Folio:)Advertising industry may not recover until 2010 (Bloomberg)Magazine deals are "difficult", not "impossible) Folio:Reed Elsvier warns RBI sale "cannot be certain" (UK Press Gazette)Ad pages drop, holiday season looks grim (MediaPost)Magazine advertisers

Palin story one among many hoaxes by fake institute

Though it has little to do with Canadian magazines, this story is too delicious to pass up. A report in the New York Times says that the much reported, much blogged story about Republican campaign officials saying Sarah Palin didn't know Africa was a continent...is a hoax. You can read the story and send our sceptic-o-meters out for a tune-up.

Well, that's one strategy...

"Dailies swim around with an anvil under each arm. One anvil is objectivity and the other is 'family newspaper.' Alt-weeklies have the luxury of publishing writing by adults, to adults, and for adults."...."I mean, daily newspapers all need to put "fuck" in a headline above the fold one day -- it'll solve all their problems. That's my prescription. And then in one fell swoop they'll get rid of

Quote, unquote: Raising rates or walking away from writers

“Magazines will have a choice: Either they raise the fee for that particular job or they walk away from the writer. And believe me, there’s going to be a lot of that going on. Some writers are clearly worth more than they are getting and some writers are not. The writers who are not are not going to get any more.”-- The Walrus editor John Macfarlane (retired editor of Toronto Life), commenting to

Magazines Canada hires ad agency to pitch to ad agencies and advertisers

Magazines Canada has hired the ad firm Zulu Alpha Kilo to help promote magazines to agencies and advertisers, according to a story in Marketing magazine. “The Canadian magazine industry is doing very well serving its readers and advertisers,” said Gary Garland, Magazines Canada executive director, advertising services. “But in this [economic] climate, we determined we needed a strong new

Style at Home was prepared to accept use of edit page for coffee-maker ad

A product placement gimmick in the current issue of Transcontinental Media's Style at Home magazine could have been in other mainstream consumer magazines had they been more willing to tailor their editorial to make it work, according to the advertiser who pulled the idea off.The ad uses a stitched-in acetate overlay that, when the page is turned, places a Tassimo coffee maker on the counter of

Fulford says when people talk about death of print, they don't mean magazines

A friend attended the Sarah Fulford lecture last night at Ryerson University in Toronto and sends this dispatch:It was a respectful crowd of mainly students that heard Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford speak at the School of Journalism's Dean's Lecture Series at Ryerson last night. Apparently, the protest movement that mobilized around her magazine's current cover feature about the murder of 16-

Canadian Lawyer magazine says "look south"

Canadian Lawyer magazine (CLB Media) has published a cover theme about South America called Exploring the New World. The opportunities there (and the pitfalls) are illustrated by reporting on the experience of the firm Macleod Dixon.From the two legal professionals...at its inauguration a decade ago, Macleod Dixon’s office in Caracas now boasts 46 lawyers. In addition to being the first, and

Association pubs told that robust web-only can be the way to go

Readers of association publications want "more and more of less and less", the Society of National Association Publications conference in Chicago was told. Rebecca Rolfes, executive vice president of new business development at Imagination Publishing, told association publishers that several elements are changing their roles as publishers. This, according to a story carried in Folio:. She said

Shame on you, say the critics; I'm proud I did it, says Toronto Life editor

Marco Ursi, the editor of Masthead, has done a commendable follow-up on the controversy over the Toronto Life cover story (see previous post). He reports that the article was criticized at a news conference Tuesday morning on a number of specific points, from the wording of the sub-head and the conflation of Aqsa Parvez's killing with earlier media stories about sharia law and the arrest of the

Digital editions said to be no substitute for a good magazine website

Kat Tancock over at Magazines Online blog weighs the pros and cons of digital editions of magazines, about which she could be said to be lukewarm. She sums up that a reproduction of the magazine pages is no substitute for a well-designed and well-executed magazine website.

Toronto Life cover story on "honour killing" comes in for criticism

[This post has been updated*]The cover story in the December issue of Toronto Life about the so-called "honour killing" of Aqsa Parvez, has provoked a furious reaction from a group of people who denounce it as a misrepresentation. Using a Facebook page, they have called on people who agree with them to flood editor Sarah Fulford, her voicemail and her inbox with denunciations of the story.A

Oh, is that how they do it?

