CAA Quebec member magazine Touring is remade as CAA-Quebec

Touring, the member magazine of CAA-Quebec has been rebranded. The renaming as CAA-Quebec magazine aligns it with other CAA affiliates who have done the same under the auspices of St. Joseph Media's custom publishing division. And, like them, the organization is making a digital edition of the publication available. It is distributed 4 times a year in print and electronic versions and reaches nearly 1 million readers, making it one of the most widely read French language magazines in Canada.

Warren Hinckle III, the godfather of Ramparts magazine, has died at 77

Warren Hinckle in 1987, with his dog Bentley, in San Francisco.

Photo by: Eric Luse/San Francisco Chronicle via AP

The death of Warren Hinckle III last week at the age of 77 marks the passing of a style of journalism that was best represented during his time as publisher and executive editor of Ramparts magazine in the 1960s. An excellent obituary has been produced by the Washington Post, (which is ironic given that the Post and other mainstream publications dismissed the radicalized world view that Hinckle and  Ramparts represented.) 

I was a devoted single copy buyer of the magazine until it closed in the early '70s and, while I was somewhat cossetted in the safety of Canadian university campus, I read with avidity the writings by and about southeast Asia, black power, Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton and the Chicago 8. The magazine never made a dime but found creative ways to keep on going and at its peak had a circulation of about 250,000, no mean feat. 

Oct 26, '68 issue

Hinckle had a piratical and swashbuckling approach to journalism (helped by the black eye patch he wore as the result of an early injury) and is credited with inventing the term "radical slick" for what he did. He believed in pursuing stories others wouldn't, publishing them and promoting them widely. In fact he was a brilliant publicist. 

He and the magazine were hated by other magazines, notably TIME which never missed an opportunity to predict Ramparts' imminent demise. Hinckle said that the very best place to edit a magazine was on a small round table in a very dark bar and followed his own precepts, lubricating it with screwdrivers. Later, he and Sidney Zion for less than a year ran another exceptional magazine called Scanlan's and still later he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of San Francisco. In many ways, the muckraking legacy of Ramparts is carried on by Mother Jones magazine. 

If you want to know more about Hinckle, here are two sources: 

• If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade: An Essential Memoir of a Lunatic Decade, an uneven, but entertaining history particularly of the early years when he and his colleagues took a Catholic literary quarterly and turned it into a much-talked-about influencer of the New Left. I found my copy in a used book store. 
• A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America, by Peter Richardson (New Press), who in 2009 managed to pull together a somewhat more objective history of the magazine and its impact. 

Journey Prize longlist being released one story at a time

The annual Journey Prize anthology is a pivotal event in the Canadian publishing year, not least because it recognizes excellent storytelling, but also the many literary magazines in which the short stories originally appear. Very little better exemplifies the role these magazines play in developing new writers. The $10,000 Journey Prize is awarded annually in the fall after publication of the anthology.The names on the list of the 11 longlisted finalists are being released one-by-one. Here are the finalists to date...

• Carleigh Baker, "Chins and Elbows" in subTerrain magazine
• Paige Cooper, "The Roar" in The Fiddlehead: Atlantic Canada's International Literary Journal
• Charlie Fiset, "If I See the Sun", The Fiddlehead
• Mahak Jain, "The Origin of Jaanvi", Joyland magazine
• Colette Langlois, "The Emigrants",  Prism International 
• Alex Leslie, "The Person You Want to See", The Rusty Toque
• Andrew MacDonald, "Progress on a Genetic Level", Taddle Creek
• [More to come]

The prize was made possible by James A. Michener's donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his novel JOURNEY.

Disclosure of "native ads" doesn't always follow recommended guidelines

In 2015, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission published guidelines for how "native" advertising should be labelled and presented. A whitepaper released recently by leading native advertising developer Polar says that a large proportion of advertisers didn't use the recommended terms such as "sponsored" or "advertisement" and instead used no disclosure at all or chose ambiguous terms such as "promoted" or "partner" or "presented". According to an article in MediaDailyNews

The report, Polar’s “State of Native Disclosure,” analyzed 137 native placements across 65 publishers and found only 55% of them utilized the term “sponsored” and 4.5% used the term “advertisement,” adhering to Federal Trade Commission guidelines that native ad placements are explicitly labeled as sponsored advertising content 

The remainder either had no disclosure at all or utilized more ambiguous terms such as “promoted,” “presented,” or “partner.”

