June 30, 2006
Transcon names new media president
MONTREAL–Transcontinental Media, producer of Canadian Living, The Hockey News and Style at Home, has a new president to fill the chair left vacant by Andre Prefontaine earlier this year.

Natalie Larivière, who previously worked at Quebecor Media as president and CEO of book publishing, was announced as Transcontinental Media’s president yesterday. 

In a press release, Transcontinental Inc. CEO Luc Desjardins called Larivière a “creative and passionate manager, and Transcontinental will benefit from the additional experience she brings in the area of consumer needs and her remarkable expertise in electronic commerce.” 

In addition to an MBA from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Larivière has 13 years experience in the banking industry, managing electronic commerce enterprises for National Bank. 

Lariviere said she was “thrilled” to be offered “an extraordinary challenge in a rapidly changing environment–today’s media industry.” She begins her new role on August 7.

June 29, 2006
Kontent's new hires suggest new titles
TORONTO-The publishers of FQ and Inside Entertainment have bolstered their talent rosters with two new editors. One of them has experience that could take the company into new territory.

FQ and its counterpart SIR are oversized glossies helmed by fashion guru Jeanne Beker of Fashion Television fame.

Kontent Group CEO Michael King announced the hiring of Ciara Hunt and Tracey Williams this week.

Williams fills a newly created position at Inside Entertainment and will appear on the masthead as associate editor. She has freelance writing credits with The Globe and Mail, Style at Home and 50 Plus, and worked as a publicist for CBC television.

Hunt will become managing editor of fashion titles FQ and SIR. Born in Ireland, she has worked on such European titles as Tatler, World of Interiors and, most recently, In Style UK. King said Hunt has “a wonderful sensibility that I think our readers will appreciate.”

Hunt's background in shelter titles is interesting, given Kontent has expressed an interest in branching into that market. King would not comment on any magazines in development, but did say Hunt's role was an “expanding” one.

Also interesting were King's comments about FQ's deputy editor Shawna Cohen, whom Hunt is replacing. Cohen recently become a mother, and King said “I think, for her, an expanding stable of titles was less attractive than a job where she could work part time.” What, exactly, Cohen's “expanding stable” would have been, King would not say.

FQ is published four times a year. SIR is published bi-annually. Both titles are primarily distributed through The Globe and Mail.

Inside Entertainment appears nine times a year and has a circulation of 250,000.

OMDC Mag Fund sets deadline
TORONTO–The Ontario Media Development Corporation will this year make $25,000 available to Canadian-owned, Ontario-based magazines.

This year’s application deadline is August 24 at 5:00 p.m.

An information session for those interested in applying has been scheduled for July 20 in Toronto. Pre-registration for the session is required.

Details on the fund, the application process, the information session and pre-registration are available at OMDC website on its Magazine Fund page.

The fund has assisted large and small business and consumer titles such as Canadian Geographic, DIY Boat Owner, Fab, Canadian Art and Masthead.

Group M media agencies such as Mediaedge:cia are now offering clients a service that measures engagement. In an interview with AdAge.com, Mediaedge:cia director of active engagement Bob DeSena said "By being able to measure that engagement, whether it be emotional or behavioural, I think we are able to take a strong step forward."

June 28, 2006
New software offers quantified engagement
LONDON, U.K.–At a time when magazines are looking for new ways to measure their value and relevance to advertisers, a group of media companies has created a software program that measures the much-talked-about “engagement” of a brand.

Connections is a system designed to track both qualitative and quantitative elements of an ad campaign. By researching consumers’ attitudes and emotions about a particular brand, the system can offer a measurement of their loyalty to it.

This method differs from traditional metrics advertisers use to determine return on investment. Frequency and readership are two of the main measurements magazines use to sell themselves. Connections offers a way of measuring elements of readership that were previously immeasurable.

Developed by WPP in London, the system looks to have a long list of selling points. According to the press release, Connections can “evaluate the effectiveness of current campaigns across 40 communications channels; select the best mix of consumer connection points; identify the optimal budget allocation across these connection points using simulation software; and identify, define and measure consumer engagement within distinct brand categories.”

The system is being used by WPP’s Group M media companies MindShare, Mediaedge:cia, Maxus and MediaCom both in Europe and the U.S.

Canadian House & Home's guerrilla gardening advertorial campaign spanned three print issues, a website and two 30-second commercials as the result of a sweet deal with a long-time advertiser.

