Tablet market may be growing, but it's "nascent", says Nielsen study

Survey results released by The Nielsen Company is a sharp reminder of how small the tablet market is right now, though holding out some promise. A story published by Folio: says the study was an attempt to review how people are using their mobile devices such as smartphones, e-readers, iPads and the like. 

The survey found, when it polled 5,000 device owners, that only 4 per cent owned tablet computers -- a reflection of the fact that only 8 million units have sold worldwide -- and Nielsen described the tablet market as "nascent". Nielsen found that 41% of respondents downloaded magazine apps on iPads.
 

While the study indicates that the iPad beats the iPhone in print and video consumption thanks to its larger screen size, paid magazine apps face stiff competition for the owner's attention. The study says 91 percent of iPad owners have downloaded an app, but magazines are far from the most popular content. Games (62 percent), books (54 percent), music (50 percent), shopping (45 percent), and news & headlines (45 percent) are the top five most popular download categories among the survey respondents. Out of 15 categories, magazines (41 percent) came in 9th, two percentage points above the banking and financial categories. 

Forty-six percent of respondents say they share their tablets with others (does this count as a passalong?) compared to 34 percent of smartphone users. Time spent is a bit of a mixed bag—30 percent say they spend less than 15 minutes with their magazine apps, while 60 percent say they spend between 16 and 60 minutes per session.

Canadian Art retains veteran ad rep Nicola Clayton to sell to U.S. advertisers

Canadian Art magazine has hired Nicola Clayton to represent it in U.S. advertising sales. Clayton, who is managing director of the New York-based Luxury Media Sales, has been for some years representing  Maclean's and L’Actualité and other Rogers titles to New York agencies and advertisers. She also represents Zoomer magazine among other Canadian titles.

Tricks and treats of the makeup trade

In honour of Hallowe'en, a friend directed us to the New York Times women's fashion blog, Model-Morphosis, which shows some awesomely attractive models before and after the makeup artists are through with them. Photographer Greg Kessler captured the transformation during Paris Fashion Week. When you go to the Flash images, move the orange bar to see the before and after. Most of the befores look better...and some of the afters look like Hallowe'en-ready zombies.

Photo: Greg Kessler

Quote, unquote: All hands on deck to push the Blue Jays, says Rogers Media boss

"One of the areas will be on Sportsnet.ca, where we will have a far larger Toronto Blue Jays presence. The Jays also have 81 dates for us to communicate some of our other brands. So not only will we utilize everything from The Shopping Channel, the FAN 590, Sportsnet to even some of our publication divisions to grow and build the Blue Jays brand, vice versa, the Blue Jays will be utilized as a great resource to build the brands.It comes down to complete integration across all our platforms and all our different brands."

-- New Rogers Media supremo Keith Pelley, explaining why you may see more about the Blue Jays on Rogers TV, online and even in its print products. He told the Canadian Press that starting in January the Jays "will have significantly more presence in the marketplace through the Rogers brand than ever before."

The Hockey News shucks newsprint pages and goes all-glossy November 8

New look on stands Nov. 8

Transcontinental Media's The Hockey News is giving up its long-time newsprint tabloid format and becoming a glossy magazine, in part to satisfy and attract more advertisers. According to a story in Marketing magazine, publisher Caroline Andrews has wanted to convert THN since arriving in 2007. First there was a glossy cover; now it will be glossy throughout.

"I think readers will really appreciate it… but more importantly, the decision to do it was mainly from an advertiser perspective, because there are many types of advertisers that want to align with our brand, but do not advertise in newspaper environments," said Andrews.

The magazine's ad rates have been increased by 10% to pay for the additional $100,000 in annual printing costs.

The magazine is also changing its editorial. Where once THN was one of the only go-to sources for the game data much beloved of hockey fans, that has been eclipsed by a variety of online sources (not least being the THN website). 

The usual team-by-team capsules, freelance-written by 30 correspondents from across the country will now be done in-house.  Jason Kay, the magazine's editor-in-chief since 2001, told the Vancouver Sun's Ian Walker

"Big picture, this a part of a lengthier evolutionary process. Over the years, we’ve modified our team reports and this next step is modifying them again – where we look at more in-depth coverage on a handful of teams and smaller blurbs on the rest of the league. We just didn’t see the value it in any longer. So, as we say, we have to mix up the business model a little bit to continue to make sense for us as the world around us changes.

"We’re still going to have our fingers on what’s going on in each market and we’re going to have relationships with all those 30 guys, but their bylines just won’t be appearing every week."

There is also to be a greater emphasis on writing and a greater focus on NHL-bound prospects; as a result minor and junior hockey reports will be all but eliminated.

"Come and run this magazine for nothing"

Time was that unpaid editorial internships were justified (unreasonably) by publishing companies on the basis that these weren't jobs, but an extension of a student's learning. However a friend points out that an internship posting on the Masthead job board by Totem, the custom media company, takes this to a whole new level. In return for bus fare, the sweeping job description for an "editorial assistant intern" says, in part:

The role of the Editorial Assistant Intern is to help in the writing, fact-checking, proofreading, and running of the magazine, to ensure the magazine is produced to schedule and to maintain the high quality of the publication. In addition, they [sic] will contribute to both the style and content of the magazine and assist in administrative processes.

Quote, unquote: "Huh???"

""We all read it and have no idea what he was talking about. It’s the kind of communication where there are no verbs and every other word is some kind of buzzy techno jargon."

-- a Conde Naste employee, quoted by David Carr in the New York Times Media Decoder blog about a memo circulated by CN CEO Charles Townsend to explain the company's "realignment". (We reported the import of the memo on Tuesday.)

