New ad promotes magazines by turning its back to the TV

Magazines Canada has released a new promotional ad to its members for publication in their magazines. It's called Magazines Engage and shows a living room couch turned towards a rack of magazines and with its back to the big-screen TV, to show where consumer engagement is really strongest. 

Advertising creative was developed by doug & serge, responsible for other ads in an ongoing association campaign.

The ad is intended to appeal to advertisers and promote the special relationship readers have with their magazines, selecting them based on their interests and passions. 

The ad first ran in the Magazines Canada quarterly Canadian Magazines Canadiens and member magazines can download it.

Banish "insalubrious emphasis" and write from life; Geist offers two writerly workshops

Geist magazine is offering two writerly workshops in Vancouver on the weekend of June 2 and 3. The one is Writing from Life with Mary Shendlinger, a writing and publishing teacher and co-founder and senior editor of the magazine. The other is The Art of the Sentence, with Geist publisher Stephen Osborne. Each is $50; together, they're $75.The workshops are from 1-4 at the Project Space, 222 East Georgia Street.

• Writing from Life is a workshop "for the emerging writer, the seasoned professional, and everyone in between who is writing (or thinking about writing) a memoir, true story, or personal essay."

• The Art of the Sentence "offers practical tips, handouts and copious examples on how to liven up your writing by using strong verbs and precise language, and how to spot trouble by rooting out excessive modifiers, insalubrious emphasis and weak constructions. You're guaranteed to leave the workshop with at least one great sentence."

Bloomberg Businessweek wins magazine of the year from Society of Publication Designers

Admirers of the design of Bloomberg Businessweek (of which I am one) will be pleased to know that the Society of Publication Designers (SPD) has named it Magazine of the Year. According to a story in Folio:, BBW beat out IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle, Lotus, New York, Port, TIME and  last year's Gold winner, GQ.

(Those who've been fortunate enough to get tickets for the June 5 MagNet Marquee event at the MagNet conference will hear from the head of the team that won the award, creative director Richard Turley.)   

Tight money is at the root of joint NMAs and KRWs, says Canadian Business Press

Money, or the shortage of it, is the principal reason for the shared evening between the Kenneth R. Wilson awards for b2b press and the National Magazine Awards, according to Jim Hall, a board member of the Canadian Business Press, which is co-producing the awards with Magazines Canada. He told Masthead that the unaccustomed alignment was based on financial considerations.

"We did have a reduction in funding, as most awards programs did, from the Department of Canadian Heritage. There is still funding, but they've cut back significantly in terms of awards programs," said Hall. "This looked like a reasonable approach from a financial perspective to co-stage the awards at the same time, and to do it in a very professional way."

Apparently when the KRWs and the Magazine Awards announced the joint schedule in April, some of their message did not get through to trade publishers. For instance that, while NMA attendees get a sit-down dinner, KRW attenders must pay for ticket if they want to join them following their own awards and a joint cocktail reception. But KRW ticket holders are invited to watch a simulcast of the NMAs on screen in the Round Room at the Carlu and join the Magawards people for dessert at no additional cost.   

Hall said that the CBP is "in the process of developing new purposes and bylaws, with a new statement of purpose, and one of the key elements in the statement is education and the ongoing KRW awards." That involves a "very much expanded KRW" for 2013, integrating a full day of education, he added. The educational component could involve KRW judges offering their thoughts on submissions, said Hall. 

"This is a transition year, and we hope it transitions to a dynamic platform," said Hall. "KRW is a super event, I've been going to it for 32 years, it's something I wouldn't miss." 

Related posts:

• KRW b2b awards are playing 2nd fiddle, says publisher, and he's boycotting them
• Magazine awards programs will go back-to-back this year
• Magawards moving to Thursday night, sharing evening with Kenneth R. Wilson awards

New short fiction award honours founder of The New Quarterly

There's a new fiction prize being offered in honour of Peter Hinchcliffe, who was instrumental in the founding of The New Quarterly. It's sponsored by St. Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo, where Hinchcliffe was a lecturer for many years.