A little while ago, we told you about Grazia, a fashion magazine in Britain which was setting up a "pod" in a shopping mall to produce one of its issues so that passerby could see the process. Now MagCulture has posted a picture of the setup, which it calls more of a "post hurricane bungalow"

Indian matchmaking and matrimony mag to launch in Canada

A major India-based internet portal about matrimony is launching a print vehicle in the United States and Canada called BharatMatrimony Times. The magazine is apparently aimed at the large number of first and second-generation sub-continent immigrants who are interested in finding an Indian bride or groom. The website offers a premium personalized matchmaking service. (The portal is owned by

Bullish forecast for 2008 Canadian online revenue

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IABC) says that it expects online advertising to grow by 25% in 2008, according to a release. This despite the economic slump. It says that revenue is expected to be $1.5 billion, up from $1.2 billion actuals of 2007."The 2008 revenue figure should be expected to be pretty safe," says Paula Gignac, President of IAB Canada, "as that budget was fully

The market and the internet don't care if your publication makes money

Are magazines and newspapers entitled to make money because they provide a particularly valuable public service? The question of "entitlement" is central to a posting by Publishing 2.0 blogger Scott Karp who echoes writer Seth Goodin's view that the market doesn't care if a particular media makes money or not.Media companies can only think about their own properties, their own content. They can’t

Sifton out at Sun Media as Peladeau consolidates control

It depends upon perception, but the announcement at the end of last week that Quebecor Inc. is integrating Sun Media and its national web portal Canoe under the leadership of Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor meant that Michael Sifton was out.Sifton sold his Osprey Media group to Sun Media and became its president and CEO a year ago September. Osprey brought a stable of smaller

Role Models Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews co-writer and director David Wain and co-writer and actor Ken Marino about Role Models

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


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OMDC study urges government to increase magazine funding, create tax credit

The Ontario Media Development Corporation has published A Strategic Study of the Magazine Industry in Ontario. It was put up on the OMDC website today. It was prepared by TCI Management Consultants.The report recommends the creation of a new, refundable tax credit for magazines "the only creative sector that does not currently benefit from this form of support." It says that significant

Canadian Magazines poll watch

Recent results from the little polls we run down there on the right: When Canada Post starts charging by distance to deliver subs, what should publishers do?Absorb the difference (38%)Increase subs across the board (31%)Start charging by distance (31%)How should we regard magazine internships? (multiple answers OK)An extension of education (21%)Exploitation (20%)On-the-job training (19%)A great

Is Time Inc. going to be for sale?

Apologies for making you more jittery about the magazine business than you already are, there is a suggestion in the Wall Street Journal (via UK Press Gazette) that the publishing arm of Time Warner may soon be up for sale.The question is whether, in the present economic situation, there are any would-be buyers. Time and Fortune are big-name titles and the Wall Street Journal suggests that as "

Study on state of the Ontario magazine industry due for release

On Friday, the Ontario Media Development Corporation will be releasing a study of the current state of the Ontario magazine industry. This is important not only because Ontario is home to slightly more than half of Canada's magazines, but also because there has been precious little good data available. The results of the strategy study will be distributed on November 7 to various stakeholders and

Thirty years on, is "feminist pornography" still a contradiction in terms?

Many magazines are offering podcasting, audio or video or both. It's an excellent way to augment the print content of the magazine, to present information in a different, but still accessible way. Sometimes the content is original and sometimes keyed off a current article.But how many magazines dig back into their history to compare and contrast today's articles with those of years past. That's

Spafax folds Bell ExpressVu's satellite TV magazines

Spafax Inc. is folding its custom television magazines Show and its French language counterpart Extra. A note from Jennifer Warren, editor-in-chief of the two magazines which were produced on behalf of Bell ExpressVu (posted on My Hogtown) says it was "due to a corporate change in direction for Bell's marketing communications".Spafax, the custom publisher best known for publishing enRoute, the

New York City looking for ways to come to the aid of its media companies

New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has launched an initiative to come to the aid of the metropolis's ailing media industries, according to a story in the New York Observer.The media industry is one of the largest in the city, accounting for more than 160,000 jobs and $15 billion in wages, and occupying more than 14 percent of Manhattan’s office space. [The Economic Development Corporation] EDC

Town Media's 26 magazines switch to forest-friendly paper

Town Media, the publishers of Hamilton magazine and Vines (among others) this month will begin using only forest-friendly paper for printing 2.6 million copies annually of 26 magazines, making it the largest magazine publisher in Canada to use paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada (FSC).The company, based in Burlington, Ontario is the magazine publishing division of Osprey

ABC announces changes to rules affecting Canadian b-to-b magazines

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), meeting in New York, has announce rule changes, including several that will apply to business-to-business magazines in Canada.According to a report in Media in Canada, publishers will be using a new multimedia report that will include website traffic, e-newsletter activity and pass-along receivership data. Business publications will also no longer be