Kobo service offering two-week free trial of Canadian and U.S titles, but no Canadian magazines

Kobo, the e-reading service controlled by Indigo Books & Music, is offering a two-week free trial download of a menu of popular Canadian and American newspapers, and U.S. but, curiously not one Canadian, magazines. 

This offer includes digital editions of the following Canadian newspapers :

• Calgary Herald 
• Edmonton Journal 
• Montreal Gazette 
• National Post 
• Ottawa Citizen 
• Regina Leader-Post 
• Saskatoon Star-Phoenix 
• Vancouver Province 
• Vancouver Sun 
• Victoria Times-Colonist and  
• The Globe & Mail.  

 U.S. titles available included both newspapers and magazines:

• The New York Times
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Scientist
• The Seattle Times
• Wilson Quarterly 
• Foreign Affairs 
• American Scholar
• China International Business
• Columbus Dispatch
• Guideposts
• Harvard Business Review
• National Review
• New York Observer 
• PC Magazine
• Publishers Weekly
• Reason
• The Christian Science Monitor Daily Briefing and
  
• The Nation

Following the two week free trial, monthly subscriptions start at $13.99 for newspapers and $2.99 for magazines. The current edition of a newspaper or magazine can be immediately added to a customer's library,and with the subscription, customers will receive wireless delivery directly to their Kobo  iPad or iPhone apps or their Kobo Wireless e-Reader.  The new apps are available for download today on iTunes. Subscriptions and the free trials can be accessed directly from theiPad,iPhone, and the Kobo Wireless e-Reader's onboard store,or from the KoboNewsstand at www.kobobooks.com.

Indigo, Canada's largest bookstore chain, operates Kobo in partnership with Borders Group, REDgroup Retail and Cheung Kong Holdings . 

EnRoute will have to be printed elsewhere, as Transcon shuts down Boucherville plant

Boucherville R.I.P.

Transcontinental Inc., Canada's largest consumer magazine publisher and one of the continent's largest printers, is closing its Boucherville, Quebec printing plant, one of 36 it has across the country. 

The plant, where enRoute magazine is printed for Spafax Inc. on behalf of Air Canada, is but the latest casualty in a restructuring of the company and an overcapacity in magazine and book printing facilities, according to a statement by Transcontinental vice-president Jacques Grégoire, quoted in a story in the Financial Post. The story also said that one of the reasons the plant is closing is that it is printing fewer of Canada's tax return documents since people are more and more filing online.The closure will result in the layoff of 180 workers.

“Our members are all in shock and so are we,” said Serge Bérubé, president of local 1999 of the Teamsters union, which represents Transcontinental workers. “But some of our members noted that the plant had been on artificial life support for some years now.”

Plant workers had agreed in the last collective agreement to reorganize their work to strictly limit the number of eventual layoffs subsequent to the implementation of major rationalization measures announced in February 2009, labour leaders said. The union represents 125,000 members of all trades in Canada.

Transcontinental, the continent’s fourth-largest commercial printer, tallied net income of $28.9-million or 35¢ a share in its latest quarter on the strength of its digital and print platforms and said it was optimistic for coming quarters.

Meredith Corporation circulation revenue slips by 4% in 1st quarter

From a report in Audience Development   we learn that Meredith Corporation (Better Homes & Gardens etc.)  saw circulation sales revenue decline by 4 per cent during the fiscal first quarter, at least in part due to the scaling back the number of special interest publications from 150 last year to 90 this year. First quarter circulation sales were $268.3 million, down from $271.6 million in the same quarter in fiscal 2010.

Condé Nast re-realigns and combines digital and print advertising sales, by product

In what is another indicator of a continuing trend in the magazines business, Condé Nast has announced it is merging (it used the term realigning) its digital and print advertising sales operations into one, multi-platform, multi-brand unit. 

According to a story in MediaPost,  Condé Nast Digital and the Condé Nast Media Group will now be combined at the individual brand level, under chief marketing officer Lou Cona. "By integrating its sales and marketing expertise into the Media Group, we are positioned for maximum growth and are better aligned with the industry," Cona said on Tuesday. 

Under pressure to create greater efficiencies of scale, Condé Nast in early 2009 replaced a scattered digital approach with a single division dubbed Condé Nast Digital. The alignment of assets came just over two years after Condé Nast seized operations and maintenance of its individual magazine sites -- including Glamour and Vanity Fair -- from what was then called CondéNet. Along with broad ad sales assistance, CondéNet had since overseen portals like Concierge and Epicurious, along with Wired Digital.

The bigger picture: looking 15 years down the road, digital circulation and advertising revenues from new devices like the iPad will make up roughly one-third of Condé Nast's total publishing revenues, Nicholas Coleridge, the managing director of Conde Nast U.K., said last month. It was not clear, however, whether Coleridge was referring to the U.K. -- or global -- market.

Quote, unquote: Rob Ford: round, firm and fully packed for cartoon action

"Cartoonists generally love shortcuts. A Mulroney chin, a Reagan hairdo, these things are gold for quick identification. [Rob] Ford has kind of a, um, jolly ... Rubenesque ... kind of, uh, pleasantly round ... He's fat, okay? He's fat and that's easy to draw. I don't want to lose my job, but really, if my job is to draw a fat guy, I'm going to make him fat. [David] Miller had big hair, a bit of a death-face and bad teeth, so that's what you play up. Ford is plump, reddish, with weird brow folds and strange little teeth. It's not a political statement to draw him that way, it's a cartoonist's statement. If Smitherman won I would have gladly drawn that weird bullet-head (like one of those Mario video game bullets) with those little beady eyes that have forgotten how to smile."