The $1,000 top prize will be awarded for a work of short fiction by a Canadian (citizen or resident) writer who has not yet published a first novel or short story collection. Though there is only one top prize, all submissions will be considered for paid publication ($250) in the magazine. Submissions must be previously unpublished. There is no word limit. All submissions will be judged blind.

The entry fee is $40 per submission, which includes a 1-year Canadian subscription (or subscription extension) to The New Quarterly. Deadline is May 28.

Further information and formatting requirements. 

Quote, unquote: Truth lies in the renewal rate for digital magazines: Zinio CMO

The key thing publishers are starting to focus on now is on renewal rates. You can get a mass number of people to sign up for a free 30-day or 90-day subscriptions, but as the market is rolling into a full first year for a lot of these different devices, we’re starting to see renewal rates. And that’s where a lot of the truth is going to come out -- not only which devices are best for consuming content, but which devices and which [newsstands] offerings are really gathering consumers’ interest on an ongoing basis.

--  Zinio CMO Jeanniey Mullen talking to Online Media Daily about how digital reading and the proliferation of platforms are having an impact on the company's business. (It's a partner with Magazines Canada in its digital newsstand.)

City of Toronto remembers June Callwood with tower lights, book launch, park dedication

The CN Tower will be lit up in pink and green on Wednesday night in honour of June Callwood. She died five years ago and was known for her prodigious journalism and for her passionate advocacy in many causes. 

She is being honoured at the Parler Fort speaker series at Fort York in Toronto marking the recent release of a commemorative book It’s All About Kindness: Remembering June Callwood,(Cormorant Books), edited by Margaret McBurney. The book contains recollections by nearly 60 people who knew or worked with Callwood. The event, hosted by the CBC's Michael Enright and with music by singer Molly Johnson, will coincide with the groundbreaking of a park nearby built in her name and May 16 is being proclaimed "It's All About Kindness Day" in Toronto. An article in Quill & Quire reports

For McBurney, the book’s main purpose is to keep Callwood’s name and legacy alive among younger generations. It was inconceivable to the designer and historian that her dear friend – who wrote 30 books and more than 1,500 magazine articles, was a founding member of PEN Canada and The Writers’ Union of Canada, and had been integral in the establishment of community organizations such as the AIDS hospice Casey House, Nellie’s shelter for women and children, and Jessie’s Centre for Teenagers (now called the June Callwood Centre for Women and Families) – might vanish from popular memory.

Entries now being accepted for Canadian Online Publishing Awards 2012

Entries are now being accepted for the 2012 Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) which will be held in October. Deadline for entries is June 22.

Now, in a book

The awards program has been enhanced with a new "data visualization" category (e.g. interactive maps, animated infographics) and the publication of a print year book. All winners, finalists and sponsors will be published now in both an online gallery and in a book which will be distributed to all attendees of the 2012 awards. The COPAs are moving, too, to a to-be-announced downtown venue.

The awards program, produced by the publishers of Masthead, honours editorial-based online and digital publishing in 15 categories in three divisions: newspapers and broadcasters; consumer, custom, religious, and public association publishers; and business-to-business, professional association, farm, and scholarly publishers. Categories cover design, writing, and packaging, in different digital formats including websites, tablet editions, digital replicas and apps.

To be entered, work has to have been published between June 1, 2011 and June 22, 2012. Entry rules.

KRW b2b awards are playing 2nd fiddle, says publisher, and he's boycotting them

Rumblings of discontent among people in the Canadian business and trade press about  this year's Kenneth R. Wilson Awards have now bubbled to the surface with the wide circulation of an e-mail by Jim Glionna, the president of Newcom Business Media Inc.who says he's boycotting the event.Newcom publishes Today's Trucking, Canadian Technician, Truck & Trailer, Transport Routier and Plumbing & HVAC.  

