Is proprietor Rick MacArthur the solution for Harper's or the problem?

The lamentable spiralling saga of Harper's magazine has another installment with an article in the New York Observer by Kat Tossel. It brings up to date the firing of the literary editor and de facto second in command Ben Metcalfe, scapegoated by patron and publisher Rick MacArthur for unionizing the magazine. [See previous posts here and here.] MacArthur pumps considerable part of his personal

Todd's excellent adventure; Water Canada publisher going to Antarctica

Todd Latham, the  owner of Actual Media publisher of Water Canada magazine (and ReNew Canada), will go to the ends of the earth to promote his interests in the environment and this time, that's meant literally. He is taking part in an educational mission called Water Antarctica and has started a website to promote the International Antarctic Expedition 2011 (IAE 2011) mission and chronicle the

Outlooks magazine publishers to get hitched on a wagon during Toronto Pride parade

The co-owners of Outlooks, a Calgary-based national gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine, will be getting married this weekend on a float moving along as part of the Toronto Gay Pride parade. A flatbed truck has been transformed into a moving wedding chapel.Brett Taylor (right) and David Mitchell won a contest run by an online dating service to be one of six couples who will be tying the marital

Change at the top of Hearst Magazines as it poaches key executive from Condé Nast

Cathleen (Cathie) Black has been promoted to chairman of Hearst Magazines and is being replaced as president by David Carey (right), moving over from rival publisher Condé Nast Publications.Mediaweek reported that his defection was "shocking" and that the shock was at both ends: at Condé Nast since Carey was considered a contender to replace Chuck Townsend as CEO; and at Hearst where his hiring (

Spacing magazine publisher stickhandles drive to legalize road hockey...CAR!

Small magazines sometimes feel they're preaching to the choir, as the saying goes, and may feel they have little influence. But Spacing magazine is proof of the thesis that having their kind of "bully pulpit" can sometimes give influence far larger than their paid circulation.Matt Blackett, the publisher and designer and general factotum of the urban affairs magazine seems to have tapped into a

Smokin': Ruth Kelly's ambitions go beyond Alberta Venture and publishing

Ruth Kelly of Venture Publishing, whose Alberta Oil was named magazine of the year at the KRWs last night in Toronto (she wasn't there; her colleague Joyce Byrne accepted) is featured as a celebrity chef in the Edmonton Journal for her "ambitious" cooking.The story says that people cook as they live:Our latest celebrity chef, Ruth Kelly, the force behind Venture Publishing Inc. and a whirlwind

Jailed Cannabis Culture publisher blogs and podcasts to pass the time

If the U.S authorities thought that slapping the former publisher and editor-in-chief of Cannabis Culture magazine in jail would shut him up, they hadn't reckoned with Marc Emery. Formally extradited to the USA on Thursday, May 20th, 2010, Emery appeared in Seattle federal court to enter a (negotiated) guilty plea on May 24. He had surrendered on charges relating to selling marijuana seeds by

Christian Science Monitor's conversion to a magazine turning out well

A while back the story was that the venerable Christian Science Monitor was converting from being a daily newspaper to a weekly print magazine supported by a daily-updated website. At the time, there were hopes, but not much evidence, that the plan would work and stanch the losses that the highly respected publication was experiencing. Well, the results are in and, far from being yet another

International publishers ask European Union for copyright help

Straws in the copyright winds...A letter written to the European Union by a group of leading European newspaper and magazine publishers on Thursday asked for enhanced copyright protection to help them generate revenue online, according to a story in the New York Times. The publishers said widespread use of their work by online news aggregators and other Web sites was undermining their efforts to

Is this the shape of things to come?

“We think the traditional publisher’s role is kind of disappearing. Advertisers are looking for integrated programs so the agencies will have one source to go to for both print and online. We are changing our structure in anticipation of that for the day that it happens. In some cases it’s happened already.”-- Entrepreneur Media Inc. president Neil Perlman With that, the publishers of

What will the papers say?

Although it is fixated on newspapers, many magazine journalists and publishers make a point of reading the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). Now this venerable magazine has undergone a transformative experience of its own, with a redesign showing up with its March/April issue. Of course, the cover story is a big piece by Robert Kuttner on the future of newspapers in the age of the

Canadian Geographic getting out of the merchandising business?

Canadian Geographic has always been among the leaders in Canadian consumer publishing in terms of developing line extensions and exploiting their hard-earned brand.One of the areas in which they showed such leadership was in merchandising, selling everything from maple butter to telescopes and branded T-shirts. That is coming to an end, apparently, with a giant "inventory blowout" on the

Ranking, listing and backscratching

Starting every fall and running through to the first issue of each calendar year is the season of congratulatory lists, whereby (primarily business) magazines trumpet the 100 this, the 50 that or the 1,000 whatever. It may be some of the least-read* material any of these magazines do, but the purpose is not readership but symbiotic promotion. (*I'd be happy to see research data that shows