-- National Post cartoonist Steve Murray, telling J-Source what excites him about drawing the mayor-elect of Toronto. 

Pantone handheld device lets designers capture any colour from any surface

Pantone, the acknowledged authority on colour, is offering graphic designers a new, compact, handheld device, that for only US$649 allows users to match colours from any surface, material or fabric, including open-weave textiles and small patterned colours. According to a  release and a story in DesignEdge Canada, 

CAPSURE^™ comes loaded with all of Pantone colour libraries, which includes more than 8,000 colours. Users can toggle across multiple Pantone Libraries and cross-match any material or surface. For an extra charge, users can also upload fan decks from popular paint manufacturers to match colours from their selections.

Quote, unquote: Magazines think too much about themselves

“The thinking is isolated and inbred. We allow folks in other industries to define us or ignore us.”

-- James G. Elliott, CEO of the same-named media sales and consulting firm, telling a conference in Mississipi why magazines are too magazine-centric. 

Fashion beauty director jumps to executive editor, health and beauty at Elle Canada

Adriana Ermter, who was beauty director for St. Joseph's Fashion magazine has been named executive editor, beauty and health for rival fashion title Elle Canada, published by Transcontinental Media.  She joins November 8.

Ermter was at one point a columnist for Style at Home magazine and the National Post, and editor-in-chief of Salon Magazine as well as being a contributor to Flare, Chatelaine and Glow and the Globe and Mail .

“I’m thrilled that Adriana is joining our team,” says Noreen Flanagan, editor-in-chief, in a release. “Not only is Adriana an experienced journalist, but there are few people who can write about beauty with such eloquent and genuine passion.”

Goats Across Canada appears to have folded, this time for real

It appears that the quirky little magazine Goats Across Canada has gone out of business. Readers of this blog will recall that last year we reported that the magazine had been discontinued and we had to correct that, after a complaint from editor and owner Kevin Vander Linden that it was continuing to publish as before. Well it seems that is no longer the case. The monthly has not come out for some time and its website has been shut down. It had a claimed circulation of 1,700 and was dedicated to promoting the goat industry in British Columbia with information about goats, breeders, animal health, natural recipes using goat products such as soap, milk and fibre.

Rogers's Sweetspot.ca spawns DailySqueeze, a health and fitness site

For "healthy, hip women"

Sweetspot.ca, the Rogers Publishing online lifestyle site for fashion, food, decor and motherhood is spinning off a new site called DailySqueeze.ca, for "healthy, hip women". In doing so it is going straight at other online health and fitness sites such as BestHealth.ca BestHealthmag.ca from Reader's Digest.

"DailySqueeze.ca will be Canada’s one-stop destination for the latest workouts, super-foods, eco-chic products, recipes, fitness gear and more. The new publication has been brought to life by Joanna Track, founder of Sweetspot.ca in partnership with Rogers Digital Media." said a release.“We’ve brought Canada a taste of the sweet life, and now we’re sharing a slice of the healthy life, too.”

DailySqueeze readers can sign up for a "squeeze-scoop" weekly newsletter, covering national and Toronto-specific coverage (other city-specific content is in the works).

ZoomerMedia strikes online sales and marketing alliance with similar U.S. firm

The publisher of Zoomer magazine has entered into a symbiotic marketing agreement with a comparable U.S.company to handle sales of online properties and cross-border business.
According to a story in Marketing, ZoomerMedia has struck a deal with Navigate Boomer Media that may substantially benefit ZoomerMedia's eight online properties, including 50Plus.com; apparently the combined traffic to the sites is 2 million page views a month and David Cravit, the vice-president of ZoomerMedia says that about 10% of that traffic comes from the U.S.

Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Navigate Boomer Media represents more than 120 baby boomer-focused internet properties that deliver 112 million unique visitors and 1.4 million page impressions per month in the U.S. Its properties include BoomersAbroad.com, VibrantNation.com and BestBoomerTowns.com.

"The objective is to increase our scope of business in the United States," said Cravit. "We feel we're the dominant portal for this age group in Canada… and we think there's a lot of American advertisers who might want to reach Canadian consumers."

 The sales deal is said the be the precursor to a potential content-sharing agreement between the two companies. 

ZoomerMedia Limited is a publicly traded company controlled by Moses Znaimer and which owns a portfolio of media, including Zoomer magazine, radio and television properties, trade and consumer shows and a marketing agency.

More than three times the time spent reading mags on iPads as on iPhones, study says

iPad users read magazines more than three times as much than they did on an iPhone, according to a Nielsen study on connected devices, reported on the site gigaOm.This should probably not be surprising, given the teeny screens on phones, but it is encouraging information for magazine publishers hoping that their online apps will build new business and readeship.

The study also said that 43% of iPad users spent more than 30 minutes reading magazines on their devices.

Adbusters magazine slammed for anti-Semitism and described as "garbage"

The current issue of Adbusters magazine is roundly condemned as being anti-Semitic by two leaders of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Bernie Farber, the CEO and Len Rudner, the Ontario regional director, use a column in the National Post to take exception (to put it mildly) to a photo spread that visually compares the Warsaw Ghetto to the present-day experiences of the Palestinians. They dismiss the comparison.

The argument is obscene, and continues the disgusting tradition of some supporters of the Palestinian cause to turn Jews into Nazis and Palestinians into Jews. In so doing, these propagandists not only demonize Israelis (i.e., Jews), but minimize the murderous extent and intent of Nazism’s genocidal project. In other words, such vile analogies become a form of Holocaust minimilization.

