Canadian Heritage announces $52.7 million in Canada Periodical Fund grants

[This post has been updated] The  Aid to Publishers' grant data for the Canada Periodical Fund for the 2010-11 year have been released and are available online. A total of 484 titles received $52,669,029 in grants ranging from the largest, at $1,500,000 to the smallest, at $386. The CPF replaces the postal subsidy (Publications Assistance Program) and the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF).

(As reported in earlier posts, most of the smaller cultural magazines were shut out of funding by a circulation floor that disqualified titles with fewer than 5,000 paid copies per year. and the support for arts and literary magazines (SALM) was discontinued.)

The average grant under this year's CPF was $108,820, but this is somewhat skewed as 11 publications received more than $1 million and five publications received the maximum allowed ($1.5 million) under rules of the new program. The median (the figure where half of recipients receive more, half less) is about $22,222. Here are the magazines that got the maximum:

• Canadian House & Home 
• Canadian Living
• Chatelaine (English)
• Maclean's
• Reader's Digest

The other magazines receiving more than $1 million from the CPF including the above and

• Coup de Pouce ($1,426,187) 
• Style at Home ($1,349, 466) 
• Movie Entertainment ($1,292,492) 
• Châtelaine (French) ($1,236,251) 
• TV Hebdo ($1,157,100) 
• Primeurs ($1,103,183)

While not a surprise since the rules were announced last year, these larger consumer magazines were nevertheless getting considerably less than they previously received from the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF) combined.  For example, Canadian Living loses $1.36 million in funding under the CPF. The combination of Chatelaine and Châtelaine was $2,736, 251, compared with $3,892,943, a 30% drop. Canadian House & Home receives $1,500,000 where previously they received $1,623,492, a cut of about 7.6%.

At least in part because of this hard cap on grants and the smaller number of magazines eligible, many titles  received slightly or much more than previously. For example:

• Applied Arts ($67,446 compared with $65,616)
• Canadian Business ($535,000 compared with $471,000 in 2008-09) 
• Canadian Plastics ($13,731 vs. $12,758)
• Chirp ($282,220 compared with $211,308)
  
• Clin d'oeil ($480,749 compared with $436,581)
  
• Cottage Life ($265,674 compared with $237,535) 
• Fashion ($715,369, compared with $667,176)
• Flare ($782,000, compared with $720,000) 
• Frank (Atlantic Edition) ($28,450 vs. $8,202)
• Geist ($13,226 vs. $11,806)
• Hamilton magazine ($32,855 compared with $30,470)
• Homemaker's ($859,431 vs. $689,981)
• Legion magazine ($551,969 vs. $445,900) 
• LouLou ($1,027,357 combined for its English and French editions, compared to $891,413) 
• Maisonneuve ($25,717 vs. $26,319) 
• MoneySense ($211,635, compared with $156,930) 
• Motorcycle Mojo ($19,835 vs. $13,224)
• Opera Canada ($6,835 vs. $4,757)
• Outdoor Canada ($277,992 vs. $221,656)
• Prairies North ($26,912 vs. $20,592)
  
• This Magazine ($8,911 compared with $5,941)
• Toronto Life ($723,658 vs. $686,788)
• Up Here ($77,518 vs. $69,817)
• The Walrus ($261,264 vs. $217,199)

Here are some examples of magazines that stayed steady or saw a drop in support this year, compared with 2008-09 data on the Canadian Heritage website:

• Border Crossings ($49,515 compared with $52,346 (most of which came from discontinued Support for Arts and Literary Magazines -- SALM)
• The Dance Current ($19,352 vs. $20,487)
• Literary Review of Canada  ($19,499 vs. $19,882)

[Note, the comparative figures are between this year's CPF and the two components that were merged to create it. In some cases, the 2008-09 figures include funding under the SALM component.]

[Update: See Globe and Mail article on grants.]

