Visual Arts News starts off the new year with new website

Visual Arts News has started off 2013 with a brand new website. The magazine is dedicated to contemporary visual art in Atlantic Canada, mostly Nova Scotian art and artists. The website highlights the spring 2013 issue features artists who create their work out of the things the rest of us throw away: 

• Peter Dykhuis' creates collages on clipboards inspired by receipts, personal lists, envelopes and credit card bills. 
• Swintak and Don Miller created a tower of babble out of objects found in the Confederation Centre's basement.
• Kai Chan creates his sculptures and wall-hangings from ordinary found materials. 
• Ehryn Torrell's depicts crumbling urban landscapes; wreckage found at sites of construction, demolition and disaster.
• There's also a conversation with James Guerts and an online exclusive multi-media interview with Halifax-based artist Eleanor King about her recent exhibition Stacks, at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and her fascination with issues relating to excess, technological obsolescence and environmental degradation.

There's not much overlap between magazines print and online ad customers

Just as there is often little overlap between the print audience of a magazine and the readers it gets online, there is apparently relatively little overlap between print and online magazine advertisers. According to a story by Bill Mickey on Folio:, the data service MediaRadar (formerly MagazineRadar) has found that only a third of the advertisers who buy print ads in MPA-member magazines show up on the same magazine brands' websites. Integrated sales are relatively small. 

"In the third quarter of 2012, for example, MediaRadar found that about 9,000 brands advertised in the MPA-member consumer magazines it tracks. There were 12,000 brands that advertised on those titles' websites. But only 3,000 were integrated buys—leaving about 9,000 advertisers that were only buying digital with those brands.

The New Republic strikes off on a new course

The New Republic is feeling the impact of its new, young millionaire owner Chris Hughes with a radical redesign of its publication and its online offerings. 

Chris Hughes, who co-founded Facebook, bought the magazine in 2012 and made himself the publisher and editor-in-chief. In an interview with NPR, he says that the venerable magazine -- which went through some difficult times over the past decade, including a brief ownership by the Aspers -- now sees over 20% of its traffic from mobile.

"Our model isn't altogether different from the models that magazines used previously. What is different is that it used to be, you give us $35 and we give you 20 issues of print a year. That just isn't gonna cut it in 2013. So now our model is, you give us $35 a year, we give you 20 issues of print, we also give you unlimited access on the Web, we give you audio versions, we give you comments — so the business model is much broader, but I also think in time it can be a profitable one. It may not be the same level as media companies made money in the late 20th century, but I think as long as we're focused on a high quality of journalism, then we can get to a point where it's sustainable, if not profitable. It will take some time, but I think we can get there." Welcome to our redesign

One of the innovations on the redesigned website are audio podcasts which allow readers to click on a link and have a story read to them.  (For an example, click on the little headphones at the right of this feature about Jill Kelley, one of the central figures in the David Petraeus scandal.)

Fact-checking app launched by Washington Post

The Washington Post has launched a real-time mobile and desktop app called Truth Teller which will allow anyone to cite, transcribe and show up errors in speeches, videos and documents. According to a story on Media Bistro, the app (which is in its nascent stages and is still working out the bugs) has the capacity to change the way people consumer their political media. The app was funded in part by a prototye grant from the Knight News Challenge. 

"The best example of the way that Truth Teller presents facts seamlessly is through its prototype of Speaker of the House John Boehner’s post-election speech on taxes. The Truth Teller system not only points out statistical references within Boehner’s speech for fact-checking, but also finds concepts buried deep in context and checks those as well. And all of the pieces of the system, from transcription to location and confirmation, work together seamlessly to show facts right as the user sees them. 

“What you see in the prototype is actual live fact checking — each time the video is played the fact checking starts anew,” writes Washington Post Executive Director for Digital News Cory Haik in the app’s About page."

The Post says it has combined video and audio extraction with speech to text technology to search databases. 

"We are effectively taking in video, converting the audio to text (the rough transcript below the video), matching that text to our database, and then displaying, in real time, what’s true and what’s false."