Adbusters postures as chic and eco-friendly. It describes itself as a magazine concerned with the “erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces.” In the present case, they should have been more concerned with the erosion of their own moral and ethical standards.

Photos of the Warsaw Ghetto used in Adbusters were obtained from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum which -- with the prompting of Farber and Rudin -- has sent Adbusters a demand that the photos be removed from the magazine's website.

The two say they've asked their community members to tell bookstores or newsstands that “this is anti-Semitic and shameful.” However, they apparently don't want to be accused of demanding the issue's suppression.

This latest Adbusters anti-Semitic pictorial isn’t like what the real Nazis published in Der Sturmer — that would be a wrong analogy after all — but it doesn’t have to be to qualify as garbage. Should it be forced off the shelves? We aren’t asking for that, but we do think that store owners need to find out — from their customers — what strange goods they are selling.

[We weren't able to find any visuals or reference to the photos on the Adbusters website.]

Conservative gadfly Ezra Levant moving to Toronto to be a SUN-TV commentator

Erickson & Levant

Ezra Levant, who for several years published the Western Standard, a conservative magazine in Calgary, is moving to Toronto to be a commentator on Sun TV, the "Fox North" channel being launched early next year, after expected approval of its license by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecomunications Commission (CRTC). 

Levant's appointment and that of former CBC journalist Krista Erickson, was announced by Pierre Karl Peladeau, the CEO of Quebecor Media, which is launching (or re-launching) the station. 

The Western Standard was the successor to Ted Byfield's Alberta Report magazine, in both political stance (well to the right) and location. The Standard started in March 2004 and  folded as a print publication in October 2007, citing financial difficulties though it continues in a different form  and under different management online.

Levant, a lawyer by training, has busied himself with writing books (Shakedown and the recently released Ethical Oil) and battling the Alberta Human Rights Commission over his decision to republish the controversial so-called "Danish" cartoons that lampooned Muslims. (See earlier posts .)The discrimination case was dismissed, and Levant proceeded to sue the person who had brought the complaint.

Peladeau's announcement said Erickson would be joining the TV news team while "Ezra Levant will bring his outspoken nature to prime time as a straight talk host....Ezra isn’t afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. Whether it’s his national crusade for freedom of speech, or his refreshing and contrarian take on the oilsands. Fans and foes alike won’t want to miss a minute of his show.”[Think Bill O'Reilly.]

New ad-edit guidelines released by American Society of Magazine Editors

On the heels of the release of revised Canadian ad-edit guidelines, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) have released theirs, the first revisions in 5 years. In both cases, the revisions were an attempt to reflect the prevailing realities and to drive in some stakes to protect valued ground.

New language in the guidelines refers to false covers, cover flaps, use of logos, labelling,  sponsored sections, interruptive advertising and ad adjacencies. According to a story in Mediaweek

ASME also is working on revisions to its digital guidelines to reflect the growing use of invasive and interruptive ads online and federal rules requiring bloggers to disclose commercial ties. That process is expected to be finished later this year.

Sid Holt, CEO of ASME, said the goal of the guidelines is still to ensure that readers can tell the difference between editorial content and ads—while anticipating new kinds of ad executions.

“Everyone’s looking for new ad units and sponsorships,” he said. “You’re definitely seeing more interruptive advertising, more innovative units, more efforts to integrate advertising and editorial more closely.”

Like the Canadian guidelines, the central issue is transparency and clarity for the reader. Unlike the Canadian guidelines, which are purely voluntary, ASME may sanction members who transgress and, for repeated willfull violations could disqualify the magazine from the (U.S.) National Magazine Awards.

Magazine world view: Penthouse founder dies; Forbes pushes advertorial; iPad mag

• Penthouse founder Bob Guccione dies (Folio:) 
• Axel Springer's paid content drive started with a virtual golf club (paidContent) 
• 2010 Press Freedom Index shows Europe on decline (MediaShift) 
• Revamped Forbes pushes advertorials, social media, conflict (MediaShift) 
• Electronic Gaming Monthly to offer 'iPad-style' mags over Facebook (Folio:) 
• Next Issue Media names tech team, hints at digital newsstand plans (Folio:) 
• South African 'good news' paper's editor quits on eve of launch (Guardian) 
• BBC Magazines appoints mobile head (Press Gazette)
• Future to launch magazine about iPhone and iPad apps (Press Gazette)

Maclean's, University Affairs, Sparksheet,Vitamin Daily, Torontoist big winners at online awards

The second annual Canadian Online Publishing Awards were given out last night in Toronto. The awards are produced by Mastheadonline.com. There were 130 finalists and 32 winners in three divisions: Red for consumer magazines, custom, religious and public association websites; Blue for business-to-business, professional associations, farm and scholarly websites; and Green for daily and weekly newspapers and broadcasters.

