Morris dancing at the CMA

The Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) is now without any full-time staff at all, after the interim replacement editor Stephen Choi (for the Editor and another senior editor who were fired) and another editor resigned last week. (See the earlier posting for background).

Apparently the recent resignees were no more successful in getting undertakings about editorial integrity or independence than their predecessors. This was despite a March 1 statement by the oversight committee that tried, and failed, to clarify the situation.

The recent controversy at the CMAJ has swirled around Graham Morris. He is rarely put in context in mainstream media reports, other than saying that he is President of CMA Media Inc. But is this not the same Graham Morris who was at one time executive vice-president of English-language publishing at Telemedia, publisher of Canadian Living, TV Guide, Select Homes, Western Living, Harrowsmith Country Life and Equinox before that publishing stable was sold to Transcontinental Media? *

Morris was also one of those who formed the well-known national sales group Procom, later operating inside as Telemedia Procom. In the mid-90s, while he was in the executive suite at Telemedia, he was chair of the Print Measurement Bureau. Between departing Telemedia in 2000 (at about the time it was taken over by Transcon) and taking over CMA Media Inc., Morris was Chief Executive Officer of Tucows Inc., an internet service company based in Delaware and with international reach, but maintaining its executive offices at 96 Mowat Avenue in Toronto.

In most press reports the CMAJ has been referred to as though it was a standalone publication, when, in fact, it is part of a fairly robust publishing enterprise, said to be grossing about $10 million a year and over which Morris presides. According to the CMA annual report this division is actively acquisitive of other specialty publications. Right now, it publishes five(in addition to the CMAJ): the Canadian Journal of Surgery, the Journal of Psychology and Neuroscience, the Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal and the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. So the ripple effect of this dispute could be larger than it first appears.

Like many such issues that are said to be about principle, this one seems to be about money. A good deal of what's happening follows directly on the CMA's announcement last November that, henceforth, its publications would operate on a for-profit basis.

The decision was made in principle early in 2005 by the CMA board. Then, in April, Morris was hired to execute the plan and CMA Publications, was sold for $4.2 million to the CMA's financial investment arm, CMA Holdings Incorporated. It was renamed and incorporated as CMA Media Inc.

CMA Holdings is the vehicle through which the CMA operates businesses in software, practice management, insurance, financial and private asset management and investment services.

Ironically, Editor John Hoey, the first person fired at the CMAJ, was quoted in the press release at the time of the "privatization" as saying he hoped the for-profit move would generate money for re-investment in CMAJ so it can retain its status as one of the world's leading medical journals: "If we start running it at a profit, some of those profits will go back into the journal and make it stronger."

CMA Secretary-General Bill Tholl said the decision to sell CMA Publications and put it on a profit-making footing was prompted by reductions in postal subsidies and the possible elimination of unspecified federal grants (which collectively amounted, he said, to roughly $500,000 year), as well as the scaling back of brand-name pharmaceutical advertising, could mean that CMAJ might become a long-term financial drain on the association.

Tholl added that profit-making status would allow certain (again, unspecified) tax breaks and the group anticipates exploring new advertising markets and new revenue streams in the form of new electronic products and expanded international sales, particularly in emerging markets such as China. "We think there's a tremendous opportunity to diversify our revenue sources."

At the time, Morris was quoted saying profits will be reinvested in either acquisitions or the creation of new titles and said he didn't see the need to increase staff at present. "But clearly if we decide to add another publication different from the CMAJ on another topic, then we'd have to get more staff."

Another publication? More staff? The rumour is that the next issue of the CMAJ is in jeopardy because there's nobody available to put it out.

*[Note: an early version of this post referred to Morris's role in the death of Equinox magazine; it has been pointed out that, while the magazine started to decline on Morris's watch at Telemedia, it actually expired after it being sold to Malcolm Publishing of Montreal.]