June 27, 2006
Underground movement becomes advertorial opportunity
TORONTO–Wanting to distinguish their summer issues from those of the competition, Canadian House & Home has tapped into a popular urban trend to offer a green advertiser a golden opportunity. Guerilla gardening is a growing trend in Canada’s cities. Groups of covert gardeners infiltrate run-down or unused urban spaces and turn them into gardens overnight. The phenomenon has received national coverage in both broadcast and print media.

Mark Challen, vice president of communications for House & Home Media, approached longtime ad client Modugno-Hortibec with the idea of doing a summer-long guerilla gardening advertorial campaign using Hortibec’s Nature Mix natural soil product.

“Every decorating magazine out there does something green in the spring,” Challen said. “But being able to take it one step further and actually talk about environmental issues has been great.”

Because Nature Mix is promoted as an organic, chemical-free product, the campaign launched with a three-page spread in the “green-” themed May issue. The campaign has run through June and July to coincide with planting season with four subsequent advertorial pages and two ROP ads.

House & Home also launched the microsite www.naturemixwashere.com, two 30-second television spots on HGTV and seven-second “tags” on CanWest Global to promote the project.

While neither House & Home nor Modugno Hortibec would reveal exact dollar figures, Challen said he considers the arrangement “a substantial and successful account.”

Whether the name changes or not, the PPE is planning on updating its logo.

June 26, 2006
PPE considers image update
TORONTO–The Periodical Publishers Exchange is considering updating its image with a vote on a new name. PPE members discussed a name change at its monthly dinner meeting last week.

Wallie Seto, PPE president and the publisher of Career Insider Magazines, said for some of his members, it’s an issue of modernization. “How often do you hear the word periodical anymore? In terms of everyday lingo, it’s hardly ever used.”

Seto said a committee has been formed to present a short list of names (including the current one) to the membership in the coming weeks. No date has yet been set for the vote.

According to its website, (which is also due to be updated in the coming months) the group is organized and run by volunteers and currently serves the publishers of more than 40 small- and medium-sized magazines in the Toronto area.

The group is currently on summer hiatus and will meet again in September.

June 22, 2006
Quebec printing association title to be reborn
MONTREAL–Having died after its parent association closed its doors, Quebec printing industry magazine Le Maitre Imprimeur is set to rise from the ashes.

Phoenix Industries, a Montreal-based publishing company, has partnered with communication industry title AMPQ Magazine to resurrect Le Maitre Imprimeur after it ceased publishing earlier this year.

“The magazine had been around for a long time,” said new owner and editor Gerry Bonneau of Phoenix. “Everybody liked it.”

Formerly produced by L’Association des arts graphiques du Quebec, the new version will launch in October with a new look. AMPQ will handle ad sales and distribution and Phoenix will handle editorial content. Litho Mille-Iles, a printing company owned by Bonneau, is set to oversee production.

Fashion 18's print version is issued quarterly with an ABC-audited circulation of more than 85,000.

June 21, 2006
Fashion 18 leads readers online 
TORONTO–St. Josephs’ 85,000-circ teen shopping title has launched a digital edition of its print product in an attempt to introduce teen girls to online magazines. The numbers suggest it’s working.  

Fashion 18 publisher Sarah Bull said that after a year of planning, she was surprised by how easy it was to get the online edition off the ground. 

“In terms of up-front costs, there was the (purchase of) technology, but other than that there wasn’t much,” Bull said. 

This is due, she said, to their editorial model. Of the six annual online issues, four will be online copies of the print product, which require no additional content creation or photography. The remaining two will be “vertical spin-offs” with unique content. 

The first of these unique editions is being planned for fall release and will focus on denim fashion. The second, tentatively planned as a Best of 2006 issue, will see unique content alongside repurposed articles from throughout the year. 

This editorial model of two unique issues and four clone issues was designed in response to market testing done amongst 4,000 girls in the target age range. 

“The first question we asked was ‘are you familiar with a digital edition?’ The majority of them were not,” Bull said. The digital clones are meant to “introduce the digital platform to teen girls and to our advertisers, and to use this year to show them how it works.” 

Bull credits Texterity, the software company that facilitated the digital conversion, with making the transition so smooth. The magazine chose Texterity’s software over competitor Zinio because Texterity loads the magazine through the reader’s web browser – no additional software needs to be downloaded to view content. 

“The teens told us their parents don’t let them download.” 

Bull said her readership has increased since the digital magazine launched. By the end of May, unique page views had increased to 75,000 from 40,000 in January.