Felix Dennis honoured by British Society of Magazine Editors

Felix Dennis, the founder of Dennis Publishing and its iconic titles Maxim magazine and Stuff and The Week, has been honoured by the British Society of Magazine Editors, according to a story in the UK Press Gazette. The prestigious Mark Boxer Award goes to an individual who, in the opinion of the BSME committee, has made an outstanding editorial contribution to magazines in this country.Dennis

Thomas McCarthy - The Visitor Q&A

Senior Editor Jeff Goldsmith interviews writer-director Thomas McCarthy about The Visitor

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

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New Yorker magazine launches full digital edition, free to print subscribers

While much of any given week's New Yorker magazine content has been available online for some time, print subscribers can now enjoy free access to a complete, digital edition first thing each Monday morning as the magazine comes off the press and considerably ahead* of when most people receive sub copies or are able to buy singles. According to a story in paidContent.org, the magazine's "soft

Folio: features magazine covers of the presidential campaign

As you wait for or reflect on the U.S. election results, you might want to entertain yourself with a slide show put together by Folio: of 115 magazine covers (mostly from the U.S.; none from Canada) that featured the presidential campaign in one way or another. Folio: cleverly included 4 "fake" covers which are so well done that you might mistake them for something that was actually published. (

US News reported to be cutting back to a monthly

Piece by piece, the smallest of the U.S. newsmagazines, U.S. News and World Report, has been getting out of the news business and relying more and more on its annual rankings and other popular consumer guides. According to a story in the Washington Post, USNWR, which announced in June that it was going to cut back to bimonthly starting in 2009, has now decided to make that monthly.The decision to

Auditing guidebook published by advertising associations

A new publication, Media Auditing: A Guidebook on Best Practices for the Canadian Market, has been published to help advertisers, agencies and auditors understand key media auditing issues. The best practices and guidelines were written by media management consultant David Chung in consultation with the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), Canadian Media Directors' Council (CMDC), Institute

Howcum magazines aren't demanding a slice for Google's use of their content?

With book publishers successfully taking on Google over digitization of their content, how come magazines and newspapers aren't following suit? asks The Century Foundation in a posting. Since the $125 million settlement implicitly acknowledges that information is not free.This leads to an obvious, critical question: Why aren’t newspapers and news magazines demanding payment for use of their

Design City show focusses on colour, layout and selling design

Design City is a "show within a show", sponsored by Design Edge Canada magazine and part of Print World 2008, Canada's largest trade show for short-run printing. The show runs November 22 - 24 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. There are three paid seminars and three workshops that are included in paid admission, all pitched at designers, art directors, design managers, production managers

DogSport magazine sold to U.S. manufacturer

A Guelph couple who lovingly created DogSport magazine for dogs who compete in agility and physically challenging athletics, have reluctantly sold their creation to a U.S. manufacturer of a dog agility products. Andrew and Anne Douglas officially handed over to NTI Global, based in Amsterdam, NY on October 17, according to a story in Masthead.The bimonthly magazine found it difficult to provide

Alberta Oil website relaunched with global focus

The online arm of Alberta Oil, albertaoilmagazine.com has been relaunched. The print edition was overhauled and relaunched last month after the magazine and website were purchased by Edmonton's Venture Publishing in June. The magazine and website provide news and analysis of Canada's energy sector. The website, which is has been expanded to cover the issues and trends facing the global energy

Magazine world view

German publisher G + J braces for major ad slowdown(Reuters)British Society of Magazine Editors Awards top covers of 2008 (Guardian)Victoria Beckham fails in bid to get summary privacy ruling against Grazia (Press Gazette)Harvard backs out of Google book scanning after reading settlement fine print (paidContent)

Tearing down the crepe; Canadian magazines can fight back with facts

One of CBC Radio's biggest audiences is Metro Morning, the drive-time show hosted by Andy Barrie in Toronto. What people hear there is often the fodder for watercooler chat later in the day. So it was with some dismay that I heard the interview Barrie conducted this morning with Marco Ursi, the editor of Masthead magazine about the state of the industry.Ursi did a good job of answering questions

Magazines Canada ramps up: when the going gets tough, the tough get going

In response to the storm of depressing magazine news these days, it's encouraging that Magazines Canada is taking several very worthwhile initiatives.Two new national association partners have joined the MagNet superconference, held each June (this year June 2 - 5) in Toronto. The Canadian Authors Association (CAA) will hold its annual conference at MagNet 2009, while the Editors' Association of