Isabelle Marcoux to succeed father Remi as chair of Transcontinental Inc.

Remi Marcoux, the chair of Transcontinental Inc., will be stepping down effective with the company's annual general meeting in February, to be succeeded by his daughter Isabelle, who is at present vice-chair and vice-president of corporate development. The retirement is consistent with a number of steps that have been taken in recent years to ensure succession in the family-dominated company. A

We can live with the new Apple subscription model, says Transcon CEO

Apparently, a 30% subscription commission taken by iTunes, while steep, is something that the CEO of Transcontinental Inc., Francois Olivier says his company can live with, according to what he told the Montreal Gazette. Transcontinental Media publishes the largest number of consumer magazines in Canada. The new sub model will help newspapers and magazines  make money, Olivier says. Apple this

Would a Lagardère sale have some impact on Transcontinental Media?

The French media company Lagardère says it may sell its international magazines in order to concentrate on its domestic publishing operation. The company, which publishes Paris Match, owns Elle magazine and a change in ownership would obviously be of some interest to Transcontinental Media, which publishes Elle Canada (right) and Elle Quebec under license from Lagardère subsidiary Hachette

Transcon's Larivière joins ABC Canada board

Natalie Larivière, the president of Transcontinental Media (which publishes all its consumer and trade magazines)has joined the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations' ABC Canada Board Committee.She has been with Transcontinental since 2006, having previously been president and CEO of the Quebecor Media Book Group.

The Hockey News's mobile applications downloaded more than 1 million times

The Hockey News's mobile application (thn.mobi) has been downloaded over 1 million times since it was launched in October 2008, the publisher has announced. The Transcontinental Media title was an early adopter of mobile application, believing that hockey fans were hungry for news on the game, trades, stats and other articles. Apparently they were right. Now, in terms of usage, it is among the

Transcontinental Media's affaires plus magazine redesigned to become a+

Transcontinental Media's affaires plus magazine has undergone a transformation, with a new design and a rebranding as a+, effective with the issue just now on the newsstands in Quebec. The monthly magazine was a line extension to the the publication Les Affaires.  While it continued to be aimed at a business audience, affaires plus two years ago shifted its editorial positioning to distinguish

New EIC at Elle Canada promises openness and approachability

The new editor-in-chief of Elle Canada, Noreen Flanagan, has submitted to an interview with the Globe and Mail for its Saturday edition (up now on the web) in which she goes to some lengths to explain how her editorial management approach will differ substantially from that of her recently turfed predecessor, Rita Silvan. The leitmotif of the article is access and openness (which not so subtly

Transcontinental Media lauches first issue of business digest bimonthly Premium

Transcontinental Media has launched Premium, a bimonthly business intelligence magazine associated with Les Affairs Group (publishers of Les Affaires and Affaires Plus magazines). 

The March-April issue is 92 pages and, following the model promised in December, contains French adaptations of feature articles from other publications such as the Harvard Business Review, Strategy+ Business, Rotman

Transcontinental has improved first quarter results

Transcontinental Inc. confirms that it received $100 million by selling its U.S. direct mail business, as it reports positive news for its first quarter ended January 31, according to a story in Canadian Press. The Montreal-based printer and magazine publisher earned $27.9 million in profit for Q1, compared with a $6.4 million loss in the same period a year ago. Net earnings were 32 cents a chare

Transcontinental ends 2009 fiscal with strong 4th quarter, but annual loss of $82 million

Transcontinental Inc., the printer and Canada's largest consumer magazine publisher, ended fiscal 2009 ended October 31 with a loss of $82.3 million --a decrease of 6% in revenue and a loss of net income of 6%. Revenue was $2.29 billion compared with $2.5 billion a year ago. The loss per share was $1.02.
The year was capped by a strong 4th quarter in which net income grew 15%. The company

Major shakeup at Transcon Media

Major and game-changing management changes are being made at Transcontinental Media, Canada's largest consumer magazine publisher, with this morning's announcement that Jacqueline Howe, vice president and group publisher English Canada consumer publications in Toronto, and Marilyn Kielly, director, finance, will be leaving the company as their positions have been eliminated. There is a major

Why I won't sign the Transcontinental contract, by Kim Pittaway

A post by Kim Pittaway on the site Bad Writing Contracts is both brave and thought-provoking, and by rights should provoke some reconsideration by Transcontinental Media about the master contract it is imposing on freelancers. It's headed "Why I won't sign the Transcontinental contract". Pittaway, former editor-in-chief and managing editor of Chatelaine magazine and past president of the National

Boycott of Transcontinental Media titles now promoted by new website

The coalition of Canadian writers' organizations that are promoting a boycott of Transcontinental Media magazines, have launched a website called Bad Writing Contracts. The site is another tool in a kit that includes a blog, a Facebook group and posts on Twitter.

The boycott focuses on a proposed master agreement that Transcontinental is imposing on all freelance writers who work for any of its

Derek Finkle of Canadian Writers Group responds to Marcoux statements

Derek Finkle of the Canadian Writers Group responds to statements by Pierre Marcoux of Transcontinental:1) Marcoux should not have been surprised to learn yesterday that fourteen groups - not just PWAC and CWG - had serious concerns about his company's new Master Author Agreement. The letter sent to Jacqueline Howe back in June that lead to our meeting on July 16, was signed by ten groups, in

Transcontinental contract is misunderstood, says senior executive

[This post has been updated] [UPDATE: In a conversation with Canadian Magazines, Pierre Marcoux, Transcontinental's vice-president of business solutions and book publishing said that the company was surprised by the press release and the suggestion of a boycott. "We received this communication [the press release] the same as everybody else and we were suprised that 12 groups had joined with the

Rogers and Transcon team up to cut ad insertion lead times to 2 weeks

Canada's two largest magazine publishing companies, Rogers Publishing and Transcontinental Media, have announced that they are cooperating in cutting the lead times for advertisers' insertion in the companies' monthly magazines. Pressexpress is an ad-close schedule that means ad creative can be sumbitted only two weeks prior to publication.Brian Segal, president and CEO of Rogers told Marketing

Freelancers urged to boycott Transcon mags over refusal to budge on master contract

[This post has been updated] Transcontinental Media has apparently dug its heels in over its proposed master contract, refusing to negotiate with representatives of the freelance community, who as a result are now calling for an "unprecedented" boycott of the company.A press release has been issued that gives detailed background on the dispute and details the organizations that are supporting the

Transcontinental Media cuts 29 jobs in magazine division

Monday morning first thing, Transcontinental Media cut a reported 29 jobs in its newly merged business and consumer solution group, according to a report in Masthead. A staff meeting was told specifically eliminated were 13 jobs in Toronto, 10 in Montreal and 6 in Vancouver, totalling 22; it's not known where the seven other positions are. Pierre Marcoux, who recently was appointed head of the

Pierre Marcoux steps up to head Transcon's consumer magazine publishing

Pierre Marcoux, son of the chair of Transcontinental Inc., is assuming responsibility for the Transcontinental Media division's consumer magazine publishing. He had been director of business development. Marcoux replaces senior vice-president and general manager, consumer publishing John Clinton who is moving over to head up digital operations (no title yet). The announcement was made to staff

Transcon posts Q2 loss of $144.3 million

Transcontinental Inc., Canada's largest publisher of consumer magazines as well as being a major newspaper publisher and commercial printer, announced today that it posted a major Q2 loss of $144.3 million. Largely because of restructuring and other charges, that's a total swing of more than $180 million when compared with a profit of $36.9 million in the same period a year ago.The quarterly loss