Michael Fox to receive 2015 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement

Photo: Donna Griffith

Michael Fox has been named the recipient of the 2015 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, the highest individual honour given by the Canadian magazine industry. The award will be presented June 5 at the 38th annual National Magazine Awards gala.

Fox is well known to friends and colleagues as a guru of circulation, who started out in editorial at Maclean-Hunter but gradually moved into audience development and helped to steer the ever-changing landscape of Canadian consumer publishing over a four-decade career. He was -- and still is -- the go-to guy for information and understanding about Canada Post and its labyrinthine policies affecting magazines. He has been a generous mentor and volunteer and taken leadership roles in the Circulation Management Association of Canada, Alliance for Audited Media and the Direct Marketing Association of Canada.

His passion for publishing was demonstrated before and after he retired from Rogers 2012 when he and his wife Beckie launched Inspriting Media Inc. and started Garden Making magazine from their home in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He is also chair of Magazines Canada 2013 - 2015. 

"I can't think of anyone else,” said Paul Jones, publisher and former recipient of the Foundation Award,” who has so seamlessly practiced the art of publishing as vocation, avocation, mentor and volunteer.”

[Here's part of what I said in supporting his nomination:

“Michael comes from the behind-the-scenes world of circulation. The Foundation Award is a worthy recognition of this man’s long, unusual, confident contribution to the audience development side of the business."]