Newly elected CBP chairman Bruce Creighton

June 20, 2006
Canada Post offers projected rate increase
OTTAWA–The Canadian Business Press has reported that Canada Post’s 2007 publication mail rate increase will probably match the inflation rate. Experts say this is a welcome change from a few years ago.  

According to CBP’s website, Canada Post has told the group it is making “a concerted effort to hold its increase close to the rate of inflation,” which the Bank of Canada reports at 2.4% at the time of this story’s publishing. 

The article goes on to say if the inflation rate remains steady throughout June, publishers can expect an increase “in the range of 2.5% to 3% in January 2007 for LCP (letter carrier presort) and NDG (national distribution guide) sorts” pending the CPC board’s approval. 

This level of increase is in line with last year’s increase of 2.9%, a level Michael Fox called “moderated” compared to previous years. 

Fox, the chair of Magazines Canada’s postal sub-committee, provided Masthead with data that tracked publication mail postal rate increases over the past four years. In 2005, the rates went up by as much as 9% in some weight categories. 

Canada Post will officially announce the changes in July. 

Jacqueline Howe serves as group publisher for Transcon's Style at Home, Canadian Gardening and Canadian Home Workshop among others.

June 19, 2006
Transcontinental shifts control from Montreal to Toronto
MONTREAL–Recent shuffling at Canada’s largest consumer magazine publisher altered the chain of command for some of its big-name titles.

Canadian Living and Homemakers, two publications with circulations beyond the half-million mark, now report to vice-president group publisher Jacqueline Howe in Toronto. The change was made at the beginning of last week.

Previously Howe’s boss, senior vice-president of consumer publications Francine Tremblay, oversaw these titles from Montreal even though they were produced in Toronto.

The Toronto-based circulation department for the company’s English-language titles will also now report to Howe as opposed to Tremblay.

Howe said the company is “centralizing leadership” in Ontario’s capital, adding she herself will still report to Tremblay.

“Our magazine portfolio is growing both here and in Montreal,” Howe said. “Therefore having somebody here in Toronto on a day-to-day basis just logistically makes more sense.”

June 15, 2006
New conference to spotlight writers’ rates
VANCOUVER–A new writers’ conference planned for next year hopes to raise awareness and income for freelancers in Canada. Longtime freelancer Daniel Wood has big plans for the Future of Writing.

Set to take place May 25-26, 2007, the Future of Writing conference is being planned to run concurrently with the Professional Writers Association of Canada National Conference and the Writers Union of Canada annual general meeting in Vancouver.

Wood says the event would examine and draw attention to, among other things, dwindling freelance writing rates, government policy and media conglomeration in the magazine and book publishing industries.

“There’s a whole group of Vancouver people and national organizations that see this as beneficial,” says Wood, who has written for Maclean’s, Saturday Night, Canadian Geographic and The Walrus.

Set to take place at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver, Wood has already received $5,000 from one grant, enough to rent an office and pay one staff person through the summer he says. He would offer no specifics on who was opening their wallets, or with how much, but said he was pursuing university, private and government backing. “At this point it’s a 95% done deal,” Wood says.

The hope, Wood says, is to form a national coalition of writers groups and unions to observe and protect writers’ rates.

“I’ve been fortunate to survive in the business in which few can survive with the abysmal pay rates that exist in the country. It concerns me that many good writers can’t survive because of the stagnant rates in the last 15 years,” Wood says. “I see a lot of good people disappearing from the business.”

Aurora, Ontario's CLB Media publishes 21 B2B titles for the law, automotive, medical industrial and security industries.

June 14, 2006
Canadian Lawyer gets new editorial team
AURORA, Ont.–CLB Media Inc. has added some names and titles to its largest legal publication’s masthead  – a new associate publisher, editor and managing editor.

Gail Cohen has been made associate publisher of Canadian Lawyer, CLB’s 26,000+ circ monthly, after serving as editor of CLB’s weekly Law Times since 2000. Publisher Karen Lorimer said Cohen always produced high quality, very marketable work for Law Times, and is now in a better position to do so across both brands. She will also oversee new projects such as Canadian Lawyer 4Students, an April 2006 launch distributed to 17 Canadian universities.

Jim Middlemiss had been filling in for former editor Patricia Chisholm since she moved to Carswell Thomson’s legal trade, Lexpert, earlier this year. Middlemiss has now been officially named editor of Canadian Lawyer. He is a lawyer himself with a journalism background. He was a staff writer for Lawyer’s Weekly before being called to the bar. In 1989 he became the founding editor of Law Times and recently became co-editor of Canadian Lawyer InHouse, a 10,000 circ quarterly for in-house lawyers.

