BCAMP hits a bump, but recovers with variant on proposed name change

The B.C. Association of Magazine Publishers bumped up against protocol in seeking permission to change its name to Magazines BC. As a result, the association's newsletter reports, it has come up with a close approximation:

Still, the recent annual general meeting decided to exercise discretion and, instead of approving the name change right away, to ask the member magazines to give their assessment of the new name and look:

By doing business as the Magazine Association of BC, the organization hopes to appear more inclusive to industry partners, more memorable to the general public and more appealing to corporate sponsors. (After last month's newsletter was published, we received word from the Protocol Office that the Magazines BC name was not available to us, and thus we proceeded with an alternate option.)

We hope the membership approves of the new marketing name and logo and we look forward to launching our brand refresh (website, stationery, logo for member magazines and websites) in September.

*  *  *

On a separate matter, the newsletter reports that the Canada Periodical Fund will not be funding what has been a very popular program whereby on a bimonthly basis, member magazines were distributed free to 200 medical, dental and legal offices in the Lower Mainland. Heritage said it would not fund the program because it had not produced sufficient results. However, the association hopes to "repackage" it and make it a request circulation arrangement, whereby medical and dental offices would opt in.