Education Canada magazine gets visual relaunch

A new editor and art director have piloted a visual relaunch for Education Canada magazine. Published by the Canadian Education Association, the 68-year-old trade publication has traditionally served educational theorists, researchers and senior school and school board administrators. 

The new editor is Holly Bennett, former special editions editor of Today's Parent; the new art director is Dave Donald, who also is art director of This magazine.

The magazine's typeface has been updated and the architecture of the book revised, with the addition of illustrations and new department headers. 

Bennett says the new look and feel is part of broadening the accessibility of the content to grow the readership:

 “Both visually and editorially, we are striving to make Education Canada a more inviting reading experience, without compromising on the quality and depth of its articles.The conversation about what education should be and how to get there needs everyone’s voice. We aim to broaden our reach beyond researchers and school district administrators to include principals, teachers, parents and even students, so that they too can be inspired to think differently.”

Education Canada magazine through the years

Zoomer magazine launches "super site"

Zoomer magazine has launched a new "super site" called Everything Zoomer.com. Like previous web presence, the new lifestyle portal features content for the 45-plus demographic, ranging from breaking news classifieds, dating, health, travel, rich media and a social network layer. It also has a daily joke.

Alberta Magazines Conference registration open

The Alberta Magazines Conference for 2013 is accepting registrations now. The conference and awards gala take place March 14 at the Carriage House Inn in Calgary.

Keynote speaker at the event will be well-known creative director Robert Newman presenting "The Future of Publishing is Now," a look at publishing trends in print, digital, mobile, online and social media, and what magazines should be doing now to prepare themselves for industry changes and new developments.

Mathieu Péloquin named VP digital marketing solutions at TC Media

The marketing activities of TC Media have been consolidated under one person as Mathieu Péloquin has been appointed to be both vice-president, Marketing and now vice-president, digital marketing solutions. A release from the company says his combined duties are effective immediately; his new role will make him additionally responsible for all digital products, including promotional content management, mobile, email and database marketing. 

Péloquin joined TC Media in May 2010 after being VP Marketing for Reader's Digest Canada. 

Magazine world view: Jailed editor; Mobile billions; Ad-heavy Vogue; Hearst heads Hearst

• Thai magazine editor sentenced to 10 years in prison for defaming monarchy (AP)
• Associations Look to Magazines to Enhance Membership Experience (Audience Development)
• Global Mobile Ad Revenue Projected to Grow to $24.5 Billion by 2016 (Audience Development)
• Whoa: Facebook Now Owns Over 25% Of Total Time Spent On Mobile Apps (ReadWriteWeb)
• Vogue Again Leads Women's Fashion for March-Issue Ad Pages (Ad Age)
• Freelancers, Stop Charging Hourly Rates: How To Guarantee Your Income With Agile Billing (Smashing magazine)
• All Good Print Magazines Go to Digital Heaven…Or Do They? (Folio:)
• William Randolph Hearst III Named Hearst Corp. Board Chairman

Crowdsourcing is still the key for UPPERCASE magazine's typewriter book

UPPERCASE magazine of Calgary is close to being able to publish The Typewriter: a Graphic History of the Beloved Machine. It hopes to launch it on June 23 this year (International Typewriter Day) and they've so far raised 77% of their $25,000 goal to cover the print costs for 3,000 copies. Janine Vangool, the publisher/editor/designer says

"Though [previous book] publishing efforts have been successful in sustaining operations, there's little left over to invest into future publications. All of our past books have been funded by preorders and hefty dips into a line of credit (with some finger-crossing). With crowdfunding, I am excited to see the appeal and potential of The Typewriter book from the outset and begin the project with funding for the print run secured."

People who donate at various levels (each named after a typewriter, natch) receive some swell swag, ranging from a copy of the book when it is published to a $5,000 donation which will get you a lifetime subscription, an art print and a design consultation by Vangool. 

