Canadian magazine launches appear to be pulling out of their slump in Masthead tally

Magazine launches appear to have pulled out of their steep dive, though it is a little early to claim the worst is over. Masthead has for many years done the industry a great favour by compiling a year-by-year tally of launches and closures and the latest compilation, for the years 2010 and 2011 shows that 19 titles were launched last year and 9 publications stopped. That's a 58% increase in launches, though on a lamentably small base and a far cry from the palmy days of 2003 and 2004 when net launches totalled 159.

Masthead (itself now published only online) has been tallying online launches and closures data since 2009 and found that 12 were started last year and 9 the year before.It defines these as having "some measure of independent editorial content, whether supported by advertising or not, but something more than a blog."

[table: Masthead]