Some of the magazine-related winners were

• Maclean's.ca for best overall companion website (for sites with a print companion), and best blog, both in red division 
• Universityaffairs.ca for best news, blue division and best website design, blue division 
• Sparksheet.com (Spafax) for best mobile application, best online-only article or series, and best e-newsletter, all in the blue division
• Vitamindaily.com for best overall online-only website and best website design, red division 
• Torontoist.com for best news and best online-only article or series, red division
• Besthealthmag.ca for best community feature, red division
• Thehockeynews.com for best mobile application, red division
• Vancouverobserver.com for best online-only article, series of articles, green division
• Fashionmagazine.com for best cross-platform initiative
• 20minutesupperclub.com (St. Joseph Media) for best e-newsletter, red division
• Canadianlawyermag.com for best cross-platform initiative, blue division
• ElleQuébec.com for best video, red division
• Trucknews.com for best video, blue division
• Salon52.com was repeat winner for best companion website, blue division 
• IT World Canada for best community feature

A gallery of finalists and full information on the contest is available at Canadianonlinepublishingawards.com or on Mastheadonline.com

Scents and sensibility: magazine maven Gwen Dunant is also a "perfumista"

Well known in the Canadian magazine industry as the coordinator of Magazines Canada's schools (ad sales, circulation) and omnipresent in organizing professional development seminars for the major industry conference MagNet each June, Gwen Dunant is also a frequent consultant and mentor to small magazines.
 But she has a surprising sideline -- sharing information about and samples of exotic and hard-to-get perfumes from around the world.

Dunant and her longtime friend Margôt Brockie (who goes by the pseudonym Kay) recently launched the site perfumeniche.com. They refer to themselves as perfumistas with a shared obsession about scent.

"Over the past few years, we’ve tried hundreds of samples, and when we deem a fragrance ”full bottle worthy” (FBW), one of us has tracked it down and bought it," they say. "We now own a lot of really great perfumes.

"With so many exciting discoveries, we can’t help but talk about our passion with other friends. Wherever we go, people ask “What is that perfume you’re wearing? Where can I get that?” So we end up sharing a bit of our “juice” with friends. But the circle has grown, so we've started this website to let other perfumistas buy and try samples from our collection, and share their experiences with us, too."

The website blogs about scents most days and offers followers .7 ml decants from the perfumistas's own bottles, on the principle that you can only experience a fragrance by trying it on your own skin. They don't sell bottles, just the tiny samples, priced from $4. They don't represent any perfumers or distributors, nor are they paid to promote any product.They just love perfume.

By the way, Dunant is drawn to woody, incense, aquatic and rose scents. Kay is more the oriental, herbal, spicy, woody type.

116 million single copies can't be wrong -- CMC forum to present CTC CEO on newsstand trends

The Circulation Marketing Association of Canada (CMC) is presenting a forum, led by Glenn Morgan, the CEO of Coast to Coast Newsstand Services Partnership on Monday, November 1 at the Spoke Club, 2:30 to 4:30. It is part of an almost full day of events; the forum will be followed by the CMC annual social starting at 5 p.m., punctuated by the presentation of the Canadian Newsstand Awards, jointly produced by the CMC and Masthead, starting at 5:45. 

"Glenn promises an open ended and challenging session specifically tailored to include something for everyone whose job involves the newsstand circulation side of the business," says a notice about the forum. 

 

"A special highlight will be Glenn giving a much-needed update on the major category trends (the hot titles versus the not so hot) that make up the current Canadian "newsstand sales" landscape!"

Cost to CMC members for the forum and social is $49, $59 to non-members. More information.

CMC's Terri DeRose award made to CanGeo media and production coordinator Lauren Gillett

Lauren Gillett & Tuppy Carnie

The second annual Terri DeRose Award in Circulation Management has been awarded to Lauren Gillett, media and production coordinator for Canadian Geographic magazine. 

The award was presented last Thursday during a ceremony at Ryerson University by Tuppy Carnie, the circulation director of CCMC Sports Group and president of the CMC. Gillett has been working towards her certificate in magazine publishing. 

The $1,000 award is given each year to a student at Ryerson University's Chang School of Continuing Education by  the Circulation Marketing Association of Canada (CMC) in honour of De Rose. She was the late and much-loved and respected vice-president of circulation at Transcontinental Media who died of cancer at the age of 57 in 2007.  She was one of the founders of CMC.

Publishers told to get their mags ahead of people's changing attitude towards paper

[This post has been updated]The president of the Canadian Forest Products Association, Avrim Lazar, brought a blunt message to the American Magazine Conference last week about a possible consumer backlash against paper-based publishing products like magazines. He called on publishers to respond as leaders to the changing attitudes of consumers towards their printed products. 

[It has been pointed out that this video was not made this year, but was from 2008, for which we apologize. Rather than simply deleting the post, we are amending it and leaving it up. In fact, the sentiments expressed as as apt today (perhaps more so) than they were two years ago. -- DBS]

Advertising Age put up this brief video selection from his presentation. Here's a partial transcript:

"There is a danger that the paper, instead of contributing to the field and the identity [of a magazine] will undermine it," he said."You might think of pulp and paper as the most lumpen product possible. But if you don't do the right thing by the environment, it will be the commodity that is the message.

People will feel that they are pigs, that they are dinosaurs, that they are not with it because they're buying your magazine. The attitude of consumers, and it has changed quite a bit over the past little while -- they used to be worried only about local, environmental problems. Now, overwhelmingly, they say it's global. Perhaps most importantly for you, they used to think it was industry's fault; they now think it's shared.

More than 80% of consumers think they are as responsible as business with fixing the environment. And they focus on waste. They think their own wastefulness, the magazine racks being full, the catalogues, are what's destroying the planet. And even though the economy is in bad shape, they know this is not going to go away.

The global GDP is going to double over the next 20 years; think of it. All the pollution and the environmental pressure that we now experience doubling. And the only way to deal with it is to take a leadership position. To get ahead, to make certain that the paper you are printing your magazines on is legally harvested, from places that are regenerated, inviting outside scrutiny, promoting recovery and dealing with climate change."

