More than 200 Canadian magazines collaborate in "Buy 2, Get 1 Free"promotion

If ever there was a collaborative idea whose growth was deserved, it is the annual subscription marketing campaign of Magazines Canada -- known popularly by its tagline as "Buy 2, Get 1 Free".The initiative is supported by government grants (Canadian Heritage and Ontario Media Development Corporation) and private sector sponsors with a stake in the health of Canadian magazine publishing (Quad/

Alberta Oil magazine goes after mobile with special oil sands report

Alberta Oil magazine has gone for QR coding in a big way, with the cover of its special report on Alberta's oil sands featuring a QR background and a smaller code in one corner that is actually scannable.The magazine said in a releaseThe inclusion of the QR code is part of a larger strategy to extend Alberta Oil content to mobile readers. The code leads readers to an exclusive video tour of

Maclean's and CPAC host debate on how 9/11 changed our world

Maclean's magazine and CPAC, the public affairs channel, are to host a live, two-hour debate in St. John's on the topic "How has 9/11 Changed Our World?". The event is free to the public and takes place at the Cook Recital Hall at Memorial University next Thursday, September 8 a 7:30 p.m. NDT. (Complimentary tickets can be obtained at www.Macleans.ca/inconversation.Panelists will include

Alberta Venture launches microsite with 5 years of Venture 100 data

Alberta Venture magazine has compiled the last 5 years of data from its annual Venture 100 ranking of top-grossing Alberta-based companies and put it on a dedicated microsite. It contains data that can be sorted by specific size, industry, growth rate, annual revenue, rank and other metrics, along with articles from the past 5 years and some expanded web-focussed editorial content. The site also

Quarto Communications names Sellwood COO, Caldwell director of content development

Sellwood
Major changes and added responsibilities are part of a reorganization at Quarto Communications, one of Canada's most highly regarded mid-sized publishers.Terry Sellwood, who was general manager, has been named chief operating officer of the company.
Penny Caldwell, editor-in-chief of Cottage Life has been named director of content development for the company. Part of her responsibility

"Are you really going to eat that?"; magazine launches mobile diet reminder

Self magazine is launching a new text-based diet program for mobile devices which reminds users to eat healthy, drink water and exercise, according to a story from MediaDailyNews. The Self Diet Tapper costs $0.10 a day and delivers five daily reminders about calorie goals, "hydration reminders" and a daily cardio plan with the goal of losing up to two pounds a week. Research has apparently shown

Rural Delivery magazine's hand mowing championships shows if you can cut it

Rural Delivery magazine of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, is hosting its 8th annual Maritime Hand Mowing Championships on August 27 at the Ross Farm museum in New Ross, N.S., the province's only working heritage farm. If you're in the neighbourhood, demonstrations get underway 9 a.m. with the main event 1 p.m. after a BBQ lunch.The event, which costs nothing to enter except to bring your own

Rue Morgue teams up with rep cinema to present monthly festival of terror shorts

Rue Morgue magazine, has teamed up with production company Unstable Ground and Toronto's newest rep cinema (a somewhat endangered species) The Projection Booth, to provide a monthly festival of short films called Little Terrors. Starting July 26 and each month thereafter, horror fans will see two hours of shorts and to meet some of the filmmakers.  The first event has seven films ranging from 8

Permission to be still: Geez magazine supplement promotes contemplation

Enns with current, and previous, booklets
It's not the first time that Geez, the Winnipeg-based magazine about faith and activism, has provided its readers with a l'il extra. It has done so three times before -- with tiny supplements about technology, social change, and wisdom. This time around, subscribers and single copy buyers of the five-year-old quarterly will be getting a 16-page,

Plays well with others -- The New Quarterly and ARC Poetry publish joint double issue

[This post has been updated]
ARC Poetry and The New Quarterly have collaborated on a joint special double issue this summer. The "Quarc Issue" is presented in flipbook style and is literally two magazines in one.
"This special double issue...presents scientists and artists alike with a unique opportunity to observe what happens when two solid, award-winning magazines smash into each other like a