Where will Middlemiss steer his title?

“I like business stories,” he said. “I’m interested in how lawyers make money, how they can make more money, how we can connect with the reader to help them understand their business and where the law is going.”

The final change was the promotion of Kirsten McMahon from associate editor to the newly created managing editor position. Both Middlemiss and Lorimer said this was done as a means to reward the high quality work that McMahon had been doing.

The new editorial team is currently tweaking the July issue.

June 13, 2006
Cottage Life to get new art director
TORONTO–After nine years as art director at Cottage Life, Faith Cochran has decided to move on. Replacing her is a freelancer with experience at both Cottage Life and Chatelaine.  

Kim Zagar will take over for Cochran once she leaves on June 23. When Cochran went on maternity leave in July, 2004, it was Zagar who filled-in until June the following year. The Toronto freelancer has also done work on Elm Street, Style at Home, enRoute and Canadian Living Zagar also worked at Chatelaine, producing freelance design work for the core title and a few of their special publications before joining their team full-time as a senior art director in the summer of 2005.

She left big-name women’s title in January of this year however. At the time, she said she wanted to return to the freelance lifestyle. What could bring her back to full-time work?

“I always said if the right full time position came up I would consider it. I think it’s a good place to work,” Zagar says. “I think it’s a good team to work with. The work environment and the people there are really nice.” 

Cochran will be starting her own design company. Her parting gift to Cottage Life will be its new logo, a project she’s been working on with typography guru Rod McDonald. Cochran says the logo will be revealed in either the July or September issue of Cottage Life.

Weekly Scoop's newsstand sales weren't what they should be, according to Greg Loewen of Toronto Star Newspaper Ltd. He announced its closure to staffers Monday morning.

June 12, 2006
Weekly Scoop gets shut down
TORONTO–Less than a year after it hit the newsstands and just days after receiving a Canadian Newsstand Award, Weekly Scoop is no more. Its parent company, Toronto Star Newspaper Ltd., notified staff today that the June 12^th issue would be the last.

“This was an economic decision,” said Greg Loewen, TSNL’s vice-president of strategy and marketing. “We’re not seeing enough momentum in the newsstand sales to give us the confidence that we will be able to hit our growth targets for the publication.”

Staffers were told today of the closure in a meeting with Loewen. Weekly Scoop publisher Tracy Day said she was surprised by the decision, and that there was no prior warning the closure was coming, but calls the move “a reality decision.”

“I don’t think it’s a reflection of the strength of the team or the quality of their work,” Day said. “I think we have an incredible team here. We produce an incredible product.”

Alison Eastwood, recently promoted to be the magazine’s executive editor, was packing her desk as she answered Masthead’s questions about the closure. She said she too was shocked by the sudden closing, but understood that it was part of working in an competitive market.

“We were competing with the US magazines,” she said. “US celebrity magazines are planning on lowering their cover prices.”

Publisher Day said that Weekly Scoop could not afford to drop its price to stay competitive with U.S. titles. “It’s something we can’t sustain, and a decision had to be made,” she said.

Weekly Scoop launched in October, 2005 with an initial newsstand take of 40,000 copies that sold at a special introductory price of $1.99. The price then went to $2.99. While Loewen could not offer exact figures on the closing circulation, he did say 35,000 copies “would be an average week for us at this point in time.”

The Walrus won 15 medals at the NMAs, eight of them in writing categories. The ceremony was held at The Carlu in Toronto.

Walrus wins big at National Magazine Awards
TORONTO–The 29^th annual NMAs were presented in Toronto Friday night. Of the 2,500 entries, 25 titles took gold or silver medals in 33 categories. The Walrus was the evening’s big winner, taking home 12 gold medals in categories ranging from Art Direction for a Single Magazine Article to Arts and Entertainment writing. The magazine also won three silver medals. It had 50 nominations overall.

The evening’s other standout winner was the now-defunct Saturday Night, which won two gold and six silver medals. The President’s Medal, awarded annually to a magazine that demonstrates “continual overall excellence,” went to Maclean’s.

The cheers were loudest, however, for Toronto Life editor John Macfarlane who accepted this year’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement to a standing ovation. He used the opportunity to reassure his colleagues about the place magazines have in an increasingly online world. “You and I are messengers,” he said. “And how we tell our stories, online or off, matters less than how well we tell them, why and for whom.”

He went on to encourage his peers to “keep the faith. The sky isn’t falling. The sun will rise in the morning…the public will continue to need people who do what you and I do to help them make sense of it all.”