[More analysis later]

Related posts:

• Small cultural mags were cut adrift because they're not businesses
• Periodical Fund quietly removes requirement to print funded mags in Canada
• New CPF wholly ignored industry recommendations says BCAMP exec
• Canada Periodical Fund abandons small literaries, cuts maximum funding for all but farm pubs
• Is consistency the hobgoblin of the heritage ministry?
• Canadian Business Press calls for federal fairness in funding
• Give responsibility -- and money -- for small mags to the Canada Council, Mags Canada says
• Time is ticking away for solution to small literary and cultural mag funding
• Does the government want to treat small mags and readers like cockroaches?
• Facebook group protests discontinuation of small arts and literary mag funding

Is consistency the hobgoblin of the heritage ministry?*

The minister of Canadian Heritage, and by extension his department, can at least be given points for their consistency. Recently, as a result of a review process, Heritage has decided to terminate a program that supported independent performers and small scale independent music-making in favour of support for enterprises that are considered more commercially marketable.

If this sounds familiar, it is essentially the same process and outcome as has occurred in the periodicals industry; small literary, arts and cultural magazines being cut adrift if their paid circulation is less than 5,000 annually.

What's interesting is the apparent intentions of minister of Canadian Heritage, James Moore. In Saturday's Globe and Mail he said that the Canada Council had its own funding and was free to help independent artists cut adrift by the end of the $1.35 million Canadian Musical Diversity Program. (This is essentially what he said to independent magazine publishers.)

“The Canada Council has their own envelope of funding – I believe it's $9-million. If they want to spend their money in a way to help independent artists, they're free to do that,” he said....

“The envelope they were looking for was basically to fund artists who have no interest in developing any kind of commercial opportunities for their music, that's just a different approach than what we have in mind,” Moore told the CBC.

Moore said yesterday the Conservatives' philosophical inclination is toward funding artists with commercial promise, a view Prime Minister Stephen Harper has espoused. “But not entirely,” Moore added.

“It's not my view that in order for art to have merit and value to society, it has to be commercially viable,” Moore said. “I'm not at all castigating independent artists and what their hopes are for their creations. … It's about funding things that are of a higher priority for government and for the industry.”

So, to paraphrase, it's not minister Moore's view that commercial viability is synonymous with excellence, but commercial projects are all the government wants to invest in.

It's hard not to agree with Gary Cristal, a manager of independent artists (and former acting head of the Canada Council's music branch) who told the Globe:

“They were Robin Hood in reverse. They robbed the poor to give to the rich.”

(As an aside, the musical diversity program, which is being cut, was administered by the Canada Council. This doesn't augur well for the one, small hope being nurtured by small literary, art and cultural publishers -- and Magazines Canada. They have been hoping that Heritage might somehow agree to shift some of its periodical funding over to the Council -- equivalent to the $1 million SALM (Support for Arts and Literary Magazines) portion of the Canada Magazine Fund -- as part of its merger of the CMF and the Publications Assistance Program into the Canada Periodical Fund next spring.

It will do little or no good to direct small publishers, and musicians, to the Canada Council for further support if there is no further funding.)

*"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Related posts:

• Give responsibility -- and money -- for small mags to the Canada Council, Mags Canada says
• Modify the circulation threshold? The answer is no, says minister Moore
• Time is ticking away for solution to small literary and cultural mag funding
• Does the government want to treat small mags and readers like cockroaches?
• Magazines Canada wants targetted program for small arts & literary mags
• Facebook group protests discontinuation of small arts and literary mag funding
  

New Canada Periodical Fund to be unveiled Tuesday

The much-anticipated merger of the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) and the Canadian Magazine Fund (CMF) will be unveiled on Tuesday by Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore. Word is that invitations have gone out to key players in the industry so they can be in Ottawa Montreal for the announcement. The new program is expected to be launched starting April 1, 2010.

The anticipation of the new CPF hasn't been eager, mind you, since many publishers fear that the merged program may be somewhat less than the sum of its parts.) There has been vigorous lobbying by industry associations to ensure that the PAP in particular will be preserved. That seems to be assured, at least in the short term.

