Upbeat message delivered by Canadian magazine industry

There was an upbeat message for the public, and the magazine industry, in a story carried today in the Toronto Star, headed Magazine industry optimistic in face of storm.

Interviewed were Marco Ursi, the editor of the soon-to-be-online-only Masthead magazine and Mark Jamison, the president of Magazines Canada, the major trade association. Several points that you may have read here previously, including pointing out the differences between he Canadian magazine industry and its U.S. counterpart.

"The American magazine industry is in a very different place [from] the Canadian magazine industry, to the point where there is actually no comparison," Jamison says. "And I don't think that it's just that they are farther into the ditch."

"A lot of the American industry is finally looking at their costs and efficiencies for the first time. We've been doing that for the five or six years, while we've been experiencing growth."

Ursi said:

"It's not a death spiral. Magazines will come out of the recession and go back to doing the business they've done for a long time."

Rogers Publishing CEO Brian Segal said that, while the company had let go 4% of its workforce, and 2009 is going to be a very difficult year, all is not bleak:

"We're looking at how to reduce costs without hurting our brands and our relationship with our audiences and advertisers.

"I don't think there's anything unique about it. When the level of the lake goes down, it doesn't matter what boat you're sitting on. Advertising is down. But there's no real change in market share. And circulation is holding nicely."