The KRWs have been a standalone event celebrating excellence in business-to-business publishing until this year when, for the first time, the two events are being held on the same evening. The KRWs are being held in the late afternoon, then share a reception before the National Magazine Awards in the evening.

Here's the text of Glionna's e-mail which has been sent to a large number of people in both business and consumer publishing:

Dear Publishers and Editors:

I am quite concerned and upset by the way in which KRW Awards are being presented this year.

Whether intended or not, the optics are not good.

The KRW Awards for excellence in B2B journalism are clearly playing second fiddle to the National Magazine Awards. Great journalism should neither be judged on the target audience it serves nor by the amount of revenue generated by the magazine in which it appears. Great journalism is great journalism… period!

For the first time in 18 years I will not be attending the 2012 KRW Awards presentation. Nor will any of our editors and publishers be attending.

My protest does not end here. I intend to do whatever I can to change the current situation. In all fairness B2B writers, publishers, and designers deserve to have their best work portrayed as being just as good as their colleagues who toil in the popular press. 

If anyone would like to assist me in this effort, I’ll take all the help I can get.

Yours truly, Jim Glionna

The background to these developments is complicated and is best followed by reading related posts from the past few years:

• Canadian Business Press to become a foundation, concentrating on awards program
• Magazines Canada grows by 45 new member magazines, including two b2b groups
• Revised b2b awards to have "magazine of the year" and internet categories for first time
• KRW trade magazine awards will go ahead in 2010
• Canadian Business Press discontinues MagsU, becomes a partner in MagNet
• Canadian Business Press buys the Magazines University name
• Magazines Canada ranks swell by 37 titles, including Rogers stable of b2b titles
• Rogers trade books decline to enter KRWs
• Rogers pullout costs CBP 20% of membership revenue
• Rogers b-to-b titles pull out of Canadian Business Press

Magazine world view: New-found optimism; PG online; Peeves about PR; Speech and search

• Industry mourns death of former head of Austrian magazine and trade publishing association (FIPP)
• Tim Brooks, former MD of Guardian on the new found optimism for professional publishers (MediaWeek) 
• comScore Launches Smartphone Metrics Service (Audience Development) 
• Press Gazette goes weekly - on screen (Guardian) 
• Spectator magazine to face charge over article on Stephen Lawrence trial (Guardian) 
• Journalists' Biggest Pet Peeves About PR -- And Vice Versa (MediaShift) 
• Search engines have same speech rights as the New York Times, says Google report (paidContent) 
• The Guardian: Yep, it was “major changes” by Facebook that caused drop in social reader traffic (Nieman Journalism Lab)

Natalie Larivière leaving as president of TC Media after six years

Natalie Larivière, the president of TC Media, is leaving the company after six years. She announced her departure in a memorandum to staff today, effective the end of June. Her note said, in part

"I am leaving TC Media satisfied that we have accomplished what we set out to do. In 2006, we set ourselves the goal of becoming a company that could drive our content, and the content of our customers, on multiple platforms. We also aimed to develop the skills necessary to offer customized promotions and content. Today our company provides improved products and services that meet the new communication needs of businesses and consumers."

Before joining Transcontinental Media, Larivière had been president and CEO of the Quebecor Media Book Publishing Group and prior to that was CEO of Groupe Archambault Inc. 

There is no word yet on who will succeed her. François Olivier, President and CEO of TC, told staff he will be stepping in on an interim basis.

enRoute magazine called number one inflight by CNN International

CNN International has named Air Canada's enRoute magazine, published by Spafax, as number 1 among the 12 best inflight magazines in the world.

It says in fairly waspish terms that inflights are "Always glossy, sometimes stupid, they await you in every seat-back pocket. But which in-flight mags are worth the read?". enRoute wins its praise for concentrating on travel rather than general interest.

"An almost ridiculously tricked-out version of the in-flight concept, Air Canada’s mag is oversized, beautifully designed, generally well written and essentially snickering at the competition.

"Just about every other mag on this list could learn something from enRoute’s classy, of-the-moment design and fantastic original photography....