Covering Burtynshky was a piece of canny timing for Canadian Art

Whenever a genie comes out of a bottle, always ask for perfect timing. Canadian Art magazine certainly seems to have it, with its fall 2010 cover image and cover story inside by Sarah Milroy on uber-photographer Edward Burtynsky and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 

This is particularly so as Burtynsky has been named the recipient of the biennial MOCCA award in contemporary art from the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. It will be presented to him at a gala event on April 14, 2011 at MOCCA in Toronto. Each guest will receive a limited edition artwork created especially to mark the event.

Style at Home trumpets newsstand performance

Style at Home magazine wants everyone to know that even though its management has changed (a new publisher and new editor-in-chief in the past year) it is achieving record-breaking success in single copy sales. A release from the Transcontinental magazine says that the May 2010 issue was the best performing May issue on record and the July 2010 "white cover" issue (shown) is the second-best performing cover since 2005 when the magazine moved from having a combined summer issue. 

I said Maclean's story was bullshit, and I'm glad, says Regina mayor

Regina's mayor Pat Fiacco, told a reporter for Maclean's magazine that its reporting of the crime situation in his city was "bullshit', according to a story in the Regina Leader Post (which used a euphemism). Actually, Mayor Fiacco said, he was referring to a story two years ago about the north central area of the city rather than the most recent crime stats round up, in which Regina had moved up (or down) the rankings to be third behind Victoria and Prince George.

"Actually, he was a very nice reporter," said Fiacco.

Alberta editor of the year moves east to be editor of Marketing magazine

Tom Gierasimczuk, who was chosen in March by the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (AMPA) as editor of the year while leading up!, the Westjet inflight magazine published by RedPoint Media, has been hired to be the new editor of Rogers's Marketing magazine. 
Prior to being founding editor of up!, Gierasimczuk had been editor of Calgary Inc., the now discontinued business magazine and had co-founded CityBites, a Toronto food magazine. He also worked at Redwood Custom Communications (now Totem).

Event watch: Heintzman on green ; Stackhouse on new-look Globe; Gopnik in Moncton

[This post has been updated] The Literary Review of Canada (LRC) is holding another of its Monday evening public talks, this time with Andrew Heintzman, the author of  The New Entrepreneurs: Building a Green Economy for the Future, talking about the green economy on November 15. It's at 7 p.m. at The Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen's Park, Toronto. Heintzman, who is the co-founder, president and CEO of Investco Capital Corporation and chair of the Premier's Climate Change Advisory Panel for the Province of Ontario, will be in conversation with Toby Heaps, the editor of  Corporate Knights magazine. (As an aside, several years ago Heintzman was the co-founder and publisher of shift magazine.)

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If you have an opinion, or questions, about the new-look Globe and Mail in all its colour magazine-like glory, there will be an opportunity to hear editor John Stackhouse talk about Newspapers--The Strategic Generation at a presentation sponsored by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. It's on Thursday, October 21 at Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto, beginning at 6:30, with Stackhouse's presentation to be followed by a reception.$15 (free for students with ID). More info. 

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Adam Gopnik, a writer for The New Yorker and a New York Times bestselling author will be speaking on Friday, October 29 at city hall, Moncton, New Brunswick, beginning at 5 p.m. It is a "pay what you can" event, part of the Frye Festival's Community Read series. Gopnik, who was born in Philadelphia grew up in Montreal before moving to New York and then Paris for five years, the basis for his 2000 book Paris to the Moon. The community read series presents authors whose books are available in translation, encouraging dialogue between French and English-speaking communities both of which are prominent in New Brunswick.

Today's Parent magazine enables readers to do mobile shopping for children's gifts

Today's Parent magazine has launched a free mobile application called the Gift Finder that allows smartphone-equipped readers to find gifts for children. The app is sponsored by the toy store chain Toys"R"Us, and when users dowload the app on their iPhone, iTouch or iPad, they get a coupon code for $5 off a purchase of $25 or more at Toys"R"Us stores.

The majority of the toys in the Gift Finder come from the Today's Parent "Top Toys" list, a highly anticipated annual feature in Today's Parent magazine," says a release. "The Today's Parent Gift Finder application is the first iPhone application from a Canadian parenting magazine brand.

"The Today's Parent Gift Finder application is a great tool for anyone with a child on their shopping list - anytime of the year," says Claude Galipeau, SVP & GM, Digital Media, Rogers Media Inc. "We are excited to launch this application using the reliable reviews from Today's Parent to help parents, relatives and friends, pick out the best presents for the children in their lives. Santa himself will want this app!"

Out with the old: top edit team at Editor & Publisher let go by new owners

Citing a need to go in new directions, the new owners of the venerable Editor & Publisher magazine have fired the top three editors. According to a story in Folio:, longtime editor Mark Fitzgerald, managing editor Shawn Moynihan and senior editor Jim Rosenberg were let go by Duncan McIntosh Co.

In the statement, Fitzgerald says he was told the company wants to take Editor & Publisher in an unspecified “other direction editorially.” Citing a company memo, Fitzgerald says the magazine will be “utilizing more individuals for the print edition who are experts in their individual fields as opposed to reporters who track down experts and put the expert’s story into the writer’s words.”

Owner Duncan McIntosh told Folio: that the magazine will be put out by his own team.

“We knew when we took over the magazine that it had to change, to adapt to where the newspaper industry is headed,” he says. “We just weren’t getting the changes we were looking for with the staff that we had in place."

Howver he described the departing editorial management team as "great guys and accomplished journalists."E&P was closed down in late 2009 by Nielsen Business Media, then rescued by McIntosh, who publishes a number other titles, including Boating World, Sea Magazine and The Log newspaper.