The ceremony had its somber moments as well. Cheryl Hawkes accepted two gold medal awards on behalf of her late husband, Bill Cameron, for his essay Chasing the Crab, which appeared in the May 2005 issue of The Walrus. She told of how just minutes after she submitted her ailing husband’s essay, “the nurse came up and said `you’d better come downstairs.’” Cameron died of esophageal cancer on March 11, 2005.

A full list of winners and honourable mentions can be found at the National Magazine Awards homepage.(http://www.magazine-awards.com/index.cfm/ci_id/1395/la_id/1.htm)

June 9, 2006
Long-awaited Canada Magazine Fund review released
OTTAWA-The federal government’s review of the Canada Magazine Fund, in the works for many months and containing several key recommendations about the CMF’s future, was released yesterday. Potential major changes to the Support for Editorial Content program, and a decision to phase out the Support for Arts & Literary Magazines program, are among the big news.

The CMF was introduced in 1999. Administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the review covers the years 2000 to 2005, and is mandated by Treasury Board to make sure the $16 million in annual funding is well spent.

Among the recommendations are:

• The Support for Editorial Content program, which provides funding for paid-circulation magazines, has been only “moderately” successful. “While research suggests that the SEC has been beneficial to publishers in increasing the competitiveness and quality of their publications, the findings suggest that, overall, the funding has not been directly targeted to the production of an increased amount of Canadian editorial content. A more targeted approach, whereby the support provides greater incentives to publishers to produce Canadian editorial content, should be considered. A more targeted approach to supporting editorial content may be the use of a reward of PAP funding [Publications Assistance Program, aka the postal subsidy] or a tax credit for the production of editorial content.”

• The report’s authors suggest the CMF’s Support for Arts & Literary Magazines program overlaps with support programs provided by the Canada Council. DCH has agreed with this. “The Department agrees that there is redundancy between [the Canada Council] and the Department in the administration of the Support for Arts and Literary Magazines (SALM). The Department believes that funding for arts and literary magazines should be the sole responsibility of the Canada Council, and that the $1M for SALM should be redirected to other components of the CMF. The Department will have one final SALM funding run in 2006-2007 to ensure that there is sufficient time for client groups to be properly notified about the change.”

• Mid-range circulation magazines and special-interest consumer magazines appear to benefit most from CMF programs. DCH will therefore conduct more research “on the long-term results of CMF funding for magazines of different size and category, and will eventually retarget program funding accordingly.”

• It’s widely agreed the industry suffers from a lack of good statistical information. The report recommends paying more attention to this, including a possible “special run” by Statistics Canada on the periodical industry.

• The report recommends reviewing the administrative costs of running the Canada Magazine Fund, which are relatively high compared to other programs (11 cents of every dollar in the CMF is spent on administration). While there are specific reasons for the higher cost, DCH has agreed to examine ways to reduce administrative expenses.

Update: Subsequent to this posting, the Department of Canadian Heritage found what it called a "minor" error in its review document. It is amending the error and expects to re-post the review document on its website by June 30

June 8, 2006
Canadian Newstand awards announced
TORONTO—Hockey’s back, as two top prizes at the Canadian Newsstand Awards went to Transcontinental Media’s The Hockey News.

The hockey magazine, rebounding from the 2004 NHL lockout, claimed “Best Newsstand Cover of the Year” for its annual Yearbook issue as well as the top prize in the “Large Magazine” category for its Oct.14, 2005 issue. 

Independent publishers also fared well, including two from the west. Vancouver’s Canada Wide Magazines won first place with TVWeek and OP Publishing won with Cottage, in their respective categories. Rounding out the winners were Canadian Geographic in the “Extra-Large Magazine” category and TorStar’s Weekly Scoop, which picked up the prize for “Best New Magazine”.  

“The newsstand is perhaps the toughest arena for publishers these days, but the winners of the Canadian Newsstand Awards show that publishers of all sizes can succeed with a combination of experience, talent, hard work, and investment,” said Doug Bennet, publisher of Masthead, which produces the awards.

