Maclean's closing...early

[THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED] The current Macleans (July 1) contains the news that the magazine, which has been published on Mondays for as long as anyone can remember, is going to come out on Thursday from now on.

"After nearly 30 years of putting out a magazine every Monday, Maclean's has decided to stop. From now on, we'll be putting out a magazine every Thursday," said the upfront note from the editors.

"Weekly current affairs magazines in North America have been published primarily on Mondays for as long as they've existed. There may have been a rationale for this long ago, but we don't believe the schedule suits the lives and habits of our readers today. The simple fact is that people have more time to read at the end of the week and on the weekend. And since we've increased the amount of content offered in each issue of Maclean's by 50 per cent over the last year, it makes sense to deliver it when readers have more time to enjoy it."

The old newsmagazine model was to close the issue as late in the week as possible. For years, Maclean's closed its last edit page sometimes as late as 5 p.m. on Saturday and would often tear apart and remake whole forms late in the week. Once the magazine was printed, this necessitated airfreighting copies to the west coast so it would be on Vancouver newsstands first thing Monday morning. A few years ago, it was decided that this punishing schedule was unnecessary, and that the late nights and weekend work wasn't resulting in a magazine that was any newsier, or beloved, than one that closed routinely at 5 p.m. Friday. And so, it was.

Now, apparently, the idea is to get the jump on the fat weekend papers and the paper will go on sale on Thursdays. Which will mean the magazine will have to close editorial pages on Tuesdays.

Home delivery of Maclean's (and it must be remembered that 97% of the copies go to subscribers) will still depend on the vagaries of the post office, which often doesn't deliver a Monday issue until Thursday. Now, coming out on a Thursday, it is quite possible that some home delivery won't happen til the following Monday. (And gawd help them if Canada Post ever makes good on its threat to cut home delivery back to every other day.)

For now, one has to wonder whether this will make the magazine more attractive to advertisers. It's hard to see why that would be. The nature of the audience is not changing, only the day of the week that the magazine arrives in their mailbox.

[UPDATE] From Maclean's press release on the change:

"We took a look at our audience and our advertisers and we believe that increasing our speed to market will benefit both," says Deborah Trepanier,associate publisher, general manager and vice-president, Maclean's.

The magazine will now arrive fresh on newsstands when buyers are out shopping. Retail traffic is highest at the end of the week. Maclean's newsstand sales were up 36 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 compared to the same period last year, and the magazine expects a further advance as a result of the move.