Please clarify: 5,000 paid copies per year, or per issue? I originally thought it was per issue but looks like that's incorrect, which is a good thing.

Thanks for the link, and for your continuing coverage of magazine issues. I always read the Masthead bulletin when it shows up in my inbox -- always a great read, even when the news is bad.

The threshold is for publications with paid circ less 5,000 copies PER YEAR.

Selling 5000 copies a year shouldn't be that tough but the sad part is that, too often, the minimum threshold becomes the goal. If you can sell 5000, there's no incentive to try to circulate more than 10,000 a year because that puts the magazine outside the "50% paid" criterion. And furthermore, Canada Council disqualifies even paid circulation publications with a per issue circulation of more than 25,000. If we're truly interested in audience, would it not make more sense to encourage the (very) small circulation magazines to spread their news and views to a much larger potential audience on the internet? On a related subject, perhaps Mr. Scott (or someone else) can explain why, other than because of effective lobbying by legacy publishers, paid circulation as opposed to controlled circulation is the 'holy grail' of the federal magazine subsidy programs. I suspect not many Canadian magazines sell more than 50% of their newsstand draw. But subsidizing the printing of the extra 50% condemned to recycling certainly removes some of the discipline that would otherwise be associated with the print order. And the massive direct mail campaigns for subscription sales and renewal attmepts are scarcely less wasteful.What's the problem with providing a magazine at no charge to selected consumers? Amazingly, the controlled circ model seems to work reasonably well, often in competition with the government-subsidized, paid -circulation publications.