Maisonneuve abandons launch of Montreal city magazine

Apparently finding starting a city magazine in Montreal alongside its existing quarterly to be biting off more than it could chew, Maisonneuve has announced that it is abandoning the idea.

Planning for the city magazine had been in the works for almost a year. A message from Publisher and Editor Derek Webster was sent to potential contributors today:

You're receiving this email because you've expressed an interest in contributing to Maisonneuve's city magazine project. This is the official announcement that we are not proceeding with the city magazine at the present time.

Although we had raised considerable funds, the Maisonneuve team has decided that we do not currently have the capacity to continue with the project. The prospect of many more months of fundraising, set-up costs, legal and accounting details, and the thousand other large and small tasks essential to creating a successful startup business - all before even reaching the actual launch date - made this too large a project to be managed on our present financial and human resources.

There is no doubt now about where our priorities lie: in Maisonneuve, which will continue as the quarterly publication you've grown to know and love. The little magazine that could chugs on, evolving with every revolution. Ours is one of the best arts, culture, and society magazines in Canada - and it is only growing stronger and stronger. We're also continuing to develop our online presence, which includes maintaining a strong, engaging web site chock-full of original content.

We thank you for your interest in Maisonneuve's endeavours, and encourage you to submit your fiction, non-fiction, and story pitches to Maisonneuve magazine and Maisonneuve online. You can check out our submission guidelines here, and direct your work to submissions@maisonneuve.org.

Maisonneuve started in 2002 and for a time was 6 times a year; Webster announced a few months ago that the magazine was being cut back to a quarterly, preparatory to the launch this spring of a Montreal city magazine, the first that had been published there in many years. Its name had yet to be announced, or whether it was to be bilingual. The guidelines for prospective writers and artists said the magazine "will offer a fresh, new perspective on our hometown. We'll be starting from scratch and thinking big. Subjects to be covered include (but are not limited to): art, travel, politics, business, film, shopping, theatre, music, architecture, real estate, restaurant culture and nightlife."