Modify the circulation threshold? The answer is no, says minister Moore

[This post has been updated] Whatever hope small literary and cultural magazines had that they could change the minds of Canadian Heritage about its 5,000 annual paid threshold for the new Canada Periodical Fund are pretty much dashed. The small magazine community started a letter writing campaign and a Facebook group and certainly made its needs and interests known through its industry association, Magazines Canada. But what they are receiving back from the minister, James Moore, is a form letter that seems to slam the door fairly firmly. It says, in part,

The CPF will support a broad range of periodicals, but it will no longer offer support to titles that sell fewer than 5000 copies total per year, or specialized support for arts and literary magazines, including those that sell fewer than 5000 copies a year. A recent evaluation of our existing programs found that specialized funding for arts and literary magazines currently offered by the Department was duplicating the funding offered by the Canada Council…I trust that this information is useful.

As Rosalynn Tyo, the managing editor of The New Quarterly, notes in a posting to the Literary Type blog, Canada Council support is largely operating support.

All of the annual Council grant funding (for which we compete every year — it’s not a ‘given’) we receive goes directly to paying our contributors and printing our magazine. The funding we had been receiving from the programs the CPF is replacing was directed to subsidizing mailing costs (by the Publications Assistance Program) and to one-time business development projects like promotional direct mail campaigns (by the Canada Magazine Fund).

It should have been possible to transfer over the SALM (support for art and literary magazine) portion of the old CMF to the Canada Council at the very least. What Canadian Heritage fails to recognize or acknowledge is that, by this arbitrary (and it is an arbitrary threshold) action, what was formerly the postal subsidy is being taken away from the small magazine sector without compensation. It is not being replaced by increased funding to the Canada Council. But it is looking more and more that the ministry doesn't want to be bothered with the facts -- its mind is made up.

[Update: An alternative/more nuanced/more optimistic view by insiders is that "it ain't over 'til it's over"; meetings are still scheduled about the CPF in Ottawa over the next few weeks to try and find a way to address the small magazine segment's needs. As one person in a position to know said: "I don't think the coalition should give up."]