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Masthead News Archives
March 2002
March 2002
March 28, 2002
With Hall out, Milne steps in at Rogers
TORONTO—A former editorial assistant who toiled away at such Maclean Hunter titles as Canadian Jeweller has been appointed senior vice-president at Rogers Publishing and given a chair on the executive committee of Rogers Publishing. John Milne joined Maclean Hunter in the late 1970s as an editorial factotum; he was named editor of Benefits Canada in 1984 and publisher in 1988. In the early 1990s he expanded MH’s publishing activities in the financial services sector. In his new role, Milne will fill the vacancy created the departure of Jim Hall, who resigned earlier this month as president of the healthcare and financial services publications. Both Milne and Hall joined Maclean Hunter in 1979. During an interview, Hall would not say why he resigned but hinted that his next career step has been calculated.
March 25, 2002
Saturday Night, Elm Street dominate nominees
OTTAWA—The Canadian Association of Journalists has announced the list of magazines nominated for its annual investigative journalism awards. Of the five nominees, two are from the defunct weekly Saturday Night (Marina Jimenez’s “To the Promised Land” and Stewart Bell’s “The Terrorist Next Door”) and two are from Multi-Vision Publishing’s Elm Street (Timothy Appleby’s “To Hell and Back” and Trish Wood’s the Case Against Carla”). The fifth nominee is Patti Ryan’s and Jordan Furlong’s “Making Crime Pay,” published by National, the Canadian Bar Association’s inhouse title. The winner will be announced April 13 at the CAJ’s annual conference at Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier Hotel.
March 21, 2002
OHS Canada Safety Hogs top CBP trivia buffs
TORONTO—Last night the Canadian Business Press (CBP) held its second annual Trivial Pursuit Challenge at a hotel in downtown Toronto. Sixty-four of the brightest and most trivia-laden minds in Canada's B2B publishing scene divided into 16 teams and got ready to rumble. When the dust settled, only Kathryn's Cranial Conquistadors from Burlington, Ont.'s CLB Media and Toronto's OHS Canada Safety Hogs were left standing. CanWest Global news anchor Peter Kent served as quiz master for the last two rounds. The tension was palpable as spectators blurted out answers during the 14-question final match. Demonstrating the trivial prowess they had displayed all evening, the Safety Hogs—Peter Boxer, Sheila Hemsley, Angela Stelmakowich and team leader Dave Dehaas—took the night and the CBP Trivial Pursuit 2002 Challenge trophy. Entry fees collected for the event were donated to the ABC Literacy Foundation.
March 19, 2002
AMPA Magazine Sessions a success
CALGARY-The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association held its most successful annual conference on Saturday, attracting almost 120 magazine publishers and their staff members to a day of seminars, keynote addresses, a small trade show and a reception. The day kicked off with an address from Neville Gilfoy, publisher of Atlantic Progress and president of Progress Communications Corp. in Halifax. Gilfoy urged publishers to spend less time worrying about government support and more time building their businesses. "We have to become attractive to our investment community, to our lending community," he told the audience gathered at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Deborah Rosser, publisher of Canadian Business and former publisher of sister title MoneySense, told the story of MoneySense's launch in her keynote address. Owner Rogers Media plans to invest $7.8 million on the startup, she revealed, with profitability targeted for 2004. Since its debut in 1999, the magazine has exceeded circulation targets, achieving more than 100,000 paid circ (ABC Dec. 31 circ is 102,882). Catch the April issue of Masthead for more news from the AMPA conference.
March 14, 2002
Media critic resigns
TORONTO—After an 11-year relationship with Torstar’s eye magazine, noted media critic Gregory Boyd Bell has resigned. His Media column was short listed for a National Magazine Award in 2000. Boyd Bell’s departure follows the recent firing of eye editor Bill Reynolds, hoofed on Feb. 22 after a decade of service with the weekly tab. A week later, deputy news editor Vern Smith quit. At issue could be eye’s controversial decision to give advertorial-grade coverage to the Canadian International AutoShow (Feb. 14 issue)—a decision which rankled eye’s environmentally sensitive readers. Boyd Bell now writes a biweekly Saturday column for Torstar’s daily Hamilton Spectator. It’s called On Media and it debuted March 2.
