Magazines Canada and Canadian Business Media are merging under Magazines Canada name

Canadian Business Media Association (CBMA) and Magazines Canada are merging under the Magazines Canada banner. The announcement was made Tuesday night in conjunction with the fourth annual Magazines Canada Business Media Leadership Summit now being held in King City, north of Toronto.

CBMA Chair John Kerr, President and CEO of Kerrwil Publications Limited, said: 

"With the marketplace and regulatory challenges faced by all magazine media publishers today, the CBMA Board agreed unanimously that bringing together one very strong association is absolutely vital at this juncture." 

Magazines Canada Chair Douglas Knight, President of St. Joseph Media, said: 

"We are delighted to welcome our CBMA colleagues to Magazines Canada. Working together strengthens our voice as we address common issues that affect the magazine industry as a whole. We will also be better positioned to more effectively leverage our resources to focus on the unique needs of distinct sectors of the industry, be they business, cultural, regional or consumer." 

The CBMA, formerly the Canadian Business Press (CBP), has a highly respected 96-year history of delivering services to B2B publishers and community stakeholders, including its flagship annual Kenneth R. Wilson Awards founded in 1954. The 2016 Kenneth R. Wilson Awards will be presented as usual in June, after which a larger Canadian business media advisory committee will undertake a review of the awards program and other B2B programming within Magazines Canada‘s long-term planning process, being managed by the new CEO Matthew Holmes.

Over the coming months, as both association boards go through a transition process more information will be released to their respective memberships. 

The creation of a "big tent" has been a long time coming. (In fact, one of the first posts on this blog, 10 years ago (egad) promoted the idea of industry associations working together as one.) 

CBP had for many years striven to stand apart, even in the face of Magazines Canada accepting business media into its membership and several larger publishers of trade and business media properties decamping to Magazines Canada, including Rogers Publishing and Annex Business Media. 

In May 2011, the CBP announced that by a unanimous decision of its members it was giving up being a member-driven organization in favour of becoming a foundation with the principal goal of running the KRW Awards. 

But then in 2015, the rebranded CBM announced it would once again be a membership-based trade organization, undertaking training, networking, webinars, tutorials and the awards program as well as launching a b2b blog. 

Now, it is throwing in with Magazines Canada to offer members a range of advocacy, professional development and other services to a combined membership.

Related posts:

• Canadian Business Media strikes partnership with U.S.-based ABM
• Canadian Business Media decides to get back into member services for b2b sector
• Canadian Business Press to become a foundation, concentrating on awards program
• Magazines Canada grows by 45 new member magazines, including two b2b groups
• Rogers b-to-b titles pull out of the Canadian Business Press
• Magazines Canada board recommends allowing trade magazines as members