Major management shakeup shows Lucky magazine is not so

No so many years ago (12, actually), Lucky magazine from Condé Nast was considered a brilliant and innovative idea -- a magazine about shopping that treated it as a lifestyle. A friend once said that the magazine was successful out of the gate because it was aimed at young women with some money but not much taste and it stepped in to help them put together (and source) stylish clothing and accessories they could afford. 
Now, according to a story in WWD, there has been a major shakeup that resulted in the departure of the publisher, brought in less than 18 months ago as a turnaround specialist, to be replaced by  "general manager"Gillian Round, who joined the company 11 months ago from the major advertiser Lancôme USA and who has no publishing experience. (The editor of Lucky, Brandon Holley, will be one of the first editors-in-chief at  Condé Nast to report to a business executive.) 
The reasons for the shakeup are stark: Lucky has had two consecutive years of losses and finished 2012 down 20% in pages and lost 15% of its newsstand sales in the first half of the year. 
Rumours swirled that Lucky would go digital only, but that seems unlikely; what seems more likely is for the magazine to be reduced in frequency and that it would become more of a merchandising channel, with an e-commerce component.
Somewhat ironically, Round has been busy recently trying to find a strategy that would allow the re-emergence of the popular magazine Domino, a shelter magazine whose print edition  Condé Nast closed down, to be available only on tablets; a decision about which it is apparently having second thoughts. 
It will be interesting to see what the experience is at LouLou, the Rogers Publishing shopping magazine that was, if not modelled after, surfed into existence in the wake of, Lucky's example. 

Strategy and Playback publisher Brunico launching multimedia conference

Brunico Communications, the publisher of Strategy and Playback magazines, is inaugurating a conference about branded content across various media. BCON Expo will showcase integration and content strategies in a series of presentations from executives from leading media and entertainment companies in broadcast, publishing and music, called The New Brand Content Upfronts. Speakers and agenda have not yet been announced. 

The advisory board for the conference is co-chaired by Sunni Boot, president and CEO of Optimedia and Jeff Peeler, president and executive producer at Frantic Films. 

The conference takes place March 28 at the Westin Harbour Castle. 

Massey College hosts Press Night about coverage of First Nations issues

Those who closely follow the careering progress of the Idle No More movement and the controversy over the hunger strike of Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat will find Tuesday's Press Club Night at Massey College in Toronto something not to be missed. Though it is being held on short notice, it's a drop in, without RSVP, as with other such events. Here's an outline of what's planned:

Filmmaker Victoria Lean has been documenting the challenges faced by Attawapiskat since 2008, well before Chief Theresa Spence’s fall 2011 declaration of a state of emergency drew the attention of major southern media outlets. Since then, the Idle No More movement has coalesced in part around Chief Spence’s hunger strike, her effort to meet with Canadian leadership. The movement has been spurred by the outspoken and subtle advocacy of Hayden King, an Anishinaabe writer and assistant professor of politics at Ryerson. Opening with an 8-minute preview of Lean’s forthcoming film on Attawapiskat, and moderated by Mary Agnes Welch, a journalist who covers aboriginal affairs for the Winnipeg Free Press, the evening promises a vibrant discussion of Canadian reporting on First Nations issues and the Idle No More movement.

Massey College Upper Library

4 Devonshire Place  January 22, 7.30 p.m. – followed by cash bar in the Common Room

PR buzzwords we love to hate

Those editors among you who sometimes feel overwhelmed by public relations pitches may be amused by a list of the "pet hates" for the jargon and intros (sometimes) used by PR people.

• “reaching out”
• “attached is an article which would be good to feature in your...”
• “Pleased to announce an exciting new client” [this is not news]
• “Hi, I hope you are well”
• “Delivery footprint”
• Any footprint - unless it is a yeti’s

[Thanks to Axegrinder blog in Press Gazette.]

BPA changes, consolidates rules for digital editions

The board of circulation auditing agency BPA has done away with the requirement for continuous circulation of digital magazine subscriptions served through apps and mobile devices. It was one of several changes and clarifications BPA made, effective immediately, and supersedes a May 2012 announcement about determining qualified circulation. 

According to a story in Audience Development, the new, consolidated rules reaffirm that better disclosure will be required when there are shared media channels and require that BPA members will report the full amount collected for a subscription offer as the actual value of the subscription.