The FTC guidelines in 2015 said ambiguous terminology could potentially “mislead consumers that advertising content is endorsed by a publisher site and/or that the advertiser did not create or influence the content."

Some advertisers found that ambiguous terms were preferable because they performed better than explicit ones.

The study found the highest click-through rate (0.19%) was achieved by native ads labeled “promoted,” and the second-highest (0.17%) by those labeled “partner” content. “Sponsored” ranked third with a click-through rate of 0.16%, while native content with no disclosure achieved a rate of 0.15%.

Learn invaluable magazine copy editing and polishing skills

Come and see me on Thursday 25th for the Chang School Open House. It's an opportunity to talk face-to-face about the courses that are available to you during the fall term (and in other terms). It's in the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, 245 Church Street, Toronto, ON.

A couple of the complementary courses you may want to enquire about are

• CDJN 122 — Advanced Magazine Editing  (7 weeks) It used to be called Substantive Editing and it is all about the effective editing of individual magazine articles in digital or print formats. It is designed to help writers grab readers' attention at the start and keep them reading to the end. The instructor is Donna Paris. Areas covered include assigning or acquiring manuscripts; tailoring content for specific readerships; coaching writers according to their individual strengths and weaknesses; editing for completeness and clarity; effective cutting and silken transitions; and use of imagery, anecdote, and a variety of voices and rhythms to make an article sing. A must for anyone planning to edit longer manuscripts - and a very useful course for anyone planning to write them. The course starts Thursday, 15 September. 

• CDJN 119 — Magazine Copy Editing (13 weeks) Bernadette Kuncevicius is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable editors in the business; she has earned her reputation for teaching people how to buff up someone else's prose (and, for that matter, your own) in print or web-based magazine editorial copy to ensure a high degree of clarity, consistency, and accuracy, as well as precise and appropriate use of language. After a magazine article has been substantively edited (see above), the copy editor attends to the finer details - checking grammar, punctuation, spelling, consistency of style, logic, and usage - and shepherds the article through the proofreading and production process. These "polishing" skills will be covered in this course, along with commonly used reference works, Canadian spelling, proofreader's marks, copy editing on computers, copy fitting, line editing, bias-free language, working with designed pages, and writing display copy. One lesson will be devoted to fact-checking.  The course starts Wednesday, 14 September.

Enrol now; don't delay.

For a complete list of the courses in the Magazine and Web Publishing program go to ryerson.ca/ce/magazine. 

Tune up and equip your Online Publishing Toolkit

Graham F. Scott is the deputy editor of Canadian Business magazine and is well-regarded for his course The Online Publishing Toolkit offered in the Mag and Web Publishing program in the Chang School at Ryerson University. Over 7 evenings starting Wednesday Sept 14 (sign up NOW) you'll learn about: 

• Content Management Systems and current trends in content strategy
• The uses—and misuses—of cloud technologies
• HTML5, CSS3, and current trends in web design
• Principles of search engine optimization, semantics, and accessibility
• Mobile sites, apps, and responsive design
• Marketing, analytics, and ad management
• Audience development strategies and social platforms
• The economics of digital publishing (there really are some!)

The major class assignment will be setting up your own web server space, installing Wordpress blogging software and integrating some 3rd pagy services. As Scott says "This course is not intended to make you a coding genius. Instead, we want to make sure you can talk knowledgably with your IT staff, developers, and web designers about your publication's needs and ambitions online."

http://cdjn.ca/207/

Mag world view: Texas Monthly on the block; false prophet of native ads; www.25 years; print on paper; NYT expands into Canada and Australia

• Emmis wants to sell Texas Monthly and other city and regional titles (Folio:)
• How the role of the publisher is changing (FIPP) 
• Native advertising: Another false messiah?  (Buzz Machine/Jeff Jarvis) 
• A Quick Tour Around the World of Scholarly Journal Publishing  (Scholarly Kitchen)
• People are thanking Tim Berners-Lee to mark the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web  (Mashable)
• Freedom to Explore: Inside the New, Ad-Free Prevention (Folio:)
• The remarkable resilience of printed words on paper pages (Guardian)
• Rodale Taps Nike Exec as Runner’s World Managing Director (Folio:)
• Report: The New York Times is expanding to Australia and Canada (Nieman Journalism Lab)

