New math at Maclean's
Mastheadonline notes today that in one of his rare columns in the magazine, Maclean's Publisher Ken Whyte this week promises that the new, redesigned magazine will have, at minimum, 50% more stories and 5o% more text PLUS more photographs.
Are there going to be more pages, which presupposes more ads? If so, where are all those ads coming from?
If not, and the magazine continues to have roughly 45 - 50 pages of edit (+/-) as at present, the only way you can increase the number of stories by 50% AND have more photographs is to dramatically reduce the length of stories (in other words, more, much shorter, stories).
Or print the whole thing is 7-point type.
We shall see next week.
Are there going to be more pages, which presupposes more ads? If so, where are all those ads coming from?
If not, and the magazine continues to have roughly 45 - 50 pages of edit (+/-) as at present, the only way you can increase the number of stories by 50% AND have more photographs is to dramatically reduce the length of stories (in other words, more, much shorter, stories).
Or print the whole thing is 7-point type.
We shall see next week.
posted by D. B. Scott at
12:50 pm
5 Comments:
At the risk of *proving* what a magazine geek I am, I submit that I had a dream about reading the new Maclean's last night... And the back page was very photo-heavy.
They've done such a great job of building anticipation with us geeks about this relaunch, with all the firings and the leaks. Anybody have tickets to the party? Wish I was in toronto to be there...
There is a commitment for more pages regardless of ad sales. That's what happens when management has confidence in a new publisher. I continue to be astonished at the difference between the reaction of Maclean's readers, which is overwhelmingly positive -- and amplified by the arrival of new readers who are quickly rediscovering a magazine they had been abandoning in droves -- and the ceaseless whinging of "industry observers," who seem easily confused. That's OK. We'll take the readers.
I thought it was a reasonable question, and it would have been a reasonable answer without the cheap shot about "whinging". I read the press carefully and this is the first time I have heard that there is a commitment from management to increase total pages regardless of advertising. It will be out of character for Rogers, if it is the case. And as for the droves of readers returning to the magazine, I have to judge by the public data that is available. You are in a position to know better, I suppose, but I'll await with interest the next statement from the circulation auditor. And, yes, I do have a ticket to the event on Monday, Joyce, and I look forward to perhaps meeting Paul Wells so he can take me to task for asking questions, which appears, to his mind at least, to be shocking bad behaviour.
Actually, I note the event is on Tuesday. I still have a ticket.
I'm told that the actual guaranteed increase is 8 pages regardless of ad sales, which works out to approximately a 20% increase in editorial space. This means the 50% increase in stories must be achieved by many, shorter stories, probably more one-pagers and much less generous display, including captioning and turn decks. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and it might be a real improvement. If there are to be more photographs, they will have to be fairly economical in size to maintain the promised increase in text.
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