There is concern in some quarters that the program will be diluted by granting the same amount of money to a wider pool of applicants (it already goes to magazines and community newspapers). And Heritage has already put out a request for proposal for consulting on giving support to digital magazines and newspapers. The recent budget replaced $15 million that was being withdrawn from PAP by Canada Post, but there was no suggestion of increased funding over all.

Related posts:

• Magazine funding overhaul delayed until 2010
• Big funding changes require long transition, says Magazines Canada
  
• Radical funding overhaul by Canadian Heritage proposes merger of CMF and PAP

Canada Magazine Fund SBDMP Applicant Survey

Hi, Jon Spencer here -- with a quick+easy favour to ask of all (fairly recent) applicants to the Canada Magazine Fund's "Support for Business Development for Magazine Publishers" program:

I would be interested to hear whether your applications to this program in the current fiscal year (from April 2008 to March 2009) have been handled as they have been in previous years, or if you have encountered any changes to the approval process. I would appreciate your sending a short email to me -- whether your experience has been good or bad -- at "js.abacus [at] sympatico.ca", answering the following questions:

1) In what month did you submit your most recent application to the CMF's SBDMP program?

2) How many times have you applied in previous years (roughly)?

3) How many times have those applications (in previous years) been accepted for funding, and how long does it usually take?

4) Has your latest application been accepted or rejected, or are you still awaiting approval?

5) Briefly describe your experience with your latest application, and (if possible) indicate how it compares with the approval process for applications you have submitted in previous years.

Thank you!

Canadian Heritage releases confirming list of cuts to the arts

The Department of Canadian Heritage belatedly confirmed to the Canadian Press yesterday the details of the various cuts that have been made over the past couple of weeks. The list released yesterday is no surprise to the arts community. Or to the various magazine industry organizations that saw a 20% cut to the industry development component of the Canada Magazine Fund.

Industry CMF support program cut by 20%; what else is in play? Who knows?

[This post has been updated] Like buses and streetcars, budget cuts seem to come in clusters and that was certainly the case in the last couple of weeks where the minister of Canadian Heritage has confirmed total cuts to arts funding of more than $40 million. Included in that amount were: Trade Routes ($9 million); Culture.ca ($3.8 million); Culture Online ($5.6 million); book publishing ($1 million); arts and heritage stabilization ($3.5 million) and film and video support ($2.5 million).

One of the programs feeling the impact of the cuts is the Support for Industry Development component of the Canada Magazine Fund, which will see a cut for the 2009-10 fiscal year of $500,000, or about a 20% of this year's $2.5 million budget. The program supports industry-wide research and promotional projects run by magazine associations such as Magazines Canada and the various provincial bodies(BCAMP etc.). The main effect of this news is to reduce the overall budget for the CMF from $16 million to $15.5 million annually starting in 2009-10.

[UPDATE: The Globe and Mail reports that the total of the cuts is $44.8 million, with nine of the affected programs under the Department of Canadian Heritage. It also reports the exasperated response of the Prime Minister's \ communications director, Kory Teneycke.

"To listen to some in the arts community and the opposition, you would think that there's blood in the streets," he said.]

How these cuts otherwise augur for the current review of the Publications Assistance Program (PAP)and the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF) is an open question. We already know that the secretariat is recommending the two programs be merged into a single periodical fund; we also know that it all depends on the budget process and -- by extension -- on the decision whether or not to have an election this fall.

As we've reported before, the merged entity cannot be put into place before 2010-11. But the budget envelope for periodical funding could be adjusted anytime until early spring, by whatever government is in power. So none of the other components of CMF can be considered safe, though a vigorous lobbying effort by Magazines Canada may have mitigated the damage, for now.

Magazine funding overhaul delayed until 2010

The implementation of the Canada Periodical Fund has been delayed and will likely not come into force until 2010-11 fiscal year, according to Scott White, manager for periodical policy of the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH).

