Magazine postage bills take it on the chin

Magazines Canada is reeling from a massive slap in the face from the Department of Canadian Heritage. DCH has quietly announced, without consultation and with less than 60 days notice, a huge cut in the Publications Assistance Program contribution to individual magazines. This came right after Magazines Canada had been able to take some comfort from a restoration of some funding to the program

New sales boss at St. Joe's Urban Group

Tracy Miller has been promoted to Director of Sales at the Urban Group of St. Joseph Media. She replaces Associate Publisher Kim Peacock who is leaving to become Publisher, Western Magazines for Transcontinental Media, responsible for Vancouver and Western Living. This is one of the first moves announced by Sharon McAuley, who just started as Vice-President and Group Publisher of the division

Way out west

Another in our sporadic series about Canadian magazines we love. This time, Prairies North.When a magazine is published so far off the beaten track as is Prairies North, it had better be good. And it is. Norquay, Saskatchewan is a village with one restaurant and one magazine about three good hours drive east of Regina. The magazine is published out of an airy, sunny, renovated house in the town,

That fabled wall between church and state

Apparently Don Obe, retired head of the magazine program at Ryerson, is writing a piece for Masthead's back page on the crumbling wall between editorial and advertising, exemplified by the Maclean's deal with Cadillac last spring to "brand" an excerpt from Peter C. Newman's book. (I'm looking forward to Don's usually trenchant prose.)Now, we have a suggestion that -- at least in part -- Kim

One after another after another...

More word on the wholesale changes being made to staff at Maclean's. Senior Editor Rob Sheppard is the latest to be let go. Recruited from the Globe and Mail, Sheppard has been at Canada's national newsmagazine for 8 years and was considered among its most seasoned reporters and craftsmen.Apparently disheartenedby the steady erosion and demoralization of the staff, former Assistant Managing

Stirred, not shaken

Search as we might, we cannot find a Canadian magazine that has its own cocktail. Which seems a shame. It came to us upon learning that Tin House, a hip new literary publication in the U.S. had a custom-made martini designed for it by the Four Seasons in New York (where it can be ordered). Now let's not argue about whether a martini can be anything except gin, vermouth and a garnish. The secret

She was outta there!

Kim Pittaway jumped from the editorship of Chatelaine, apparently, because she felt she was being pushed by Publisher Kerry Mitchell. This from today's Michael Posner article in the Globe and Mail. No notice or severance pay was involved -- she just quit and cleaned out her desk.Her departure was the culmination of a series of exchanges, some written (I'd love to read that e-mail) and some