Let the backlash begin

Simon Dumenco, who writes the entertaining Media Guy column for Ad Age, has gone off on a toot about the various madnesses of converging and "innovative" media choice. It's worth a read. Go here.

Generally good year for U.S. magazines

Leading U.S. magazines enjoyed a good 2005, with both ad pages and ad revenue up, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. You can read about the details at the website of the Magazine Publishers of America. (It should be noted that PIB does not track all U.S. titles, and its dollar data is based on the rate card price for pages, not allowing for discounts.) The closest equivalent such

Publisher of Quill & Quire catalogue let go

Times are tough at Quill and Quire, the book industry and library trade publication. So St. Joseph Media has fired Barbara Scott, the Publisher of Books for Everybody, the Q & Q division's consistently profitable catalogue operation. Go figure.

Changes at Heritage

Responsibility for magazine policy at Canadian Heritage now lies with William Fizet, who has a reputation for "understanding the file", which is considered high praise among those in the know in Canadian magazine funding and policy circles. Gordon Platt, who was Acting Director General, has now shifted over to be responsible for the book side of publishing policy.

Caught in a tangle of thorny issues

The American Society of Business Magazine Editors, has come out with a study that says their members are bedevilled by ethical issues and their publishers don't always back them up. (ASBPE is a trade association for editors and writers who work on business, trade, association, and professional print magazines and newsletters and their associated Internet publications. It has more than 700 members

Dealer's choice

Reptile over at Rep Life talks today about the anguish and the imperatives of sometimes going off the card. Whether he will hate himself in the morning? Dunno.

Take One R.I.P.

The national film magazine Take One has ceased publication, blaming a wholesale switchover by people in its industry to getting information off the internet, according to a report in today's Globe and Mail.