IT World Canada has drastically reduced frequency for CIO Government Review and shifted resources to the Web.

IT World Canada has shuttered CIO Government Review (CGR) magazine—sort of. The September issue marks the end of publication’s nine-year run as a 10-times-a-year magazine. However, two special show issues—one in spring promoting the Showcase Ontario event, one in fall built around the Lac Carling conference—will continue to appear in print. The magazine’s resources (including staff) have been shifted toward continued development of the e-government “knowledge centre” on the IT World Canada website. “We’re not only keeping that, we’re going to expand that tremendously,” publisher Fawn Annan says.

CGR’s editorial mandate was to “examine how government, education and healthcare agencies use information technology to improve their services to Canadian tax-payers.” The decision to curb production was made, Annan says, because over the next ten years, “you’re going to see the largest mass of executives leave government in its history.

“Where does it make the most sense for me to put the most money in? Does it make sense to keep plowing it into CIO Government Review with the understanding that people are leaving government, versus going online to a new generation of people?

“We know that to really start to get our messages out and government messages out to younger people, the online channel is really the place to be.”

CGR had a controlled circulation of 8,000. IT World will continue to reach an older, more executive audience through sister-title CIO Canada, Annan says.

Asked about the ad market for CGR, Annan explained that recent decisions by the Federal and Ontario governments to streamline procurement of goods and services have put many vendors out of business. Those still in the game, meanwhile, are spending more time and money on direct sales, rather than print advertising, Annan adds. While the magazine hadn’t yet been affected by this shift (the September issue was the largest ever), Annan says she foresaw potential challenges down the road. “We have to take a two to three year approach when we’re looking at investments.”