The winners are: 
Best Newsstand Issue, Extra-Large Magazine (total circulation over 200,000): 

Winner:
Canadian Geographic, Jan./Feb. 2005

Finalists:
Canadian House & Home, Oct. 2005
Canadian Living, May 2005
Chatelaine, Aug. 2005
Châtelaine, Oct. 2005
Maclean’s, 26 Dec. 2005 

Best Newsstand Issue, Large Magazine (total circulation 75,000 to 199,999): 

Winner:
The Hockey News, 4 Oct. 2005

Finalists:
British Columbia, Summer 2005
Canadian Business, 8 May 2005
Fashion, Oct. 2005
Glow, May/June 2005
L’actualite, Feb. 2005
The Hockey News, Yearbook 2005-06
The Hockey News, 12 Sept. 2005
Toronto Life, Nov. 2005
Toronto Life, Mar. 2005 

Best Newsstand Issue, Mid-size Magazine (total circulation 10,000 to 74,999): 

Winner:

TVWeek, 5 Nov. 2005 

Finalists:
Azure, July/Aug. 2005
Azure, March/April 2005
Dogs in Canada, May 2005
explore, July/Aug. 2005
LouLou (Francais), Dec. 2005
ON Nature, Summer 2005
ON Nature, Winter 2004-05
Pacific Yachting, Aug. 2005
The Beaver, Dec. 2004/Jan. 2005 

Best Newsstand Issue, Small Magazine (total circulation under 10,000):

Winner:
Cottage, July/Aug. 2005

Finalists:
Maisonneuve, Dec. 2005-06
Spacing, Spring/Summer 2005
This Magazine, May/June 2005 

Best Newsstand Issue, New Magazine (launched in 2004 or 2005): 

Winner:
Weekly Scoop, 10 Oct. 2005

Finalists:
Icehockey World, Jan. 2005
Western Canadian Resorts & Investments, Winter 2005
Western Standard, 8 Aug. 2005

Newsstand Marketer of the Year: 

Kevin Brannigan
VP of Circulation, Canada
The News Group (See News Archives, June 1) 

Winning magazines in most categories receive $3,500 each in credits towards promotional programs at newsstands owned by HDS Retail. The winner in the Small Magazine Category wins $1,000 in credits, plus $500 cash. Best New Magazine winner will be featured in an advertisement to appear in the June 12 issue of Marketing magazine, along with the other winners.  

The Canadian Newsstand Awards were launched in 2002 to honour excellence in single-copy sales by Canadian magazines. Actual sales figures are taken into consideration by the judges. Sales results are worth 50% of the final score, while aesthetic and design factors count for the other 50%. 

The five judges represented key players in the newsstand mix: a retailer, a wholesaler, a national distributor, a circulation director and an art director.

Terry Sellwood

June 8, 2006
CMC celebrates circulation accomplishments
TORONTO—The Circulation Management Association of Canada held its annual awards luncheon yesterday at Magazines University. Winning Marketer of the Year Award was Terry Sellwood, general manager of Quarto Communications (Cottage Life, explore). Sellwood thanked all those with whom he has worked over the years, noting their contribution to his various accomplishments. “I didn’t do any of this alone,” he told the gathering. 

Category winners were:

Consumer renewal series: British Columbia magazine
Consumer free-standing insert: Maclean’s
Consumer direct mail: The Hockey News
Consumer online: Canadian Geographic
Consumer other: LouLou
Trade renewal: Scott’s Ontario Directory
Trade direct mail promo: The Northern Miner

Paid Canadian circ drops 33.7% to 61,324 copies in 2005

June 7, 2006
Canadian circ of U.S. mags eroding
TORONTO–Four of the five largest U.S. consumer magazines in Canada are losing readers north of the border.

Audit Bureau of Circulations data comparing the first six months of 2005 to the same period in 2004 reveals that of the top 150 American titles circulating in Canada, 90 showed reduced overall circulations.

Notable losses in overall paid Canadian circ include Playboy, which lost 33.7% of its Canadian circulation, dropping to 61,324 copies from 92,524. Country Living dropped 35.9% to 28,767 copies; Good Housekeeping's Canadian circ declined by 29.9% 70,442 copies in 2005.

As for the 60 titles that strengthened their numbers, the biggest gain was made by Natural Health, which went from 6,638 copies to 15,090; In Touch Weekly raised its Canadian circ by 54.6% to 98,081 copies from 63,459, and Conde Nast Traveler made similar gains with a 50.8% jump to 16,834 from 11,167.

