Free-circulation and online magazines that meet the standard requirements of the Ontario Arts Council’s Periodicals program are now eligible for funding. The recent program review also removed a circulation cap; magazines with circ over 30,000 are also now eligible.

In the past, free-circulation magazines were left out because of the difficulty of proving readership for this type of publication, says OAC literature officer Lorraine Filyer. This year, however, the council decided to open the program to controlled titles because, “it’s very difficult [for new publishers] to start with the traditional paid-circulation model, because it’s so expensive,” Filyer says. “We wondered if we were missing a whole generation of activity from younger people who are doing sort of hybrid magazines that are not just about literature and culture.”

Any online magazine that applies must be edited, pay its writers and have a proven readership. “I don’t know whether there are that many out there,” Filyer said. Like all the print publications, online magazines must also “contain English-language Canadian fiction, poetry and critical commentary on Canadian contemporary arts, culture and society.”

The application deadline has been extended to June 16, 2008

For more info, contact Lorraine Filyer at 416-969-7438 or 1-800-387-0058, ext. 7438.

Related links

• About the OAC Periodicals program