HELLO! Canada rolls out the red carpet at TIFF to mark 10th annivesary

HELLO! Canada magazine is celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall with a red carpet cocktail soiree at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sunday, Sept. 11 from 6:30 to 8 pm at the Thompson Toronto. The magazine, published by Rogers Publishing, is the number one-selling Canadian magazine on newsstands with 900,000 print readers and an audience of 1.2 million each week, print and digital. (It is one of 37 editions worldwide, reaching more than 8 million readers in 100 countries.)  

Learning opportunities in feature and non-fiction writing for magazines, print or digital

There are a couple of excellent night school writing courses available as part of the Chang School's Magazine and Web Publishing program at Ryerson University.They complement each other. |One is more or less a *prerequisite for the other. They start the week of September 12.**  

• Writing for Magazines and the Web (CDJN117) is intended for those with a serious interest in writing and selling non-fiction articles to print or online magazines or other communication venues, this is an introduction to the basics of conceiving, focusing, pitching, researching, structuring, writing and revising both short and longer feature articles. The instructor is Diane Peters
• Advanced Feature Writing (CDJN118) is designed for senior students of magazine feature writing, is intended to further develop your reporting and narrative writing skills. Instructor David Hayes pays particular attention to what is called “narrative nonfiction” (also known as “literary journalism” and often long form), which combines journalism’s attention to reporting and factual accuracy with many of the dramatic techniques of fiction. At its best, narrative nonfiction holds readers, entertaining them while simultaneously providing the depth and context necessary to understand complex issues and events, or capture the essence of a profile subject. (This is the default style for any of the larger-market magazines in the business.) 
• *Candidates for 118 should either have completed 117 or demonstrate experience by producing a portfolio of substantial feature work from magazines or newspapers. 

To see all of the courses offered in the fall term in the Magazine and Web Publishing program, go to ryerson.ca/ce/magazine.

**[Don't delay; some people are disappointed when courses they want don't run because we didn't realize they intended to enrol.]

No RSVP required for Halifax Frank's court date

The managing editor of Halifax-based Frank magazine, Andrew Douglas, is having some fun time fighting a charge that the magazine breached a publication ban. His mock wedding invitation alerts everyone to the date of the court hearing. [See earlier post]

Mag world view:: PopSci new EIC; Don't talk back to NPR; Brexit drives Spectator

• Gawker Is Said to Be Sold to Univision in a $135 Million Bid (NYT)
• NPR is closing its comments section (Adweek)
• Hearst Launches Unified Campaign for Fashion Brands’ September Issues  (Folio:)
• 'Brexit effect' drives Spectator's sales to record high  (Guardian)
• Meredith Board Of Directors Elects Tom Harty President And COO (Press release) 
• Top Gear magazine's sales hit skids during Chris Evans era  (Guardian)
• Popular Science Names Joe Brown EIC (Folio:) 
•  Prevention Magazine’s New Editor In Chief Brings Her Own “Healthy” Focus (Mr. Magazine)
• Amie Deutch Joins Mental Floss as EVP, Publisher (Folio:)

Today's Parent gives a whole new meaning to "cover model"

Today's Parent magazine's back-to-school issue cover was made using an appropriate medium, modelling clay. It took Toronto set designer Caitlin Doherty 82 hours and 314 cans of Play-Doh to fashion the scene. A video was made of the process.

https://www.facebook.com/TodaysParent/videos/10154447721084993/

Canadian Business Media winners talk about how they won

An innovation at the 62nd Annual Canadian Business Media Awards in June was that winners were asked at the podium to share how they got there. Upon accepting each award, winners were asked how they created their award-winning content.  

Their answers were revealing about what’s involved in creating CBM Award-winning material, what made their pieces stand out, how they arrived at the final product and why they think experts in their field deemed their work exceptional. The CBM has released a video of some of their answers. [Yes, [blush] that's me up there asking the questions.]