BPA members will also be allowed to use subscriber information gathered from any channel for purposes of magazine subscription solicitations -- including third-party sources like association lists, business information providers and directories. Such a rule change is of particular interest to business-to-business members.
A webinar discussing the new, amended rules broadcast Tuesday, is available online

Reader's Digest publishes major takeout on BC pipeline and tanker perils

[This post has been updated] Reader's Digest in its February issue publishes a remarkable 5,000-word original article drawn from research excerpt for his forthcoming book The Oil Man and the Sea by Arno Kopecky, a Vancouver-based environmental journalist and travel writer. He writes about traversing the inside passage of BC and considering its peril from future Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker traffic. The piece is illustrated by photography of Ilja Herb. (Curiously, the Valentine's-themed cover of the issue makes no mention of the 18-page article.)

I'd say the story reporting and the editing are careful, providing both sides -- those who oppose Enbridge's pipeline and those who favour it. But the balance is clearly a warning against the project and it is hard to see how a story in a magazine with Canada's largest readership can fail to contribute to swaying public opinion on the issues. Here's a taste:

"Are we really going to put at risk tens of thousands of existing jobs in fishing and tourism, the watersheds and the internationally renowned Great Bear Rainforest for a couple hundred jobs promised by Enbridge?" asks Caitlyn Vernon, coastal campaigner with Sierra Club B.C.  

We just might. But in an age of rational hubris, Canada's West Coast  is one of the few places that reminds us of the unreasoning primacy of nature. Coastal residents believe they can win the Northern Gateway debate if they can get their fellow citizens to understand value in larger terms than money -- to see it, instead, in terms of functioning ecosystems, a healthy climate and a democracy that respects minorities.

The story is not available online; so if you're not a subscriber, you'll have to pick up at copy at the newsstand for $4.25.  [Update: the article has now been posted online http://www.readersdigest.ca/magazine/true-stories/273-billion-question-enbridge-and-northern-gateway-controversy (But you could buy a copy anyway.)]

Quote, unquote: Cold comfort

“I think it’s crazy. Aren’t we far enough north already?”

-- Deborah Iqaluk, Resolute's bylaw officer, shaking her head (along with many of the townsfolk) about the "silly season" influx of adventure tourists looking to trek to the North Pole. From an excellent feature by Margo Pfeiff in the current issue of Up Here magazine. 

Magazine world view: WSJ Money (go figure); ambulance chasers; spleling; Atlantic oops

• Wall Street Journal to launch new magazine, WSJ Money (Adweek)
• Bonnier CEO Terry Snow to Step Down, Succeeded by Dave Freygang (Folio:)
• Bonnier CEO Dave Freygang: Focus is on Building Team and Digital Revenue(Folio:)
• Newspapers fear new regulator could attract 'ambulance-chasing' lawyers(Guardian)
• New boss of News International announces he's a Telegraph reader (Guardian)
• Johnston Press defers pay reviews citing 'challenging conditions' (Press Gazette)
• Across the world, money to support journalism startups comes from a variety of sources (Nieman Journalism Lab)
• Haymarket Media Group appoints Canopy Media Management for insert sales (Media Week)
• Slate article about ‘Girls’ ‘misspelled basically everyone’s name’ (Romenesko)
• The Atlantic publishes then pulls sponsored content from Church of Scientology (Romenesko)

Derick Chetty becomes fashion director of Zoomer

Derick Chetty, formerly style writer and columnist with the Toronto Star and Flare magazine, has joined Zoomer magazine as its fashion director. He will also fill the same role in EverythingZoomer.com, the new digital platform set to launch later this month. A release from the company says 

Derick Chetty

"In this newly created position, Chetty will work closely with [ editor-in-chief Suzanne] Boyd, developing fashion direction for both properties as well as producing multi-media content on a range of topics from style and design to luxury and lifestyle to accessible fashion for real people.  " 'Staying current and looking good are essential aspects of positive aging and, with Derick on board, Zoomer becomes the go-to guide for fabulous style at any age,' said Boyd. 'I’m thrilled to be working with Derick again,' she added." (Chetty worked with Boyd when she was editor of Flare.)