Top Five Newsstand sellers	# of copies	% change*
Cosmopolitan	252,209	-22.1
Woman's World	185,632	-8.1
People	149,672	+7.8
O, The Oprah Magazine	136,188	-4.8
Star Magazine	116,297	-6.8
Top Five Subscription sellers	# of copies	% change*
National Geographic	356,305	-6.2
Prevention	147,940	-14.6
Endless Vacation	102,003	+8.7
Martha Stewart Living	93,220	+3.5
Sports Illustrated	78,995	-9
Top Five Overall Paid Circ	# of copies	% change*
National Geographic	374,516	-6.1
Cosmopolitan	258,209	-21.7
People	198,404	+2.1
Woman's World	185,858	-8.1
Prevention	174,186	-10.9

* versus six months ending June 30, 2004

After 16 years of producing Geist, Stephen Osborne is starting to get the hang of it

June 6, 2006
WMAF names lifetime achiever
VANCOUVER—He has one month to make room in his increasingly crowded trophy case. The Western Magazine Awards Foundation will present its Lifetime Achievement award to this writer/editor/publisher/photographer on July 7.

This is not Stephen Osborne’s first trip to the WMA podium. His Vancouver-based arts quarterly, Geist, won Magazine of the Year in 2001 and 2003, and Osborne himself won a WMA for best column last year for his “Notes & Dispatches.” He has also won the National Magazine Award’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2004, the same year he won the Vancouver Arts Award for writing and publishing. In 2003 he took home the CBC Literary Award for travel writing for his feature, “Girl Afraid of Haystacks.”

Osborne says he’s feeling “kind of ambiguous” about the honour, given the “lifetime” aspect. “I feel like I’m just getting going here,” he says. “Finally, after 16 years of publishing Geist, we’re finally starting to figure out what we’re doing. That’s really true.”

Launching Geist in 1990, Osborne also founded Arsenal Pulp Press, an independent book publisher, in 1971. He’s also an accomplished photographer who shoots under the pseudonym of Mandelbrot. He has published a novel, For You Who Grow Pale at the Mention of Vancouver, and a collection of essays called Fire & Ice. In addition to his writing and editing duties, Osborne is an instructor at Simon Fraser University’s writing and publishing program.

The awards gala will take place at Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown, at the end of which Osborne will speak for about 30 minutes after accepting his honour. A full list of WMA nominees can be viewed at www.westernmagazineawards.com/2006finalists.htm.

Brian Segal to get closer to Rogers' B2B titles

Segal to oversee Rogers trade pubs
TORONTO—Rogers Publishing president Brian Segal says he will succeed Harvey Botting as senior vice-president, Business Information Group, when Botting, 62, resigns at the end of this month.

Responding to an e-mail query asking who would succeed Botting, Segal replied, “I will.” Botting oversees Rogers’ extensive collection of trade magazines, though not including the healthcare group. 

A bit about Segal, about whom not much has been written: he was appointed publisher of Maclean’s in 1993 by Jim Warrillow, then-president of Maclean Hunter Canadian Publishing. Segal was previously president of the University of Guelph. It was his first job in publishing, and in the private sector. Prior to his post at Guelph he was president of the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson Univeristy) from 1980 to 1988. Prior to Ryerson, he was an associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Social Work from 1973 to 1980 during which time he also served as a federal government consultant and committee member, according to Who’s Who in Canada. He holds four degrees—from McGill (B.Sc), Yeshiva University in New York (M.S.W.), University of Pittsburgh (M.Sc., public health; Ph.D., social welfare policy). In 1999, he was promoted from executive vice-president, Rogers Publishing, to his current role as president.

Dianne Rinehart has decided to pursue graduate studies in journalism

June 5, 2006
Rinehart steps away from “incredible assignment”
TORONTO—Transcontinental Media announced to staff last week that Dianne Rinehart, who was to start July 17 as editor-in-chief of the Canadian version of Meredith Corporation’s More Magazine, will not be undertaking the project.

“It is with regret that I inform you that, for personal reasons, Dianne Rinehart will not be joining the Media team as originally announced at the beginning of May,” wrote Francine Tremblay, senior vice-president, consumer publications, in a memo to staff. “As such, we will undertake recruitment for this position immediately, both internally and externally.”

Reached via e-mail last Friday, Rinehart explained that while the More opportunity was a fine one, she has decided to return to school. “For personal reasons—all of them good, all of them exciting—I have turned down the offer to edit the Canadian edition of More. This was a positive—albeit tough—decision made by me to pursue other opportunities, including finally going after my [journalism] MA, while continuing to do what I realized I love: writing my newspaper column and teaching university students.
I was sorry to resign from such an incredible assignment, but realized with so many other personal options opening up, that it was better to do so before I started—and while Transcontinental still had almost two months to select another candidate for this incredible magazine launch."

More is scheduled to launch next spring. (See News Archives, May 5).