Four out of five couponing customers don't come back, report says

Recently, magazines in Canada have jumped on the couponing bandwagon, offering deep discounts in daily deals through sites like Groupon. The idea is to build subscriptions and, perhaps, to expose the magazines to new customers who will renew. This may be a faint hope.According to research published by Rice University (reported by ClickZ) , while 80% of deal users were new customers, only 20%

Aye, there's the rub; Geist creates erasure poetry contest

Geist magazine of Vancouver has come up with a wacky new subscription promotion -- the Geiste Erasure Poetry contest. In it, a passage from Susanna Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush is copied. Without changing the order of the words, but erasing as they will, entrants (who pay $20 -- which includes a one-year sub)  are to create a poem out of the passage. There is no word limit. The winner gets

Special issue of The New Yorker includes 50 "Talk of the Town" profiles

The New Yorker magazine is issuing a special issue this week that, in the style of the famous "Talk of the Town" columns, showcases high profile celebrities from the past 10 years, with 50 profiled. A single sponsor -- USA Network -- bought all of the ad space in the issue to promote its summer line up. According to a post on Audience DevelopmentThe special issue launch is the first-ever print

Didn't your mother tell you not to play with your vegetables?

Musicworks, the magazine that brings some amazing contemporary music to its readers (every issue comes with a CD) in its upcoming summer issue will be showing readers how to make instruments out of vegetables, such as a carrot made into an ocarina, using only some kitchen tools and a drill. The magazine was inspired by the Vegetable Orchestra of Vienna which creates, composes for and performs on

Maclean's uses "tumble cover" to highlight both Harper win and bin Laden death

Front cover
When there is almost too much news to cover in one week's issue, Maclean's has turned to the device of printing two covers -- one with the victorious Stephen Harper, the other with the face of the assassinated leader of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. 

Back cover
The bin Laden cover is inverted on the outside back.They are featured on the 182-page issue (biggest ever for a regular issue

Not one, not two, but three covers on Toronto Life June

 Newsstands that carry Toronto Life will be receiving one of three covers of the June issue, which goes on sale May 12. An equal number of copies of the three different covers will be shipped at random. This is a first for the magazine. The cover subjects are
Malin Akerman (homegrown Holywood "it girl") -- shot by George Pimentel
Aishwarya Rai (a nod to Toronto's hosting of the Indian Film

The buddy system applied to subscription marketing: Geist and Poetry is Dead

Geist magazine of Vancouver is promoting a 2-for-1 deal for subscriptions both to it and Poetry is Dead.We love Poetry Is Dead. It's the quirkiest, edgiest and newest poetry magazine in Canada. We know you'll love it too. Subscribe now for $29.99 and receive BOTH magazines. Usual sub for Poetry is Dead is $12; for Geist $21.

Magazine use made easy

Designer Khoi Vin has taken the mickey out of the sometimes complicated navigational instructions issued with new devices such as the iPad by creating a poster about how to read a magazine.I particularly like directions such as "Fold along the spine to switch to carrying mode" and "Start reading in the upper-left hand corner, move across to your right and then down". The thumbnail here was found

Toronto's Luminato Festival partners with The New Yorker magazine

Luminato, the Toronto festival of arts and creativity, has announced that it is partnering with The New Yorker magazine, sponsored by RBC to present a series of lectures and panel discussions during the first weekend of the festival,June 12 & 13. The festival runs June 10 - 19. It is the first time The New Yorker magazine has curated a program of events for a festival other than its own. The

Seams like old times: Worn magazine hosts monthly "mending night"

Worn Fashion Journal, the resolutely independent alternative fashion publicationl, holds a monthly "mending night" in Toronto where people can find the best way to keep their clothes in good nick. Not only that, but it started a Facebook page for it called "Thursday Night Your Stockings Needed Mending". (It is, of course, a reference to a line in the lyrics of the Beatles's song Lady Madonna.)"