"Balances breezy globalism (the issues we reviewed visited Bellingham, Washington, the Black Forest, Patagonia and seemingly everywhere else), and that Canadian thing (stories about the Northwest Territories, beer-drinking hockey players)."

The sole criticism is of heavy-handed promotion of the sponsoring airline's vacation packages.

Recycling costs result in $32 million charge against earnings of Quebecor's TVA Group

The impact of the huge increases in recycling fees for magazines in Quebec has translated into a quarterly loss for its largest pulishing group, TVA Group Inc. According to a story in the Montreal Gazette, the company, which is the publishing division of Quebecor Media, had a loss of $1.66 a share in Q1, largely because of an impairment charge of $32.2 million logged to cover waste recovery fees for 2010, 2011 and 2012. 

President and CEO Pierre Dion said the new fees applied to magazines are arbitrary and “legally invalid.”

“They seriously compromise the financial viability and stability of an industry that makes a positive contribution to the cultural sector of our society,” Dion said in a statement.

“We are currently examining the legal remedies available to ensure that our rights are respected.”

The province of Quebec increased its charges for the Blue Box recycling program last June and, according to Magazines Canada calculations, publishers will see payments up about 340% in 2012, the year the industry is being expected to cover 90% of the costs of recycling magazines. 

The fees being charged to Quebec publishers are approximately seven times what is charged in Ontario and, under Bill 88, they can no longer use contra advertising to pay for their fees. The whole issue of U.S. and foreign magazines paying nothing towards the program has yet to be addressed.

Rogers's closure of Sweetspot.ca sends "terrible message", says its founder

Rogers Publishing didn't seem to know what to do with the various digital properties it acquired, according to the founder of Sweetspot.ca, Joanna Track. In a very unusual move, she has written a highly critical article in the Globe and Mail about the closure of Sweetspot and 7 other of Rogers's sites last week. She describes the  "big fail" as not integrating the properties into the larger company's ecosystem.

"Rogers had gone blazing into the market acquiring digital properties, but there seemed to be no thought or foresight about how to integrate them into its (behemoth) system. It would be an understatement to say that the company’s digital strategy has not performed well. It doesn’t appear to have had a digital strategy."

She was critical of the treatment of the people working for the site, saying the company "started pulling them out like Jenga pieces and leveraging their skills to grow other properties."

Track saw her management contract cease late in 2010 after Rogers -- which had originally taken a minority stake -- took full ownership. She went on last year to create an online fashion and beauty site called Dealuxe. 

"Clearly I’m not objective, but I think Rogers has sent a terrible message to Canadians about big companies, about their future direction – instead of evolving with the times they are going back to the same old stuff they’ve been doing forever – and to entrepreneurs across the country.

Home is where the tablet is

It may be good news for magazines that research shows tablet use is most often at home, where most subscribers would be reading their magazines anyway, in whatever form. The graph, drawn from research done for Viacom, comes from a story in the eMarketer newsletter and shows that three quarters use their tablets at home and most people use them in the living room or the bedroom. Out of home,they're most likely to use them in airports/on airplanes or in coffee shops. eMarketer estimates there will be about 55 million tablet users in the U.S. by the end of this year.

Magazines Canada outsourcing single copy warehousing to Tilwood Inc.

Magazines Canada, which provides direct to retail newsstand distribution to many of its members intends to outsource its warehousing and pick-and-pack operation to Tilwood Inc. of Brampton, effective in June.

It means that magazines using Magazines Canada distribution will be shipping draw copies to Tilwood rather than the trade organization's offices on Adelaide Street in Toronto. Client magazines will continue to deal with MC staff.

Tilwood is a marketing support, fulfillment, distribution, warehousing and data management company. Magazines Canada distributes member magazines to almost 200 retailers, and to wholesalers who supply a further 150 stores, including Chapters and Indigo.

