MastheadOnline has learned that a new “Canadian Periodical Fund” will not be in place as of April 2009. While eligibility rules will not change and money will still come from the Publications Assistance Program and Canada Magazine Fund, funding levels for those programs remain uncertain.

One question is the $15 million in PAP funding from Canada Post, which is scheduled to end March 31, 2009. The Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH) is expected to request that money (possibly more) from the federal government this fall, to replace the Canada Post contribution.

And what happens if that money is not replaced? According to an e-mail sent by Scott White, manager for periodical publishing policy with DCH, to members of the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario, funding levels may change. "Depending on what happens to the budget request to replace the Canada Post money, we may move money between the programs to minimize the impact on the greatest number of publications. So the editorial funding part of the CMF in 2009-2010 may end up with less than the $10 million it had this year, which will affect the contributions that everyone receives."

DCH officials were unavailable for comment this morning. Stay tuned to MastheadOnline for more as this story develops.

Here is White's e-mail in full.

Things are not quite certain as so much depends on the available money. I should explain that we look at the CMF and the PAP (postal subsidy) together as forming a total package of about $75 million for magazines and community newspapers. In round numbers, the CMF is about $15 million and the PAP is about $60 million.
 
Depending on what happens to the budget request to replace the Canada Post money, we may move money between the programs to minimize the impact on the greatest number of publications. So the editorial funding part of the CMF in 2009-2010 may end up with less than the $10 million it had this year, which will affect the contributions that everyone receives.
 
I know everyone would like to know sooner, but, decisions on the federal budget are not made until January or even February. At this time, we are not planning on bringing in a new program or changing the eligibility rules of the existing programs in 2009-2010. Any new program, should it be approved by the government, would not come into place until April 2010. That much is certain.

• "Big changes coming to federal magazine programs" [MastheadOnline]