Deeper discounts on subs

Rogers Magazine Service is a division of Rogers Media and every once in a while, it teams up with the Bank of Montreal MasterCard division and makes a special offer on magazine subscriptions -- its own, and others, including U.S. titles from the giants like Hearst, Rodale, Conde Nast and Meredith Corporation. The latest just arrived in the mail with the credit card bill.It's interesting to see

Buy three, give one free

An interesting variant on volume discounting: A magazine in the U.S. called DiversityInc. gives advertisers one, free "pro bono" ad in support of the cause of their choice for every three regular ads they buy on the rate card. Here's a longer story about it from Media Daily News.

When stories are interview-free

Simon Houpt, the New York columnist for the Globe and Mail, writes today (subscription req'd) about the ethics of the "write around", wherein a magazine does a story without an interview being granted by the central subject. Are magazines under some sort of obligation to disclose this? Provided the information is correct and the story a good and entertaining read, what beyond that is the magazine

Organizing freelancers? Maybe. Maybe not

If you haven't had the opportunity to see it, there is some interesting analysis in Julie Crysler's article "Unite the Write?" in the November-December issue of This Magazine. It explores the implications of and impediments to the unionizing of freelance writers. The movement surfaced in August.

The Canadian Utne nominees

It's an honour just to be nominated, they say (and in this case, it's true). There are a number of Canadian titles among the finalists in the Utne magazine Independent Press Awards. These aren't applied for, but selected, from among the 1,300 odd titles that are scanned every year by the magazine's staff. As a result, an Utne nomination is highly prized. The winners in each category will be

Geez keeps the faith

A new quarterly magazine, one with North American ambitions, is due out from its Winnipeg base on December 5. It's called Geez and it promises to anneal political activism to discussions about religion and belief.It sold its first 200 subscriptions by offering them at half price (sorry that offer ended once they reached 200) and it costs $25 a year for 4 issues. Cover price is $7.The magazine's

And that would be a good thing

Martha Stewart Omnimedia is to launch a new magazine this spring called Blueprint, for 30-something first-time homeowners. This, according to Advertising Age.