Chetty has covered fashion for the Star since 2007 and reported from collections in New York, Milan and Paris as well as Toronto. He has interviewed a number of designers from Alexander Wang to DSquared to Donna Karan and celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Rob Lowe and Ryan Gosling. 

 " 'I'm looking forward to working with this vibrant demographic and showcasing their stylish lifestyle,' said Chetty. 'Also, it's exciting to return to my first love – the world of magazines.' " 

New fashion quarterly called GRAY launching in Vancouver

A new quarterly fashion magazine called GRAY is debuting in Vancouver with a first issue launch party and fundraiser at Unit/Pitt Projects, 15 East Pender Street. starting a 7 p.m. on January 19. $2 to $4 donations at the door include a free copy of the magazine.

GRAY, edited by Holly Goldsmith-Jones and Tobin Gibson, says it "investigates the politics of excess and simplicity inside fashion", hoping "to relieve the skepticism around pre-established notions of fashion by looking at dress as an agent for creative responsibility." 

The magazine says it will be distributed in Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa, New York, Chicago, LA, London, Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Prague, Budapest and Moscow.

Newsweek tablet seeks attention with animated cover

Newsweek magazine, which recently gave up producing a print edition, is trying to get attention paid to the tablet edition that replaces it by publishing an animated cover image. According to a story in Adweek

When tablet subscribers download the coming week's issue, they'll first notice a blank, light-blue screen, which gives way to a four-second animation of the descent of the deep-diving submarine Pisces IV. Carrying the cover title, "Have We Hit Bottom?" (a headline sure to invite a few snide comments after Newsweek's recent print struggles) the story chronicles the last manned deep sea diving expedition. The piece is written by senior writer Tony Dokoupil and teases an exclusive interview with director and known deep sea diver James Cameron.

Magazines Canada direct sub marketing campaign does second mail drop

Magazines Canada has sent out 142,000 subscription brochures, the second part of the half a million copies being distributed for the 2012 Buy 2, Get 1 Free direct marketing campaign,
which winds up at the end of February. The brochures were included in More magazine’s December/January issue, the Moi & cie December issue and Clin d’oeil January issue.The Walrus ran a smaller gatefold creative in their December/January issue. 

The mail drops complements other promotion, including print ads, search engine marketing, email promotions, social networking sites and online promotions. The campaign is reachable on Facebook: facebook.com/Buy2Get1Free and on Twitter: twitter.com/CdnMagsB2G1FREE.

There are about 190 Canadian magazine titles participating in the 2012 campaign, with over 100 available in both print and digital editions, most of which are PDF replicas through Magazine Canada's Zinio partnership. 

The annual marketing campaign was first launched in 2003 and in 2007 sold about 10,000 subs. In 2009 it sold 14,600 and in 2011, even in the teeth of the recession, sold more than 13,000.

Vancouver magazine profiles leap of principle and daring

Fascinating Vancouver magazine story, posted on its blog this week, about writer/videographer Kai Nagata and his determination to complete a documentary about a blind lutenist who decided to learn how to drive a motorcycle and leap it 100 feet. 

Writer Danel Wood profiles how Nagata resigned as CTV Quebec bureau chief in 2011 on a matter of personal principle; and how he went on to produce a three-part online documentary about Matt Wadsworth. 

The British musician, 38 and born sightless, took training in southern Calilfornia to learn how to ride and jump a 450cc Honda motorcycle -- and did so. 

Nagata scratched together the means to do the story and, with borrowed cameras and recording equipment and the financial help of friends, made the film which went up on YouTube last spring.

To Nagata, his widely viewed “Renaissance Man”—and the thousands of other freelance documentaries on the internet—illustrates how rigid old media is vulnerable today to independent, web-based projects. By being nimble, by embracing minimal costs and maximum uncertainty, by forming temporary alliances with audiences and crowd-sourced funders, and by using the myriad platforms the web provides, this new journalism, he believes, can be produced out of a backpack. 

