Masthead News Archives
August 2002
August 29, 2002
R.O.B. Magazine editor sacked
TORONTO-After 27 months, Douglas Goold has been fired as editor of R.O.B. Magazine, the monthly insert to The Globe and Mail newspaper. Staff were informed at a meeting yesterday morning. The announcement comes just weeks after the appointment of Edward Greenspon as Globe editor. Publisher Phillip Crawley says Goold may become a columnist for The Globe's Report on Business section. His successor has not been named.
Goold took over from predecessor Patricia Best in May 2000. He joined The Globe as a full-time staffer in 1992, serving as investment editor and a columnist before becoming editor of the Report on Business section in 1997. Goold's resumé also includes editorial stints with the Financial Post (pre-National Post) and The Edmonton Journal. He is also the founding editor of Investment Executive magazine.

August 27, 2002
Barenaked Lady partners with wine mag
ST. CATHARINES, Ont.- Barenaked Ladies lead singer Steven Page has joined Shift magazine cofounders Evan Solomon and Andrew Heintzman in a partnership to grow Vines, a wine magazine published in this southwestern Ontario city. Page, a wine lover, struck the acquaintance of Vines founder and majority owner Walter Sendzik, who launched the bimonthly in 1998. Solomon and Heintzman have been partners since 2000, and are helping Sendzik plot the magazine's growth strategy. "We're going to help relaunch [Vines] to make it a successful national magazine about wine," says Solomon, now a CBC Television personality. "The industry has experienced incredible growth and we feel we have the strategy to make it a very successful magazine." The relaunch issue is expected to debut this fall with circ doubling to 20,000.

August 22, 2002
CMC votes to avert "disastrous" rivalry
TORONTO-Two competing professional-development conferences would be "disastrous," says the CMC Circulation Management Association of Canada. The alarming statement was released yesterday in response to the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association invitation to participate in its nascent national conference, a rival event that imperils the future of Magazines University and the Masthead Trade Show. (Masthead derives 25% of its revenue from its Mags U-related activity.)

CMC president Wayne Leek said a "substantial majority" of the 12-member board voted to reject the CMPA's invitation and instead call for co-operation. The CMC would "take whatever steps are necessary to work towards a solution and to avoid a split we feel would be disastrous for the Canadian magazine industry." The CMC seized the neutral ground when a motion to attend Mags U 2003 was also defeated. The CMC has requested all Mags U stakeholders get together "to address specific concerns from past events and to develop a re-engineered event that meets the needs of each partner."

CMPA Chair Al Zikovitz (publisher of Cottage Life and explore) said yesterday that he will consult with his management committee later this month regarding the CMC's appeal. Asked if the CMPA was determined to go ahead with its planned conference, Zikovitz said "I don't think I can answer that."

August 19, 2002
New dog mag marks territory
VANCOUVER-Urban dog owners in this city and throughout B.C.'s lower mainland will notice a new resource in area coffee shops, pet stores, vet offices and on Indigo newsstands-a glossy quarterly magazine called Modern Dog. "There's a whole urban dog community," says first-time publisher Connie Wilson, who plans to launch her 15,000-circ mag in October. "It's not [going to be] a cutesy pet magazine at all," she says, "but a magazine meant to appeal to ... urban dog owners who are interested in traveling and living well and who want their dogs to be a part of it all." Wilson says talk around local fire hydrants suggests the magazine will be well received.

August 09, 2002
Details emerge on CMPA's conference
TORONTO-The Canadian Magazine Publishers Association has announced that its incipient "national magazine conference" will be held this spring, one provocative week before Magazines University 2003. Recall that the CMPA had been one of the partners in Magazines University, the industry's national conference run co-operatively by the CMPA, CMC, Canadian Business Press, CCAB/BPA and Masthead for the past 11 years. The CMPA abruptly quit Mags U shortly after this June's successful conference, citing a need to be able to act independently of other Mags U partners. "We [will] have the total flexibility to do the seminars we'd like to do and not worry about anybody else," CMPA chair Al Zikovitz told Masthead in June.

Yet, in a member bulletin released yesterday, the CMPA claims to have recruited support of other industry groups and associations, including the CMC, the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors and Magazines Canada. MastheadOnline has confirmed that none of the boards representing these groups have voted to participate in the CMPA's alternative conference. Further, sources say the CMPA will seek provincial and federal funding for its event. Magazines University did not rely on government funding and this past year attracted 1,473 attendees, a 22.6% increase over last year.

CMPA chair Al Zikovitz and president Mark Jamison could not be reached for comment.

August 09, 2002
Adbusters embraces Web videos
VANCOUVER-The magazine committed to subverting the central praxis of capitalism (mass consumption of natural resources driven by tendentious advertising designed to opiate objections) now disseminates moving messages on the Web at www.adbusters.org. Adbusters TV launched yesterday and a source at the magazine says the service will be largely reliant on submissions of video, audio and animations by freelancers. Adbusters was named magazine of the year by the Western Magazine Awards Foundation in June.

August 07, 2002
Business mag opts for digital-only model
LONDON, Ont.-No more printing and postage bills for the Ivey Business Journal. The bimonthly glossy published by the University of Western Ontario since 1932 suspended its print edition as of the May/June issue. Yes, cost savings were a consideration in making the switch, says publisher Ed Pearce, but not the sole driver. "We're taking a much more international focus," he says, noting that the plan is to increase the number of foreign subscribers, currently numbering about 900. With digital transmission, Pearce hopes to more than triple subscriptions in the coming year, from 9,000 to 30,000, two thirds of which will be foreign. The IBJ will skip its July/August issue to prepare for the Sept. 20 digital premiere, which will reach subscribers via e-mail (imbedded with HTML and PDF documents); the magazine will also be pasted onto a password-access Web site. In late 2000, 107-year-old Canadian Banker stopped the presses and opted for an electronic version.

August 01, 2002
Spence leaves Profit
TORONTO: As of July 26, Rick Spence is "taking a well-deserved vacation" says VP of business publishing Deborah Rosser. Spence resigned from Profit magazine after a 13 and a half year reign—12 years as editor and four years as publisher—at the Canadian entrepreneurship title published by Rogers Media. Spence will continue to assist as contributing editor. Prior to joining Profit, Spence was managing editor of The Financial Times of Canada and has worked with a variety of publications including Canadian Business, The Financial Post, enRoute and Report On Business magazine. Ian Portsmouth, who has been at Profit for seven years, has stepped in as acting editor and hopes to carry on that role. Although Rosser says Spence is irreplaceable she is looking to divvy up his old position and announce a new publisher in the next few weeks. Shortly prior to Spence's departure, advertising sales director Victoria Petrolo Cutts left the magazine. Profit, published eight times a year with a 200,000 circulation, is unveiling another redesign that was orchestrated by Spence with its September issue.

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Wow, Torstar really seems to be on a mission to bankrupt one magazine after another....
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