Who will watch the watchers?

At first, with the stylized maple leaf, I thought it was a promotion for the new Maclean's design, particularly since the ad was on the Maclean's website. But no, it's for a new service called Canada's National Cybertipline (cybertip.ca), whereby you can turn people in for crimes against...we're not sure. Look at the website and draw your own conclusions.The service (?) sprang from Child Find

We're still here, really

The Toronto Star today published the results of a national poll that would seem to confirm what many people in the traditional media think, or desperately wish to think: that far from displacing traditional media like newspapers and magazines, online users actually use them more than those who have so far eluded the internet.

Bye bye back page

The Globe today reports this tidbit, in the midst of a James Adams article about the relaunch gala coming up for Maclean's: the back page column, a staple of the magazine for years, is moving inside as part of the radical new design to be unveiled at the Garth Drabinsky (who dat?) extravaganza on November 15. Paul Wells may have hinted at something to this effect in his blog the other day: Le

Club Sub?

Here's a new wrinkle: a "rewards" system for readers who bring new subscribers. The well-known self-help book Chicken Soup for the Soul in July spawned a new 6-time, 150,000 circ. magazine called...Chicken Soup for the Soul. This according to an item in MediaPost.The publishers, Modern Media LLC, has launched a "rewards program" that gives "shopping points" that can be redeemed from a "

Cosy for the holidays

The Media In Canada headline is certainly provocative: Microsoft gets between the sheets with Chatelaine. The article describes how a "branded section"called the Holiday Helpbook is being co-produced by the Rogers title and the online Microsoft Home magazine, included in the magazine's December issue and promoted on Chatelaine's website. Here's how the publication will look.

Where the boys aren't

A column in the November 7 issue of Business Week explores what is apparently a major or developing trend; the erosion of men's interest in print magazines. Research at Time Inc. indicates that women's interest holds up (6 of the top 10 A list magazines recently picked by Advertising Age are women's service titles) but men's involvement with magazines is eroding. Partly it is attributed to men's

Only kidding; as you were

An earlier post reported that Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was seriously considering breaking the monopoly of magazine distribution. Now, it appears from an article in the Guardian, vigorous lobbying by the magazine industry has convinced the agency to reverse course, or at least soften the impact. (For those who think it is at least unseemly for media companies to campaign against open