Time Canada folding

Time Canada, which for decades has symbolized the carpetbagger tendencies of U.S. magazine publishers in the Canadian market, is to be shut down, according to a report in the Financial Post.

A web post said a spokesperson for the company that publishes Time Canada confirmed the rumour Wednesday.

"Due to the challenging economic climate and recent Time Inc. restructuring, Time is eliminating its Canadian advertiser edition immediately after publication of the 12/29 issue. Moving forward, readers and advertisers in Canada will be served by TIME's U.S. Edition," said Ali Zelenko in an emailed statement.

Time Inc. has published a Canadian edition of its flagship magazine for over 60 years, although the current version no longer carries any Canadian editorial content.

A source at the company said that decision will result in 7 people at the company's Toronto sales office losing their jobs.

The decision is part of a retrenchment throughout the Time empire; about a week ago, Time Europe was essentially discontinued, though a skeleton staff will remain in London. Most of the magazine will be edited from New York. Apparently, now so will the version of Time that is distributed in Canada, although it has been some time since the magazine carried any original Canadian stories. The sole reason for maintaining the fiction of a "Canadian edition" was to cream off some domestic advertising.

A bit of historical background:

In 1960, the O'Leary Royal Commission made recommendations, accepted by the government of the day, that disallowed tax deductions for advertising in foreign-owned periodicals in Canada. The "Canadian editions" of Time and Reader's Digest were exempted from the legislation.

In 1975, Bill C-58 amended the Income Tax Act to give enhanced tax relief to advertisers in Canadian publication, a move that was credited with encouraging the blossoming of the Canadian magazine industry (in the first year after C-58, revenues for Canadian magazines jumped 74%).

Thereafter, Time Canada out of Montreal essentially became solely an advertising competitor.

The decision now (which has been rumoured off and on for a couple of years) is probably because of a combination of factors: the fall in advertising sales; across-the-board retrenchment; and the possible implementation of "distance-based pricing" for subscriber copies by Canada Post. Although Canadians will still be able to subscribe, don't look for cheap subs in the future; now the magazine can simply print extra copies of the U.S. edition and dump them onto newsstands to serve the Canadian market.