Magazine world view: Raiseless Time; Atlantic app; thunder thighs; iPad lit journal

• Time Inc. cancels 2013 pay raises and 500 to 700 job cuts expected (New York Post)
• With new search functions, Twitter will rule breaking news (Readwrite)
• Atlantic Media launches web app for Atlantic Wire (Audience Development)
• Metrocorp Inc. acquires majority stake in Slice Communications (Folio:)
• How about a NewPage-Quad/Graphics merger? (Dead Tree Edition)
• Is Daisy 'thunder thighs' Lowe the epitome of 'curvy' womanhood? (Guardian)
• Trending in journalism education: online degrees; entrepreneurship; mobile design (MediaShift)
• Paragraph launches aggregated literary magazine for the iPad age (paidContent)

A Flipboard-like weekly short story magazine launches for the iPad

In what is described as a "Flipboard for short stories", a New York startup called Paragraph has launched the first issue of a weekly short story iPad magazine called Paragraph Shorts.It aggregates short stories from sources across the web, from outlets such as Paris Review, The Moth and The New Yorker, and distributes them through its free iPad app. A story in paidContent reports that the site offers social features including the Twitter and Facebook streams of the stories’ authors and the magazines they were published in. Readers suggest stories. "The core of Paragraph is a community of people like you," the magazine says on its website. "People who like to stop every once in a while, experience an amazing story, and continue with their life, partially changed for the better."

"Paragraph Shorts aims to add value through curation, introducing readers to authors and publications they might not have known about otherwise. “By curating the best short stories, and offering them to people who might not have known they existed, Paragraph will create a link between great literary magazines and readers who are eager to kill fifteen minutes in a quality manner,” Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, said in a statement.

"Of course, killing fifteen minutes reading a short story through an app doesn’t necessarily extend to a subscription to the publication it came from," [reports Laura Hazard Owen]. "But all the stories that Paragraph features are already free online, so the app’s main benefit to the stories’ publishers is to drive traffic to their websites and to increase social media around them. The company is also considering exclusive content at some point."

Paragraph, was founded by Ziv Navoth (who previously ran marketing and partnerships at AOL) and his partner Edo Segal,  and they also run two other businesses -- an e-book app platform called  Holopad and an ebook distribution platform called Convertabook.com.

Quote, unquote: On the ability to connect

“Change plus innovation has allowed us to go from a traditional publishing company to a national marketing and communications company across a variety of platforms. At Meredith, that means building and maintaining the ability to connect. We reach 100 million U.S. women, about half of this is through a digital channel."

-- Tom Harty, National Media Group president for Meredith Corporation, in his kick-off keynote speech to the MediaNext show put on by FOLIO: in New York. 

Free daily tonight is acquired by Annex Business Media and converts to weekly

Annex Business Media has acquired the freepaper tonight and will be publishing it as a weekly, rather than as a weeknight daily. According to a story in Marketing magazine, the three-and-a-half year old paper will continue to distribute 102,000 copies in the core of Toronto, only now on Thursdays.The sale price was not revealed (both companies are privately held.)

"Publisher John Cameron said the decrease in print days will allow tonight to focus on its web content and eventually roll out more mobile apps. 'Basically it comes down to where you want to put your resources,' said Cameron. 'We know that things will transition more and more over to digital. Every paper will try and spin it a different way, but we all know people are getting news on their apps and on the web.'

"Cameron noted that tonight‘s web traffic has roughly doubled since The Globe and Mail implemented a paywall last October, a boost that contributed to the decision to cut frequency. 'People are looking for other places to go on the web now,' he said. 'That showed us an opportunity.' ”

Cameron said that readers won't notice a change in the freshness of news, which will continue to be delivered every day online; content arrangements that tonight has with partners such as Sportsnet will continue.

Annex, based in Simcoe, is primarily a printer and  business-to-business publisher with a hefty stable of 35 mostly small circulation specialty magazines in the manufacturing/industrial, resources/heavy equipment, agriculture, retail business, professional and commercial services.

Federal draft anti-spam legislation open for comments

The federal government has released its anti-spam legislation for comment and Magazines Canada is compiling comments from its members and the wider magazine community about a longtime-coming piece of legislation which has significant implications for direct mail, list management and privacy -- all things that directly bear on Canadian magazine publishing. The 30-day comment period is running through February 5. Magazines Canada is asking to be copied on any direct comments [info@magazinescanada.ca].