Geist western magazine of the year

Geist was named magazine of the year on Friday at the 28th annual Western Magazine Awards, held in Vancouver. It was also magazine of the year for BC/Yukon. Other MOY winners were:

• Alberta Views -- Alberta/NWT
• Border Crossings -- Manitoba
• Blackflash -- Saskatchewan

•  Trade magazine of the year was Enterprise.

Multiple award-winning magazines were Swerve (4), AlbertaViews (3), BCBusiness,Vancouver Review (2), Vancouver magazine (2), Border Crossings (2), Up Here (2) and The Beaver (2).

Written awards:

• Arts, Culture, and Entertainment --Timothy Taylor, Foodville: Part One, Vancouver Review 
• Business -- Tyee Bridge, Managed to Fail, BCBusiness 
• Environmental -- James Glave, Rees’s Thesis, Vancouver Magazine
•  Fiction -- Andrew MacDonald, Eat Fist!, Event 
• Human Experience -- Lindsay Cuff, On Atrocity and Grace: A Contrapuntal Vision, The Malahat Review 
• Profile -- Jeremy Klaszus, Mr. Tree, AlbertaViews 
• Public Issues  --Paul Webster, Fixed, Vancouver Magazine  
• Regular Column or Department  -- Robert Enright, Column, Border Crossings 
• Science, Technology, and Medicine -- Katharine Sandiford, The Man in the Ice, Up Here 
• Service --  Julie McLaughlin and Staff, The Best Time To, Swerve 
• Student Writing -- Kerianne Sproule, Terri & Me, Swerve 
• Travel and Leisure -- Katharine Sandiford, The Wild Quest, Up Here

Provincial gold awards:

• Gold Award Best Article - Alberta/NWT  -- Jeremy Klaszus, Mr. Tree, AlbertaViews
• Gold Award Best Article - BC/Yukon  -- Timothy Taylor, Foodville: Part One, Vancouver Review
• Gold Award Best Article - Manitoba -- Mary Horodyski, The Geography of Ambiguity, Prairie Fire
• Gold Award Best Article - Saskatchewan -- John Campbell, Getting Their Kicks, Westworld

Visual awards:

• Best Art Direction - Article  -- Danae Thompson, You’re Invited, Swerve
• Best Art Direction - Cover  -- Catherine Mullaly, July Cover, BCBusiness
• Best Illustration or Illustration Feature -- Byron Eggenschwiler, Tales from Riverheights Terrace, Swerve
• Best Photograph - Architectural, Landscape, or Still Life  -- Clinton Hussey, The Real Deal, Western Living
• Best Photograph - Feature or Series  -- Venturi + Karpa, Saving Skid Row, The Beaver
• Best Photograph - People and Portraiture -- Venturi + Karpa, Saving Skid Row, The Beaver

Quote, unquote: On being fetishists

"Basically, we love print. We’re very aware that print culture is in flux and we know we can’t afford to be naive about what these changes mean for the magazine industry.  We want the print version of EB to be our enduring story delivery system and if magazines end up becoming fetish objects, so be it – we will happily court the fetishists – heck, we are the fetishists."

-- Novelist and writer Lynn Coady, talking to the National Post about the new Edmonton-based national literary magazine Eighteen Bridges

Related post:

• Narrative journalism and essays the core of new Edmonton magazine Eighteen Bridges

National Magazine Awards looking for a few, good (paid) interns

The National Magazine Awards have always been a lean operation, charged with the daunting task of managing a mushrooming entry and judging process. This year the awards foundation is offering several paid internships to help carry the workload -- one each in Ontario, eastern Canada, western Canada and Quebec. The eastern, western and Quebec interns will work remotely; the Ontario intern will be partly remote and sometimes in the awards office as things heat up. The Quebec intern needs to be fluently bilingual. It's a great opportunity. To find out more, go to our job board over in the right sidebar and click on the link. The deadline for application is November 1.

Magazine world view: Men's Grazia; Yahoo in play; FT paywall support; mag innovators

• Bauer Media to pilot new men's magazine this month (Press Gazette)
• Financial Times launches iPad app for Chinese edition (Journalism.co.uk)
• Men's version of Grazia -- called Gazetta? -- to be trial by Bauer (Brand Republic)
• Sources tell Bloomberg Yahoo has hired Goldman to handle takeover approaches (paidContent via Techmeme) 
• How the Financial Times audience development team supports its paid content model (Audience Development) 
• Condé Nast studies how readers engage with its apps (Audience Development) 
• [ U.S.]Mailers Alliance fights 'nonsensical' price-cap ruling (Dead Tree Edition) 
• Financial Times app brings in £1m (Guardian)
• British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) reveals best mag innovators and campaigners (Press Gazette)

AZURE magazine launches international design competition

AZURE, the contemporary design and architecture magazine, is marking its 25th anniversary year by launching an annual  international design competition. The AZ Awards will honour top-tier architecture firms and design studios that have produced outstanding work in the past year. The competition will be adjudicated by a panel of international jurors.

AZURE is known for spotlighting innovation and talent in various design-related fields, including industrial design, commercial and residential architecture, interior design and landscape design.

Professionals and students are invited to submit previously unawarded and unpublished works completed by December 31, 2010, in five categories: industrial design, architecture, interior, concepts and A+ (student) work. Submissions are open January 1, 2011 through March 1 and winners will be published in the summer issue of the magazine.