March 12, 2002
Quebec cooking up $20-million recycling fee
MONTREAL—Magazine and newspaper publishers in la belle province have locked horns with the provincial Ministry of Environment over a proposed recycling initiative that could cost the industry millions in product-recycling fees. The provincial government began deliberating on the matter last fall with a view to subsidizing municipalities running deficits connected with their so-called “green box” recycling operations. Their collective deficit is said to be as high as $20 million. Cash for the subsidies may come from fees slapped on paper and packaging waste producers—including magazines. Philippe Denis Richard, president of Recycle Medias, which represents magazine and newspaper publishers, says the provincial government’s “back door tax” lumps publishers of media into the same group as The Yellow Pages. That’s inappropriate, he says. Richard adds that the government has prohibited Recycle Medias from establishing its own recycling operation. Meetings with the government continue with a decision expected by June.
March 08, 2002
Magazine merchandising operation launches
CALGARY—Magazine wholesaler NewsWest Corp. has launched a new merchandising operation for publishers and distributors to compensate for cuts in the number of newsstand field representatives deployed across the country. The new company, called ncompass, is currently operating in western Canada and is expected to roll out across the country by June. Field rep numbers have declined due to consolidation among wholesalers, says ncompass marketing vice-president Steve Rosling. The new service should help speed up pocket-changes and improve monitoring, among other things.
March 06, 2002
Eye fires editor, retrenches in alt weekly war
TORONTO–One of this city’s most celebrated media rivalries—eye versus NOW—seems bound to intensify with the Feb. 22 sacking of eye editor Bill Reynolds. Senior editor Catharine Tunnacliffe was promoted to managing editor three days later and confirmed yesterday that an editorial rethink is in progress. Reynolds, a 10-year eye staffer and editor since 1996, confirmed his ouster but revealed few details. “I signed off on the [confidentiality agreement] papers,” he said earlier this week. Did he see it coming? “Let’s just say I think they [management] think I didn’t see it coming. That’s all I’ll say.” Within two days of leaving eye, Reynolds accepted an offer to assist Ryerson University’s magazine journalism faculty, currently in production to complete the Spring and Summer issues of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. A week after Reynolds was fired, deputy news editor Vern Smith resigned. Declining to comment yesterday on his rumoured resignation was eye’s NNA-nominated media columnist Gregory Boyd Bell. Eye is the corporate spawn of the monolithic Toronto Star, the nation’s largest daily; it launched the cheeky weekly tabloid in 1991 to muffle the clucks of Michael Hollett’s golden goose, NOW magazine, then the city’s only alt weekly of note. To the vast amusement of media watchers, the two tabs have been poking each other in the eye ever since.
With Hall out, Milne steps in at Rogers
TORONTO—A former editorial assistant who toiled away at such Maclean Hunter titles as Canadian Jeweller has been appointed senior vice-president at Rogers Publishing and given a chair on the executive committee of Rogers Publishing. John Milne joined Maclean Hunter in the late 1970s as an editorial factotum; he was named editor of Benefits Canada in 1984 and publisher in 1988. In the early 1990s he expanded MH’s publishing activities in the financial services sector. In his new role, Milne will fill the vacancy created the departure of Jim Hall, who resigned earlier this month as president of the healthcare and financial services publications. Both Milne and Hall joined Maclean Hunter in 1979. During an interview, Hall would not say why he resigned but hinted that his next career step has been calculated.
March 25, 2002
Saturday Night, Elm Street dominate nominees
OTTAWA—The Canadian Association of Journalists has announced the list of magazines nominated for its annual investigative journalism awards. Of the five nominees, two are from the defunct weekly Saturday Night (Marina Jimenez’s “To the Promised Land” and Stewart Bell’s “The Terrorist Next Door”) and two are from Multi-Vision Publishing’s Elm Street (Timothy Appleby’s “To Hell and Back” and Trish Wood’s the Case Against Carla”). The fifth nominee is Patti Ryan’s and Jordan Furlong’s “Making Crime Pay,” published by National, the Canadian Bar Association’s inhouse title. The winner will be announced April 13 at the CAJ’s annual conference at Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier Hotel.
March 21, 2002
OHS Canada Safety Hogs top CBP trivia buffs
TORONTO—Last night the Canadian Business Press (CBP) held its second annual Trivial Pursuit Challenge at a hotel in downtown Toronto. Sixty-four of the brightest and most trivia-laden minds in Canada's B2B publishing scene divided into 16 teams and got ready to rumble. When the dust settled, only Kathryn's Cranial Conquistadors from Burlington, Ont.'s CLB Media and Toronto's OHS Canada Safety Hogs were left standing. CanWest Global news anchor Peter Kent served as quiz master for the last two rounds. The tension was palpable as spectators blurted out answers during the 14-question final match. Demonstrating the trivial prowess they had displayed all evening, the Safety Hogs—Peter Boxer, Sheila Hemsley, Angela Stelmakowich and team leader Dave Dehaas—took the night and the CBP Trivial Pursuit 2002 Challenge trophy. Entry fees collected for the event were donated to the ABC Literacy Foundation.
