Little magazines we like: Nova Scotia Policy Review

A stylish, almost retro, new quarterly magazine is being published in Bridgetown, a small town in the midst of the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia Policy Review eschews advertising and comes in an unusual format, 10" wide by 8" deep, beautifully typeset in Caslon in a careful, restrained design. Clearly somebody who loves type lives here and we suspect it is Rachel Brighton, the editor and publisher.

"This is an entirely new kind of publication to satisfy the interests of informed individuals as well as advocates, community groups and policy makers," she says.

The Review is published by Finest Point Periodicals Ltd. , was launched in June and its September issue is just out. Ms Brighton drove a stake in the ground right from the start with an editorial that criticized the "corporatespeak" of the Nova Scotia government and bureaucracy and said, in part:

Nova Scotia is remarkable for its dense network of societies, advocacy groups, intellectual institutions and people with deep ecological knowledge. Policy makers are trying to tap this rich vein, but they need better tools for getting at these reserves and harnessing this energy. While our "innovation" policies are designed to recognize and "commercialize" academic expertise, we need an equivalent process for applying the ideas of expert community networks.

The journal has a good many delights, including The Registry of Simple Ideas, a forum where readers can post simple solutions to practical problems. There are essays, reviews, maps, stats, briefs up front.

Some other random content in the first two issues:

• An article about the rape of underwater wrecks off the Nova Scotia coast
• A table showing the decline in the last 40 years in the number of days the legislature sits
• A celebration of the first youth grant made by the Trudeau government, and the difference it made for Pier 1 Theatre on the Halifax waterfront
• The challenges of making broadband available in rural Nova Scotia
• Why people shouldn't have to leave their home county to seek palliative care
• The fix that farmers are in, being forced to take whatever prices they can get
  

Brighton is a native of Australia, who moved to Nova Scotia 10 years ago with her husband, Daniel Lillford, an actor, playwright and director. She is a journalist and became interested in Nova Scotia public policy issues first while working at the Daily News, then doing contract work for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Downtown Halifax Business Commission. She edited the promotional magazine "Nova Scotia Open to the World" for Progress Publishing. She and her family (they have three sons) moved to Bridgetown in 1995.

Originally, she told NovaNewsNow.com* that she envisioned a magazine for people who play a role in policy development in and out of government. But she realized that there were other people out there interested in reading about and making a difference about "this stuff". She was going to create her own design, but then hooked up with Gaspereau Press in nearby Kentville.

"It turned out we had a similar sensibility on this kind of thing. I had a certain idea of how I wanted the magazine to look. I wanted it to be text-driven and weighty -- intellectually and physically. I wanted people to think they had to sit down and make time to read it."

In addition to some limited bookstore sales, the magazine is available by individual subscription, four issues for $43 plus tax.

*It seems ironic that the website that writes about her little magazine is owned by Transcontinental Media, the largest publisher of consumer magazines in the country.

Photo:NovaNewsNow.com