Meanwhile, White said in an e-mail to the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario (IPAO) -- posted by Mastheadonline -- the existing programs (the Canadian Magazine Fund (CMF) and Publications Assistance Program (PAP)) will remain in place, but there is a good possibility there will be less money available. That's because, effective end of March, Canada Post is discontinuing its $15 million contribution to PAP as part of what has been a $70 million funding package. This money has not yet been replaced and the remainder of the funding depends on the forthcoming federal budget.

DCH has been working on a complete overhaul of its magazine support programs and has proposed a merger of CMF and PAP into one program called the Canada Periodical Fund.

Here is White's e-mail in full:

Things are not quite certain as so much depends on the available money. I should explain that we look at the CMF and the PAP (postal subsidy) together as forming a total package of about $75 million for magazines and community newspapers. In round numbers, the CMF is about $15 million and the PAP is about $60 million.

Depending on what happens to the budget request to replace the Canada Post money, we may move money between the programs to minimize the impact on the greatest number of publications. So the editorial funding part of the CMF in 2009-2010 may end up with less than the $10 million it had this year, which will affect the contributions that everyone receives.

I know everyone would like to know sooner, but, decisions on the federal budget are not made until January or even February. At this time, we are not planning on bringing in a new program or changing the eligibility rules of the existing programs in 2009-2010. Any new program, should it be approved by the government, would not come into place until April 2010. That much is certain.

Waiting for the other Heritage shoe to drop. Are cuts coming?

Hold onto your hats, and other parts. Looming imminently (probably early next week) is the public announcement of the outcome of a review by the Department of Canadian Heritage of its support programs for magazines.

A recent article in Mastheadonline reported (sub req'd) on one aspect of this, the review of the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), commonly known as the postal subsidy. Scott Shortliffe, the periodical publishing policy and programs director told Masthead that there will be a release of documents to be followed by "extensive consultations".

But it was the plural that caught our attention -- proposals. Because over the past 18 months, DCH has reviewed all of the programs it delivers. And there is concern that the outcome may dismay everyone in the industry, not just those who qualify for PAP (though that includes a large number of Canada's consumer magazines) .

Much of the review is driven by the February 2007 recommendations from the so-called "Blue Ribbon Panel" that outlined suggested strategies for grants and contributions improvement and greater accountability across all Heritage programs.

The proposals concerning magazines may include cuts or major eligibility changes to PAP but also the four major components of the Canada Magazine Fund. (Experience is that by the time we get to the proposal stage after such a review, rearguard actions can only do so much. Of course the news could be an injection of new money... but don't hold your breath.)

As Masthead put it, it seems unlikely that DCH will simply make up the $15-million that Canada Post is pulling out of PAP this spring. What the industry should be more concerned about is the $45-million that DCH now puts into PAP plus the additional $16 million that goes to small magazines, to literary and cultural magazines, to larger magazines to support Canadian editorial and to industry associations to support industry-wide development.

[Fair disclosure; as a consultant, I sometimes do work for magazines and industry associations which pay for the work through contributions from the Canada Magazine Fund.]

Josée Verner named Minister of Canadian Heritage

The new Minister of Canadian Heritage is Josée Verner, formerly Minister of International Co-operation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages. Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet today. Verner replaces Bev Oda in the portfolio. Heritage is important to the magazine industry since under it contains crucial magazine support programs such as the publications assistance program (postal subsidy) and the Canada Magazine Fund as well as funding for the Canada Council.

She's got some good things going for her -- a comfortably bilingual francophone and a woman with lots of staff and policy experience. But her focus will probably be on the run up to the election, whenever it might be, particularly in Québec as it celebrates its 400th anniversary and hosts the Francophonie meeting in Quebec later next year. It makes one wonder if she'll pay as much attention to those important departmental files as they require. Whether she will be a strong minister is an open question. Those who were critical of Bev Oda may find that they should have been careful what they wished for. Verner's rise in the cabinet is doubtless in part because she was one of the prime minister's early supporters.