People in magazines: Kim Latreille strikes out on her own; Taddle Creek's new associate

Kim Latreille has left St. Joseph Media, where she was in charge of production, and is embarked on a freelance career. She has stepped down as chair of the MagsCan Manufacturing and Technical Standards Committee (though she's been asked to remain as a committee member.) Among the outside clients already lined up are Blanchard Systems (SendMyAd [underlying technology for AdDirect], Virtual Publisher - publishing CMS saas launching in the new year), Sequentia Environics (Squeeze - a social media analytics saas currently in beta), and St Joseph Media itself. Through Blanchard, she'll be working with existing publishing clients in the US including Time Inc.

* * *

Taddle Creek, the little magazine that punches way above its weight, has appointed a new associate editor, author Grace O'Connell. She'll be selecting fiction and poetry for the magazine, along with other day-to-day duties. O'Connell holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Guelph and this year is teaching a short fiction workshop at the University of Toronto. Her first novel, Magnified World, was published earlier this year under the Random House New Face of Fiction imprint. Two of her short stories have been nominated for National Magazine Awards, and one, published in Taddle Creek, was included in the Journey Prize Stories 24 anthology.

* * *

Though we are late noting this, it is important to recognize the contribution of Peter Hinchcliffe, one of the important early builders of The New Quarterly magazine, who died November 20 in Kitchener at the age of 76. Hinchcliffe was a gentle man, a professor of English and sometime Department Chair at St. Jerome’s University, was also a long-time fiction editor for the magazine. Editor emeritus Kim Jernigan wrote a moving tribute to him on the TNQ blog.

Globe weekend editor joins Canadian Business to handle special projects

Carol Toller, weekend editor of the Globe and Mail is joining Canadian Business magazine as managing editor, special projects.She begins with CB on January 16. In a memo to staff, editor Duncan Hood said:

As Managing Editor, Special Projects, Carol will be heading up many of the annual themed issues and special reports in Canadian Business, including the Rich List, Winners & Losers and our MBA Guide. She will also help develop new regular themed issues and reports, as well as whole new editorial products, such as new SIPs and Apps.

Toller held several positions with the Globe, having been deputy editor of the Life section, editor of Focus and deputy editor of Report on Business magazine. 

Less than a week to nominate Alberta magazine achievers

There's less than a week for nominations for an Alberta Achivement Award, part of the annual awards program celebrating the best in the industry. There are four Achievement Awards categories:

• Achievement in Publishing
• Editor of the Year
• Volunteer of the Year
• Best New Magazine

There is no fee for achievement nominations. For full details, go to www.albertamagazines.com/awards

Magworld view: RDUK bankrupt; Press Gazette gives up print; ABC rebrands; Netbooks on way out?; Irish dinosaur alert

• Reader's Digest [UK] begins insolvency proceedings and cuts 90 jobs (Guardian)
• Press Gazette quits print format to go digital only (Jon Slattery) 
• Killing Me Softly With Her “Talk”: Why Tina Brown’s 10 Excuses for Killing Newsweek Are ALL DEAD WRONG… (Mr. Magazine)
•  The Dish’s Andrew Sullivan is putting his blog behind a paywall – should you? (Word Count) 
• What’s the Potential for B-to-B’s Mobile Audience? (Audience Development) 
• Dennis achieves first £1m month from digital ad sales (Media Week) 
• ABC Rebrands as Alliance for Audited Media (Audience Development) 
• The Wicks Group to Acquire TMG and McMurry (Folio:)  
• Dinosaur alert: Irish newspapers desperately trying to charge for links (paidContent) 
• Hanley Wood Boosts Market Intelligence Group with Metrostudy Deal (Folio:) 
• Yankee Publishing Acquires McLean Communications (Folio:)  
• Why netbooks will soon go extinct (Future of Media) 
• The Atlantic will experiment with online pay models in 2013 (Forbes)

What could be more natural? Book comes with a pencil

Here's a cool, fussy-but- fun idea. A hardbound book with a pencil snuggly fitted in a slot on the cover. The American Odysseys cover is designed by YesYesYes Design (New York City): Joe Shouldice (creative director/art director/designer); Vilcek Foundation (client); yesyesy.es (Thanks to Imprint from F + W Media for alerting us to it, as published in their 2012 Regional Design Annual).