Magazines Canada to publish biannual print magazine called Canadian Magazines canadiens

[This post has been updated]Magazine Canada is poised to announce that it is getting into the magazine business by publishing the biannual (2x a year) Canadian Magazines canadiens. It's aimed at opinion leaders, to inform them of the industry, its strengths and its issues. (Shown at right is a working prototype; the final version may be somewhat different.)

The magazine will be issued in spring and fall, starting in February 2011, each with a circulation of about 3,000 -- to all Members of Parliament, through Magazines Canada members and polybagged with literature from the Federation of the International Periodical Press (FIPP) to 500 of the top operating publishing companies and associations in Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain.

The editor of CMC will be Chantal Tranchemontagne of Vancouver Nelson, B.C. and Barbara Zatyko, MC's general manager will be publisher. Production will be by the Montreal custom publishing company Spafax, the publishers of enRoute. Advertising will be sold as part of conference sponsorship sales by Barbara Gould, who also manages the National Magazine Awards and the KRW awards program for b2b magazines. The editorial consultant on the project is Kim Pittaway; the publishing consultant is Deb Rosser.

“The genesis of the project came from discussions with suppliers interested in a print vehicle capable of showcasing just how engaging magazines are and can be," said Mark Jamison, the CEO of Magazines Canada. 

"The conversations and collaborations grew from there as we realized that this would also be an opportunity to tell the stories about the people who make magazines a success.

This is coming at a time when the Canadian magazine media is showing just how resilient and vital its print platform is and how leading edge its magazine brands are on multiple digital platforms.

We have learned from our international contacts that the Canadian magazine media draws considerable respect worldwide.  This project will help spread that news at home and abroad.”

[Disclosure: The Canadian Magazines blog is unrelated to Canadian Magazines canadiens, though I am writing an article for the first issue.]

Magazine publishers given just six weeks to apply for CPF program for 2011-12

[This post has been updated]Canadian Heritage has just published its application guide for aid to magazine publishers and has given publishers barely six weeks to apply. The deadline is November 24. The aid to publishers component provides publishers of paid or verified request magazines with funding to produce and distribute their publications.

The complete eligibility criteria are here. 

• Paid circulation magazines must have sold at least 5,000 paid copies annually, with the exception of aboriginal,official language minority or ethnocultural publications, where the floor is 2,500. 
• Eligible magazines must have a minimum average price of $1 per copy or an average minimum annual subscription price of $12. 
• Magazines must be majority Canadian owned and contain an average of at least 80% Canadian editorial content and no more than 70% advertising. 
• Verified request magazine must have distributed 5,000 requested copies, representating at least 50% of the magazine's total circulation. 

[Update: Most of the program is the same as the 2010/11 application except that there is no longer a provision that previous applicants will receive no less than 90% nor more than 120% of their previous year's grant.]

Toronto Sunday Star to carry New York Times content in two premium sections

The Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper, has struck a content-sharing deal with the New York Times that will see the Star on Sundays carrying two new sections -- a 16-page news and commentary broadsheet and a 12-page tabloid version of the NYT Book Review. The news and comment section will feature a revolving roster of NYT columnists, says a story published in Marketing.

"This is one of the largest marketing campaigns the Star has launched in many years," said Sandy MacLeod, vice president, consumer marketing at the Star, in a statement. "We believe that through the combination of newspaper, television, radio, point-of-sale, telemarketing and e-mail marketing efforts we will reach almost every adult reader in the Greater Toronto Area."

The new sections will be free for six weeks then home-delivery subscribers will be offered the sections for $1 extra a week, starting November 21. The Sunday Star will be doubling in price to $2, starting November 28.

While the Toronto paper already used The New York Times news service, Star spokesperson Bob Hepburn said The Times approached the Star months ago about this new product.

"We looked at the product and studied it quite extensively," said Hepburn. "We've taken it through focus groups, some online surveys and around to advertising agencies, and have had a very favourable response all-around."

The Star will sell local ads for the section, which will be produced by The Times.

Could Amazon soon be marketing long-form journalism?

Amazon could be edging towards getting into the long-form journalism business with the launch of Kindle Singles. It's clearly intended for book excerpts, essays or works in the 10,000 to 30,000 word range (30 to 90 pages), but it raises the possibility of magazine journalists marketing meatier articles this way. The singles will have their own section in the online Kindle store and be priced much less than a typical book, Amazon said in a release.

"Today’s announcement is a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world," the release said.

“Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “With Kindle Singles, we’re reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we’re excited to see what they create.”

Techcrunch observed:

This new format is is important because Kindle Singles opens up a market for new authors. Singles gives bloggers and writers out there who don’t have time to write a book the opportunity to publish a pamphlet or shorter work. And it seems fairly easy for writer to publish these works. Amazon will work directly with publishers and writers to publish Kindle Singles. Amazon says that “Any rights holder can use the already popular Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to self-publish work in the Kindle Store, and this include Kindle Singles.”

Singles will be able to be read on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices.Writers who want to be considered for Kindle Singles can contact digital-publications[at]amazon[dot]com.

Quarter of a million attended Word on the Street events across Canada

Word on the Street, the national magazine and book festival, is reported to have drawn 250,000 people in cities across the country on Sunday, September 26. Toronto's festival, the biggest, was in its 21st year and other cities were Vancouver, Kitchener and Halifax. Saskatoon held a preview event for its first WOTS to occur in 2011.

"The growing success of The Word On The Street festivals across Canada continues to demonstrate our national passion for the written word and advocacy for literacy", noted Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, national board chair, The Word On The Street Canada, in a release. "We expect to expand this national celebration as new cities have expressed their interest in joining The Word On The Street festival".