June 1, 2006

"Chocolat leverages Rogers' expertise in catering to both English and French readers and employs a unique distribution model to deliver those readers a home décor magazine with the shopping approach we know they love," said Chocolat publisher Kerry Mitchell

Rogers launches Chocolat, its second shelter title with Canada Post
TORONTO–After successfully launching Smartmoves with the CPC in April, Rogers has announced the September launch of a home décor venture that similarly targets homeowners who have recently moved.

According to a press release, the oversized, perfect-bound glossy will be “inspired by the editorial philosophy and record of success for LouLou, Rogers' shopping magazine.”

In the release, editorial director of women’s titles and new magazine brands, Lise Ravary, said Chocolat is “unlike other magazines in the category, (because) the content will be presented in a way that is true to life–with style, energy and a healthy sense of fun.”

Nicole Labbé will sit as the inaugural editor, and Miette Johnson, a gallery owner and assistant art director at enRoute, will handle art direction.

Rogers first partnered with Canada Post in January after the crown corporation called for publishing proposals that would target the 1.3 million households who pay for its change of address services every year (see News Archives, January 19, 2006).

Chocolat will be distributed for free to 250,000 names selected from this list. After a one-year period, these customers will have the option to buying a paid subscription.

Three issues will be distributed in the remainder of 2006, and six issues in 2007. Newsstand copies will also be available for $4.95.

Four and a half years after buying it from Halvor Moorshead, Kenilworth has sold the title

Former Southam exec buys Pets mag
WHITBY, Ont.—After years of selling for others, former Southam Magazine Information Group executive John Simmons says “it was time to get into the ownership end of the business.”

Negotiations to purchase Richmond Hill, Ont.-based Kenilworth Media’s Pets Magazine began shortly after the new year, says Simmons, who worked at Southam from 1980 to 1997, leaving for three years in the early ‘90s to serve as sales manager of The Globe and Mail’s career classifieds sections. The deal closed May 30 and was brokered by Vancouver’s Watershed Partners.

 “[Pets] special care guides and unique distribution through veterinary clinics across the country has been a catalyst for growth,” said Kenilworth president Ellen Kral, who acquired the bimonthly, along with Government Purchasing Guide, from Toronto’s Halvor Moorshead in January 2002. Watershed also brokered that deal. “The decision to sell a publication like Pets is one we do not take lightly. The competitive nature of the pet marketplace favours a nimble publisher who can provide personalized service in a cost-effective manner,” added Kral.

Simmons has been a Canadian rep for Montgomery, Alabama B2B forestry publisher Hatton-Brown Publishing since 1997, and will continue to be so. He says he’s been involved with pets all his life. Look for a shot of Simmons with family dog Bailey, a seven-year-old American cocker spaniel, in his first issue as proprietor. 

Kevin Brannigan, vice-president, circulation, at Jimmy Pattison's The News Group, is this year's winner of the Newsstand Marketer of the Year Award

Wholesaler named marketer of year
MISSISSAUGA, Ont.—Cited for often going above and beyond the his role as vice-president, circulation, with wholesaler The News Group, the recipient of this year’s Newsstand Marketer of the Year award is a 20-year veteran of the single-copy channel.

Kevin Brannigan will be presented with the honour this Tuesday at Magazines University. His willingness to provide marketing, distribution and even editorial advice for publishers looking to grow their single-copy sales underscores Brannigan’s passion for the industry, and Canadian magazines in particular. He spearheaded the creation of The News Group’s Canadian Magazine of the Year Award.

“Canadian publishers have quite the challenge,” he says. “The American publishers dominate the newsstand through their sheer volume. The Canadian publisher has to fight through the newsstand clutter and win the hearts and wallets of the consumer. We have recognized publishers such as Canadian House & Home, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Adbusters, and this past year, Canadian Geographic. These publishers, as well as many other fine Canadians, continue to do an excellent job, month after month.”

Mr. Brannigan is also a former president of the Periodical Marketers of Canada, an industry association.

The Newsstand Marketer of the Year Award will be presented June 6 at 5 p.m.

at The Old Mill Inn & Spa in Toronto, as part of the Canadian Newsstand Awards at the Magazines University conference. In addition, winning magazines will be announced in all categories of the CNAs, including Magazine Newsstand Cover of the Year.

The CNAs are produced by Masthead magazine with partner HDS Retail North America. The sponsor of the Newsstand Marketer of the Year program is the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Other partners include Transcontinental Printing, Quark Inc., the Department of Canadian Heritage and the CMC Circulation Management Association of Canada.

See www.newsstandawards.ca for more.