Atlantic Business magazine wins best cover award at AJAs

Atlantic Business March-April 2011

The 31^st Atlantic Journalism Awards were presented Saturday in Fredericton. Gold and silver awards in magazine categories were as follows:

• Atlantic Magazine Article
  The gold winner was Carol Moreira - Nova Scotia Open to the World (Halifax), A Place to Think; silver finalists were: Jon Tattrie - Halifax Magazine (Halifax), Justice Delayed; and Sara Jewell - Saltscapes Magazine (Bedford, NS), The Circle of Life.
• Atlantic Magazine: Best Cover
  The gold winner was Atlantic Business Magazine (St. John's, NL), The Rise of Generation Plus, (March-April 2011); silver finalists were: East Coast Living  (Halifax), Back to Life (Winter 2011); Halifax Magazine (Halifax), Going to the Big Leagues (October 2011).
• Atlantic Magazine: Best Profile Article
  The gold winner was Jack MacAndrew - Saltscapes Magazine (Bedford, NS) - Snowbird by Birth; silver finalists were: Alec Bruce - Atlantic Business Magazine (St. John's, NL), The Beautiful Dreaming of Wadih Fares; Jessica Burns - Halifax Magazine (Halifax), Brain Candy.

The awards have celebrated journalistic excellence and achievement in Atlantic Canada since 1981.They are managed by a volunteer industry board of directors representing print and broadcast news organizations.

Full list of gold winners and silver finalists in all categories.

Bitter lament for the young women who made Sweetspot.ca

Sabrina Maddeaux, Toronto Standard's style editor and an erstwhile contributor for Sweetspot.ca gives a different perspective on this week's announced closure of that site and 7 others by Rogers Media. She points out that Sweetspot was the #1 site for women aged 25-52, pulling in an estimated 125,000 unique visitors and 1.2. million pageviews per month, significantly more than either Flare.com or Louloumagazine.com. And she points out the loss of good part-time and full-time jobs for women as a result of the closure.

"Ironically, Rogers announced an increased commitment to female consumers just weeks ago-- clearly a Rick Santorum-like commitment to women that doesn’t include choice or supporting young women in the workplace....

"The events of this week should result in some tough questions for those who control large portions of the Canadian media scene. With the axing of Sweetspot, the outlook for young female journalists and readers just got a lot more sour."

Writer Sean Rossiter to receive Lifetime Achievement Award from WMAs

Sean Rossiter

The Western Magazine Awards have announced the finalists, with winners to be named at the 30th annual gala at the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel on Friday, June 15. A full list of finalists is available here. Winners in four gold categories will receive $1,000 each; in all written and visual categories, $750. Among the highlights

• The Lifetime Achievement Award is to be presented to perennial Vancouver magazine writer and author Sean Rossiter. For many years he wrote the 12th & Cambie column in Vancouver magazine .
• Finalists for Best New Magazine are 
• Eighteen Bridges
• HERS
• Leap
• S-Magazine 

• Finalists for Trade Magazine of the Year are:
• Alberta Oil
• Border Crossings
• CGA Magazine
• Enterprise
• Massage Matters Canada

• Finalists for Best Online Magazine
• BCBusiness
• BCLiving.ca
• Boulderpavement
• The Tyee
• Wine Access

Magazine of the Year finalists (with the winner of each provincial award forming the list of finalists for Western Canada Magazine of the Year)

• Albert/NWT
• Alberta Venture
• Eighteen Bridges
• Swerve
• Up Here
• Up Here Business

• BC/ Yukon
• BCBusiness
• Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine
• Malahat Review
• Vancouver Magazine
• Western Living

• Manitoba
• Border Crossings
• Canada's History
• Geez
• Prairie Fire
• SANDBOX Magazine

• Saskatchewan
• BlackFlash
• Grain Magazine
• Saskatoon HOME Magazine

(Photo: Alex Waterhouse-Hayward)

Time magazine named U.S. Magazine of the Year

Time magazine was named Magazine of the Year at Thursday evening's U.S. National Magazine Awards event presented in New York by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME). The selection was based on its issues about the death of Steve Jobs, the killing of Osama bin Laden and its "Person of the Year" issue The Protester.