The Kit Compact magazine going national in September

Beauty and style title The Kit has announced the national expansion of The Kit Compact pop-up magazine this September.  Launched in September 2015 as a Toronto-only publication, aimed principally at millennials, it will expand as a monthly to the Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa markets for a total Canadian circulation of 125,000. Each edition will feature local content curated by The Kit’s editorial team and a network of local "influencers".  

“I’m delighted that The Kit Compact is going national,” says Laura deCarufel, editor-in-chief, in a release. “Our team has had so much fun creating engaging content for Torontonians—now we’re committed to discovering the best of the rest of Canada. We’ve created a network of influencers across the country who will each be contributing local content and amplifying every issue socially. Each edition will be a celebration of that city’s most stylish people, places and things, plus compelling national coverage. I can’t wait to get started.” 

The Kit, a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and part of the Star Media Group, is distributed as an online product and as a paper edition distributed in select copies of the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, and Vancouver Sun. It publishes French- and Chinese-language paper editions once per month, as well as a monthly The Kit South Asian Edition. It has an integrated website, social platforms and sends out three weekly e-newsletters.

Adbusters presents Donald Trump as a precursor of fascism

The current issue of Vancouver-based Adbusters magazine, on the newsstands today, features Donald Trump as a poster boy for the rise of global fascism. The startling image uses the magazine's barcode as a Hitlerian moustache. The magazine says:

"Everywhere you look, fascist tendencies are creeping into view as each day our world falls further and further into chaos. Have we forgotten the lessons of the past? Will we bury our heads into the comforts of virtual reality while egomaniacs capture the imagination of the masses? Cool Fascismo is an unprecedented exploration into a world where a culture of cool becomes a culture of fear."

Mag world view: RedesignedFamily Circle; Saveur-ing video; Two-thirds of Americans still read print; Vogue Arabia

• Family Circle Magazine Unveils Redesign With September 2016 Issue (press release)
• Finding a Voice: How Saveur Approaches Video Content (Folio:)
• Bloomberg Media Names New Global Chief Revenue Officer (Adweek)
• Study: Over Two-Thirds of Americans Still Read Print Magazines (Folio:) 
• Magzter introduces ezRead 2.0 (FIPP)
• Mongoose Media launches interactive editions for ELLE and Esquire in Malaysia and Singapore (FIPP) 
• Condé Nast International partners with Nervora to launch Vogue Arabia (FIPP)

U.S. print magazine readership said to be holding steady, says study

According to a new survey, 70% of adults in the U.S. read a print magazine in the last 30 days and 51% at least two. The American Magazine Reader Study & Handbook by Mequoda found that the figures were essentially the same as the same study last year.

"The findings seem to indicate that digital magazines — in the study, defined as "magazine content distributed via electronic means" — still have work to do to catch up to their print counterparts; 41 percent of respondents reported having read at least one digital magazine, but that's up from 37 percent a year ago," said a report of the results in Folio:.

"While not explicitly addressed in the study, there is certainly significant overlap between magazine brands' print and digital audiences, and the findings lend credence to the common industry maxim that publishers should attempt to reach consumers across any medium available to them."

Weddingbells magazine launching its own bridal show in January 2017

Weddingbells magazine is launching a bridal show called Unveiled that will take place at Toronto's Arcadian Court on January 21, 2017. The show is expected to have over 100 exhibitors and will include a live editorial fashion sheet featuring a bridal fashion runway as part of "content ecosystem that will span from print and digital to social media, mobile and e-commerce." 

While it seems obvious that a magazine called Weddingbells would have its own show, it is being launched into a somewhat crowded field, including Canada's Bridal Show, the Persian Bridal Show, National Bridal Show and the Ultimate Bridal Show, among many others in the Greater Toronto and Niagara area. 

CSME summer patio party Wednesday

The Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) is throwing a patio party Wednesday, August 10, 2016, starting at 5:30 p.m. at The Pour House, 182 Dupont St. (three blocks east of Dupont Station). $10 for members; $20 for non-members. The fee includes two drink tickets, appetizers, and an opportunity for conversation with magazine friends and colleagues. Space is limited, so please RSVP or buy your ticket by clicking on the button below.