Verner was first elected as a Member of Parliament in January 2006, from the riding of Louis-St-Laurent after a number of years in Québec politics, working forformer Premier Robert Bourassa and for the deputy speaker of Québec’s National Assembly. She had been in the federal cabinet since February 2006, when she was appointed as the Minister of International Co-operation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages; later, her duties were expanded to include being spokesperson for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Region of Québec responsibility for the Official Languages portfolio. She served as the chair of the Québec caucus for the Conservative Party of Canada.

Excerpt from Toronto Star report of the shuffle:

Heritage Minister Bev Oda takes over International Cooperation. Josee Verner moves to Heritage after an undistinguished stint as minister of international cooperation, where she drew fire for not doing a better job of telling the story of Canada’s development efforts in Afghanistan.

Here is a letter of welcome that Magazines Canada sent to the new minister.

Two after-the-appointment analyses from the Globe and Mail:
Verner inherits tough tasks
A low profile despite years of experience

Canada Magazine Fund project support now available for medium-sized mags

The circulation ceiling for applications to the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF) for business development has been raised to allow more medium-sized titles to qualify for the project-based funding.

The program had been called Support for Business Development for Small Magazine Publishers and the word "small" has been dropped. (The same publishers will still have the choice to go instead with the support for editorial content option.)

According to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd), the department changed the criteria this spring (the new guide is available here). CMF manager Nadia Laham, said the changes reflected research into the program's results and representations from the industry.

"You’re looking at flexibility and responding to the needs of the publisher. The old Support for Business Development for Small Magazine Publishers was very successful but there was a clear gap for medium-sized publishers who didn’t benefit from that.”

Eligible magazines can receive up to $40,000 (the average over the past couple of years was about $36,000) and must have 45,000 circulation or less (the old cutoff was 20,000).

Publishers of The Magazine protest loss of CMF funding

The publishers of the youth-oriented magazine The Magazine,have issued a press release that slams the Department of Canadian Heritage for denying it funding under the Canadian content rules of the Canada Magazine Fund. The release was signed by Eric Conroy, the magazine's publisher.

[UPDATE: The press release has been given wider release through Canada News Wire. A story has been published by Mark Bonokoski of the Sun papers, a friend of the Conroy family, which quotes Nadia Laham and Scott Shortliffe of Canadian Heritage defending the rules. They do a pretty good job of it, too.

[Interesting aspects: Bonokoski suggests that Conroy's release was made known to him by a "third party", but clearly this third party (who sent this blog the release) was asked to do so by the Conroys. And the argument Bonokoski seems to be making is that, because standard fare in the magazine is coverage of Hollywood movies, the government should cut The Magazine some slack.]

The release, which was accompanied by tables showing the grants made to Rogers Media, Transcontinental Media and Quebecor for the past two years, is headed: Major publishers coin taxpayers money.

Recently, our monthly youth title called THE MAGAZINE, was told that we did not qualify because our title only contained 73.5% “Canadian Editorial content” on average, and the cut off is 80%. Apart from the fact we don’t agree with their evaluation, there is no appeal process. The fund for this year has been divvied up and the big boys have taken most of the apples. New magazines aren’t allowed to apply.

The question must be asked, “does Rogers need over 3.1 million dollars from taxpayers to fund their publications?” That’s what they’ve received over the past 2 years!

Rogers and the others big players aren’t at fault here. It is the officials at Heritage Canada that need to take a ruler to their own “Canadian Editorial” evaluation process, instead of just filling the trough for the largest porkers to feast.

The Magazine has developed an unusual marketing plan that involves selling through Safeway, Dominion and Sobey's stores, with the hook that part of the cover price goes to support things like the Kids Help Line. In addition, the magazine announced a couple of months ago that 25% of the value of subscriptions purchased through the Canadian Automobile Asssociation would go to support school safety patrol programs.

According to the Department of Canadian Heritage website, The Magazine received $44,000 in 2006 for content development. The press release has been issued since the magazine was notified that it was denied funding in the current round.

The press release tables indicated that in the two years 2004-2006 Rogers titles received $3,148,718, Transcontinental titles received $2,468,545 and Quebecor titles $1,863,091.