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter accepted the columns and commentary award on behalf of Christopher Hitchens, who passed away in December.  It was the second year in a row that the award went to VF and Hitchens.

Terry McDonell, who as Editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group oversees Sports Illustrated, was elected into the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.

Other winners and finalists for the coveted "Ellie" (an elephant sculpture created originally by the artist Alexander Calder) were:

GENERAL EXCELLENCE
  ♦ Inc. (active and special-interest magazines)
  ♦ Bloomberg Businessweek (general interest magazines)
  ♦ House Beautiful (lifestyle magazines)
  ♦ IEEE Spectrum (thought-leader magazine)
  ♦ O, The Oprah Magazine (women's magazines)

DESIGN
  ♦Gentlemen's Quarterly

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
  ♦ The New York Times Magazine

FICTION
  ♦ Zoetrope: All-Story

LEISURE INTERESTS
  ♦ Saveur

NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
  ♦ Harper's magazine

PERSONAL SERVICE
  ♦ Glamour

PHOTOGRAPHY
  ♦ Vogue

Digital Ellies were presented at March 20 ASME luncheon

The skinny on Vogue's new policy about healthier body image

In what may be a tipping point in the fashion publishing industry, Vogue publisher Condé Nast International has announced a policy promoting a healthier body image in the pages of its magazines and in the wider fashion industry.

According to a story in Women's Wear Daily, Health Initiative applies to all 19 international editions of Vogue and the editors have all signed a six-point agreement focussing on promoting a healthier approach to body image: translated, they may use models who look more like real women.

 Among the points that form the pact are that the editors will not knowingly work with models under 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder; that they will ask casting directors not to knowingly send underage models to their magazines; they will help structure mentoring programs so that more mature models can advise their younger counterparts; they will encourage designers to “consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes,” and that they will encourage show producers to create healthy backstage working environments for models.

Eighteen of the 19 Vogue editions will run features about the initiative in June issues; Vogue Japan will do so in July. British Vogue, for example, will run a feature in its June issue that examines women’s attitudes to nutrition, and polls models including Stella Tennant, Lily Cole and Adriana Lima on the subject.

Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International, said in a statement: 

“Vogue believes that good health is beautiful. Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers.”

The wording of the pact is somewhat imprecise, but should still have a major impact since Vogue is such a thought leader in the industry. However, we should wait and see if size zero mannequins become an endangered species on the runways and on the pages of magazines.
Last month, Israel banned models with a body mass index of less than 18.5 unless they have a doctor's note. 

Magazine world view: Bonner hearts Barbie; Time Inc subs, ads down; celebrity drought

• Bonnier Publishing acquires UK Barbie license (FIPP)
• Harris: 20% Of US Consumers Buy By Mobile; 62% Couldn’t Care Less (TechCrunch) 
• Time Inc. Subscription, Advertising Revenues Down in Q1 2012 (Folio:) 
• The Economist Reveals Brand’s Total Reach With New CMR (Audience Development) 
• Trouble in Magazine Land: We're Running Out of Celebrities! (Dead Tree Edition) 
• Self Editor Lucy Danziger Voted President of ASME (Folio:) 
• Wired, Nat Geo Win 2012 Webby Awards for Magazine Site Category (Folio:) 
• New Bauer mag Wonderpedia backed by £1m marketing (Press Gazette) 
• Melinda Stevens of Tatler appointed Condé Nast Traveller editor (Press Gazette)

Let this be a lesson: keep an eye on your magazine bookkeeper

The former bookkeeper of the now-defunct BuilderNews a building trade magazine published in Vancouver, Washington appeared in court on Wednesday on a charge of embezzling more than $500,000 from PNW Publishing over a period of five years.

Patricia Long, 59, was arrested in her home on Tuesday following a 10-month investigation. She will be arraigned May 16.