March 19, 2002
AMPA Magazine Sessions a success
CALGARY-The Alberta Magazine Publishers Association held its most successful annual conference on Saturday, attracting almost 120 magazine publishers and their staff members to a day of seminars, keynote addresses, a small trade show and a reception. The day kicked off with an address from Neville Gilfoy, publisher of Atlantic Progress and president of Progress Communications Corp. in Halifax. Gilfoy urged publishers to spend less time worrying about government support and more time building their businesses. "We have to become attractive to our investment community, to our lending community," he told the audience gathered at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Deborah Rosser, publisher of Canadian Business and former publisher of sister title MoneySense, told the story of MoneySense's launch in her keynote address. Owner Rogers Media plans to invest $7.8 million on the startup, she revealed, with profitability targeted for 2004. Since its debut in 1999, the magazine has exceeded circulation targets, achieving more than 100,000 paid circ (ABC Dec. 31 circ is 102,882). Catch the April issue of Masthead for more news from the AMPA conference.
March 14, 2002
Media critic resigns
TORONTO—After an 11-year relationship with Torstar’s eye magazine, noted media critic Gregory Boyd Bell has resigned. His Media column was short listed for a National Magazine Award in 2000. Boyd Bell’s departure follows the recent firing of eye editor Bill Reynolds, hoofed on Feb. 22 after a decade of service with the weekly tab. A week later, deputy news editor Vern Smith quit. At issue could be eye’s controversial decision to give advertorial-grade coverage to the Canadian International AutoShow (Feb. 14 issue)—a decision which rankled eye’s environmentally sensitive readers. Boyd Bell now writes a biweekly Saturday column for Torstar’s daily Hamilton Spectator. It’s called On Media and it debuted March 2.
March 12, 2002
Quebec cooking up $20-million recycling fee
MONTREAL—Magazine and newspaper publishers in la belle province have locked horns with the provincial Ministry of Environment over a proposed recycling initiative that could cost the industry millions in product-recycling fees. The provincial government began deliberating on the matter last fall with a view to subsidizing municipalities running deficits connected with their so-called “green box” recycling operations. Their collective deficit is said to be as high as $20 million. Cash for the subsidies may come from fees slapped on paper and packaging waste producers—including magazines. Philippe Denis Richard, president of Recycle Medias, which represents magazine and newspaper publishers, says the provincial government’s “back door tax” lumps publishers of media into the same group as The Yellow Pages. That’s inappropriate, he says. Richard adds that the government has prohibited Recycle Medias from establishing its own recycling operation. Meetings with the government continue with a decision expected by June.
March 08, 2002
Magazine merchandising operation launches
CALGARY—Magazine wholesaler NewsWest Corp. has launched a new merchandising operation for publishers and distributors to compensate for cuts in the number of newsstand field representatives deployed across the country. The new company, called ncompass, is currently operating in western Canada and is expected to roll out across the country by June. Field rep numbers have declined due to consolidation among wholesalers, says ncompass marketing vice-president Steve Rosling. The new service should help speed up pocket-changes and improve monitoring, among other things.
March 06, 2002
Eye fires editor, retrenches in alt weekly war
TORONTO–One of this city’s most celebrated media rivalries—eye versus NOW—seems bound to intensify with the Feb. 22 sacking of eye editor Bill Reynolds. Senior editor Catharine Tunnacliffe was promoted to managing editor three days later and confirmed yesterday that an editorial rethink is in progress. Reynolds, a 10-year eye staffer and editor since 1996, confirmed his ouster but revealed few details. “I signed off on the [confidentiality agreement] papers,” he said earlier this week. Did he see it coming? “Let’s just say I think they [management] think I didn’t see it coming. That’s all I’ll say.” Within two days of leaving eye, Reynolds accepted an offer to assist Ryerson University’s magazine journalism faculty, currently in production to complete the Spring and Summer issues of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. A week after Reynolds was fired, deputy news editor Vern Smith resigned. Declining to comment yesterday on his rumoured resignation was eye’s NNA-nominated media columnist Gregory Boyd Bell. Eye is the corporate spawn of the monolithic Toronto Star, the nation’s largest daily; it launched the cheeky weekly tabloid in 1991 to muffle the clucks of Michael Hollett’s golden goose, NOW magazine, then the city’s only alt weekly of note. To the vast amusement of media watchers, the two tabs have been poking each other in the eye ever since.
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| Jaded says: | |
Wow, Torstar really seems to be on a mission to bankrupt one magazine after another.... |
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| Lorene Shyba says: | |
Full of terrific information, Thanks!... |
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