Fresh new data -- get it while it lasts

Coming April 26, we are assured, is the 2003-04 data on the magazine industry from Statistics Canada. It's been almost 5 years since the industry had a look at such stats. (We've been using '98-'99 data.) That's the good news.

The bad news is that it is all but certain that this is the last "census" (complete questionnaire for every known title) and that Statscan is going henceforth to do "stats light". This will take the form of a questionnaire designed more along the lines used to do research into other industries and to provide the government with basic intelligence for policy-making. That means it will use a sample, with a fairly high threshold (you'll not be heard from if your circ is less than 25,000 -- in some categories, if less than 75,000) . Small magazines, and most trade magazines, won't be included.

This means that the industry may need to get its act together and gather its own data. Right now a joint task force of the consumer and business press is looking at "gaps" in the information matrix. But that study was predicated on the continuing existence of the longtime Statscan study. Now, in a case of one step forward, three back, that source of baseline information will simply not be available, or will be in such a sketchy form as to be only marginally useful.