According to a story in The Columbian, Long was asked to resign in July 2011 but the financial loss was so large that the company went out of business late last year, taking with it nine jobs.

“She put a lot of people out of work,” said Denise Curry-Rothwell, publisher of BuilderNews. “She ought to be ashamed.”

Curry-Rothwell said she hoped the case would be an object lesson for small business owners to take a more active role in their own bookkeeping and be more vigilant.

“Do what you have to do,” she said. “You can’t just relinquish that (the bookkeeping) over because you don’t have the time.”

PNW Publishing at one point had $2.5 million in annual revenue. BuilderNews circulated throughout the U.S.

Alberta Oil, Marketing & Retail News are KRW finalists for magazine of the year

Alberta Oil, Marketing and Retail News are finalists as magazines of the year for the 58th annual Kenneth R. Wilson Awards (KRWs) for business-to-business publications, whose nominations were announced today. Sponsored by Canadian Business Press and Magazines Canada, the award nominations were selected from more than 600 entries and 152 finalists were named. The winners will be announced at a gala event June 7.

Among the leading titles obtaining multiple nominations were CAmagazine, Marketing and Les Affaires.

 

Vying for the special Best Issue award are CAmagazine, Canadian Capital, Canadian Grocer, Marketing, Precedent, Retail News and University Affairs. 

For Best Cover, the nominees are Alberta Oil, Canadian Grocer, Canadian Underwriter, Fire Fighting in Canada, Foodservice & Hospitality, Marketing, National and University Affairs. 

For Best Website, there are three finalists:  canadianhealthcarenetwork.ca Canadian Healthcare Network; finance-investissement.com (Finance et Investissement); and universityaffairs.ca (University Affairs)

Writer Chris Powell garnered the most individual nominations with five, for his work in Canadian Grocer and Art Director Barb Woolley of the design firm Hambly & Woolley received five nominations for work in  Precedent, ROM Magazine and UTSC Commons and Underline Studio five nominations for its designs of University Affairs and Retail News.

Complete list of finalists

Rogers closes eight websites, including acquisitions Sweetspot.ca and Canadianparents.com

Rogers Media is eliminating eight websites, in both English and French, including sites they had acquired including Sweetspot.ca and Canadianparents.com. A memo to staff from Jason Tafler, chief digital officer, expressed regret but said the closures and elimination of jobs was the result of a "change in direction" which involves focusing the company's resources on" multiplatform integration and growth opportunities for our premium brands." The other sites to be closed are branchez-vous.com, ciné-horaire.com, lecinema.ca, matin.qc.ca, showbizz.net and sweetspotqc.ca.

Tafler was hired in February 2011 to be responsible for strategic and operational leadership in the digital division and such acquired digital plays as Sweetspot and Canadian Parents.

Relaunched online magazine poss.ca serves Toronto job seekers

A new, online magazine called poss.ca for Toronto job seekers has just been relaunched. The magazine began its life in the 1980s as a newsletter called PosAbilities and in 1999 became a monthly online magazine called Possibilities. Its latest incarnation is published by Findhelp Information Services and is funded by Employment Ontario and the  Government of Canada, but it doesn't have the usual bureaucratic, brochure-like feel. 

It is updated daily and contains real articles, in both official languages, about innovative job hunting strategies, great career profiles and resources to community services, lists of events, guides to living well on the cheap, and employment tips.  A free newsletter, available with registration, reminds users of the daily features.

"To serve all those looking for work better, the magazine needed to attract people with a fun new look and to strengthen its efforts to be as current and as realistic as possible when it comes to Toronto's job market," said Jane Henderson, President, Findhelp Information Services. "I think this revamped site accomplishes this goal."

 "Poss.ca is proof of the adage: 'that which is well designed is also clear.' Congratulations to all the team for a job well done, to the benefit of all Francophones," said Guy Lucas, Program and Services Manager, Employment Options, Collège Boréal Toronto.

[H/T to Jowita  Bydlowska]