FASHION magazine sells cover exposure to fashion retailer Joe Fresh

FASHION magazine (St. Joseph Media) is collaborating closely with major fashion retailer Joe Fresh with a September 2016 8-page gatefold cover featuring supermodel Karlie Kloss. The magazine says this is the first of its kind branded integration spanning both print and digital platforms. 

 “This is partnership at its best and it really raises the bar for collaborations in the future. Joe Fresh challenged us to do something bold, first to market and groundbreaking — and we responded with a beautiful multi-platform editorial integration that is on-brand for FASHION, and designed to engage consumers.”said Jacqueline Loch, VP & Group Publisher St. Joseph Media, Women’s Brands.

The issue has a prominent coverline mentioning Joe Fresh also contains second cover with model Kloss. Inside the magazine is  a five-page article showcasing the model wearing items from the Joe Fresh fall collection. A special 5,000 copy print overrun of the cover gatefold will be available at Joe Fresh’s flagship store on Queen Street West  in Toronto. The magazine is on newsstands Aug 15.

Kelly Whitelock named new GM ad sales at St. Joseph Media women's group

St. Joseph Media has named a newly created position of general manager advertising sales, women's group in the person of Kelly Whitelock. She will oversee all national and retail sales teams and territories across Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal and New York for the company's portfolio of women’s brands across all digital and mobile platforms. These include FASHION, Men’s FASHION, Weddingbells,  Mariage Québec,  Glow,  Pure and Canadian Family. 

Whitelock's most recent position was senior director advertising sales, magazine and out of home at Quebecor Media and she had previous experience as associate publisher/director of sales at The Kit (Star Media Group), publisher at Glow and Pure (Rogers Media) and advertising director at FASHION (Key Publishers).

This is but the latest step in a wholesale reorganization of the women's publishing group which included naming Jacqueline Loch as vice-president and group publisher, replacing Lilia Lozinski as senior vice-president women’s group, and the appointment of Noreen Flanagan as editor in chief of FASHION, moved from being EIC at Elle Canada. 

Mag world view: Time cuts; an Old Farmer's future; Case against media; GQ raises cover price; Le Monde's print future

• Time Inc. to Cut 110 Staffers (Adweek)
• Meredith Reports Record Revenue and Print Readership for FY 2016  (Folio:) 
• The Old Farmer’s Almanac At 225 Years (Mr. Magazine)
• What Does the Third Law of Plumbing Have To Do With Publishing? (Dead Tree Edition) 
• New York Magazine Makes “The Case Against the Media” (Folio:)
• Journalism's lack of diversity threatens its long-term future  (Guardian)
•  GQ to Raise Newsstand Price by 14 Percent  (Folio:)
• Print still has a future, and Le Monde can prove it. Aux armes, citoyens!  (Guardian
• Revisiting: Peak Subscription  (The Scholarly Kitchen)

The Walrus Foundation announces cross-country conversations about Canada's next 50 years

The Walrus Foundation, publishers of The Walrus magazine, have announced a national tour next spring that will mark the 150th anniversary of Canada.  [click image above to enlarge.] The non-profit foundation, in partnership with the Order of Canada and Canada 150, will present an expanded edition of The Walrus Talks: Conversations about Canada: We Desire a Better Country. The free events over 13 weeks from March 1—June 1, 2017 will focus on Canada's future, featuring  fifty members of the Order of Canada and fifty youth leaders at events in 13 provinces and territories . The sesquicentennial coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Order.
Among the participants so far announced, performers and otherwise, will be Margaret Atwood, Tom Jackson, Molly Johnson, Clara Hughes, Roberta Jamieson, Susan Aglukark, Shelagh Rogers, Murray McLauchlan, John Kim Bell, Samantha Nutt, Charles Pachter, Ben Heppner, Jane Hilderman and Caro Lufti.

“Conversations about Canada will build a deeper understanding of Canada,” says Shelley Ambrose, executive director of the Walrus Foundation and publisher of The Walrus. “It will provide Canadians with opportunities to participate and celebrate together; shape a more inclusive vision of Canadian society, its people, and what it means to be Canadian; and recognize the exceptional Canadian people, places, achievements, and events that will shape our country for the next fifty years.”