Hearst has netted 800,000 monthly digital subscribers, 80% of them new

There's a lot of buzz every year about Hearst Magazines president David Carey and his memo to all staff, setting out the successes of the year past and the goals for the year to come. This year, his New Year's letter has a couple of particularly interesting items:

• The company now has nearly 800,000 monthly digital subscribers in the U.S. across all platforms and more than 80 per cent of them are new to the company's files.
• The number of monthly unique visitors to the company's websites grew by more than 30 per cent.
• HGTV magazine in its launch year got nearly 700,000 paid subscribers and average monthly newsstand sales of 250,000; the magazine will be moving to 10 times a year.

Develop your magazine and web publishing skills with this Winter's Ryerson courses

[PROMOTIONAL] You'll understand that as the coordinator of the Ryerson Magazine and Web Publishing program in Toronto I have a clear interest in seeing people take one of these professional development courses. We've got a couple of new or renovated courses that may interest people already in the business or hoping to be. And we've got a diverse and inspiring lineup of other courses. Register now so we know you're coming (few things dismay us more than having to cancel a course only to have people say "But I was going to take that!") 

There are a couple of new or revised courses well worth considering:

• The Online Publishing Toolkit (CDJN207) -- a brand new 7-week evening course which starts January 15. The instructor Graham F. Scott has created a specific little website for the course that best sets out why it will be both interesting and fun: http://t.co/oqWCVVB9
• Advanced Magazine Editing (CDJN122) -- Instructor Kathy Ulyott has renovated and updated  this 7-week evening course to focus on effective editing of individual magazine articles, helping to grab readers' attention at the start and keep them reading to the end.  The course starts January 17 and is a must for anyone planning to edit longer manuscripts - and a very useful course for anyone planning to write them.
• Ad Sales on the Web (CDJN208) -- a new course.  It starts January 17 and instructor Martin White teaches over 7 weeks how to blend traditional persuasive ad sales skills with the realities of selling in the digital age. Become familiar with the ways online advertising is priced, pitched, measured, designed, and packaged.

Plus the rest of our skill-building lineup, which starts the week of January 14:
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The year in Canadian magazines 2012

Our highly arbitrary selection of stories of the year just past, as published on the Canadian Magazines blog, about Canadian magazines and the people who make them. Look back with us month by month through 2012 at what has been an amazing, and occasionally bumpy, ride. (Click on the headings to be taken to the original story.)

January

We're waiting for Acquisition TV 
Torstar announces it is buying 25% of Blue Ant Media Inc., which in 2011 bought a stake in Quarto Communications, the publishers of Cottage Life, explore, Canadian Home Workshop and Outdoor Canada. Blue Ant is controlled by Michael MacMillan, former head of Alliance Atlantis Communications and buying 15% of Cottage Life et al is part of his strategy to build a whole new media company.
This magazine thing is all very well...
The Walrus Foundation launches a TV spinoff, with documentaries based on its stories. The plan was for eqhd (a specialty channel owned by Blue Ant Media Inc. (see above)) to create one doc for each of The Walrus's 10 issues.
Code gets with the program
Magazines Canada renames and "repositions" its longstanding ad-edit guidelines, substituting a new preamble and renaming them The Canadian Magazine Industry Code of Reader and Advertiser Engagement. 
Who will explain Canada Post to us?
Michael Fox, the senior vice-president, circulation, of Rogers Publishing and the go-to guy when it came to explaining the minutiae of postal rate increases and economics to publishers and publishers' needs to the post office, retires. His retirement project? Publishing a magazine (Garden Making).
Resistance is futile
The Jimmy Pattison Group scoops up the Comag Marketing Group, adding its singularity to his own (as the third largest privately held company in Canada) and giving him control of the magazine distribution businesses of two of the largest U.S. publishers, Hearst and Condé Nast, who had owned Comag. 
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