Atlantic merger: Advocate Group combines Saltscapes and Metro Guide group into one company
A major consolidation has been announced with the two largest magazine publishing companies in the Atlantic Provinces. Combined under the Advocate Group of Pictou will be Metro Guide and Saltscapes, both based in Halifax, along with their associated websites, consumer and trade shows and contract publishing. Metro Guide was sold to Advocate Printing and Publishing, its printer, in 2010, and Saltscapes has also been printed by Advocate for several years.
Advocate provides printing and publishing services, including to such well-known titles as Saltscapes and, under Metro Guide Publishing, Halifax Magazine, Atlantic Boating, East Coast Living, Where Halifax and more than a dozen regional weekly papers.
Mag world view: Conde's new beauty studio; Quarterly Playboy; New Bauer TV title; Facebook: from "uncool" to "best friend
Integrated B2B platforms draw readership for both print and digital copies
There's no surprise in a new B2B market research study done for Magazines Canada that 37% of survey respondents read both print and digital copies of their B2B magazines, 34% digital only, and 29% reading print only. This suggests that integrated, multi-platform strategies are key to reaching the total B2B audience.
The study shows that business media magazines are read by senior people in the industries which they cover, the majority of whom are buyers/purchase influencers. Their audiences trust what they read, and overwhelmingly rely on B2B media to find new trends as well as new products and services. High levels of audience trust and the ability to reach decision makers is also beneficial for advertisers, and the research makes a strong business case for advertising in Canadian B2B magazines.
"The central role played by B2B media is not surprising," explains Magazines Canada Board Chair Scott Jamieson. "For example, it's no surprise that learning about new products and technology is the number one reason business leaders read Canadian business media. However, the increasing number of people involved in B2B purchase decisions was eye-opening, as was the key role played by younger B2B audience members. The massive response rate allows us to really delve into how businesses make buying decisions, where they get the information to support those decisions, and how all of that differs with company size or demographics. Regardless, B2B media in all forms plays a central role."
The study was done by RKI (Research + Knowledge = Insight) and made possible by Ontario Creates.
NOW discontinues sex ads in its print edition though still available online
NOW magazine in Toronto has always been known for publishing sex ads in its back pages. In a letter to readers on September 6, Alice Klein, the editor and publisher of the freepaper has announced that it is discontinuing the practice, though it will continue to offer sex ads in the online classified section of the paper's website.
"NOW will always be sex positive and shameless in our support for sexual choice and the rights of sex workers. But this week marks a change for how we do the in our print publication."
Klein said that the digital world now offers a "robust maketplace" for sex workers; NOW's previous rationale had been it needed to offer advertising space to sex workers when such ads were not available in many other publications.
The magazine business is fraught with pitfalls. Not for the faint of heart, the financially fragile or the naive. Just like sovereignty.
-- Lise Ravary, responding to a story in the Montreal Gazette that Martine Ouellet, the ex-Bloc Québécois leader, was planning to launch a magazine this fall to promote Quebec independence. Ravary based her comments on her long experience in the business (a longtime editor and executive with Rogers Consumer Publishing.) Some advice for Martine Ouellet about magazine publishing
