Alberta Oil, Marketing & Retail News are KRW finalists for magazine of the year

Alberta Oil, Marketing and Retail News are finalists as magazines of the year for the 58th annual Kenneth R. Wilson Awards (KRWs) for business-to-business publications, whose nominations were announced today. Sponsored by Canadian Business Press and Magazines Canada, the award nominations were selected from more than 600 entries and 152 finalists were named. The winners will be announced at a gala event June 7.

Among the leading titles obtaining multiple nominations were CAmagazine, Marketing and Les Affaires.

 

Vying for the special Best Issue award are CAmagazine, Canadian Capital, Canadian Grocer, Marketing, Precedent, Retail News and University Affairs. 

For Best Cover, the nominees are Alberta Oil, Canadian Grocer, Canadian Underwriter, Fire Fighting in Canada, Foodservice & Hospitality, Marketing, National and University Affairs. 

For Best Website, there are three finalists:  canadianhealthcarenetwork.ca Canadian Healthcare Network; finance-investissement.com (Finance et Investissement); and universityaffairs.ca (University Affairs)

Writer Chris Powell garnered the most individual nominations with five, for his work in Canadian Grocer and Art Director Barb Woolley of the design firm Hambly & Woolley received five nominations for work in  Precedent, ROM Magazine and UTSC Commons and Underline Studio five nominations for its designs of University Affairs and Retail News.

Complete list of finalists

Magazines Canada grows by 45 new member magazines, including two b2b groups

Forty-five business-to-business and trade publications are joining Magazines Canada. Moving over from the Canadian Business Press (CBP) are 14 titles published by CLB Media Inc., 26 titles published by Annex Printing and Publishing Inc. Five independent titles have also been approved for membership. 

This move of two well-known multi-title companies is an extension of Magazines Canada's recent strategy of creating a "big tent", welcoming both consumer and business magazines as members. As a result, the Canadian Business Press has shrunk to about 100 titles, including only one,  large, multi-title b2b group: the Business Information Group, owned by Glacier.

Annex specializes in small-scale, niche publications. CLB Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Cartwright Group and emphasizes law and security, professional management, industry directories and some manufacturing titles; its largest publications are Canadian Lawyer and Law Times.

Annex titles moving over from CBP to Magazines Canada

• Bakers Journal
• Canadian Chiropractor
• Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly
• Canadian Florist
• Canadian Garden Centre & Nursery
• Canadian Pizza Magazine
• Canadian Poultry Magazine
• Canadian Rental Service
• Canadian Vending
• Drainage Contractor
• Fire Fighting In Canada
• Fruit & Vegetable Magazine
• Glass Canada
• Greenhouse Canada
• Ground Water Canada
• Helicopters
• Manure Manager
• Massage Therapy Canada
• Top Crop Manager East
• Top Crop Manager West
• Potatoes in Canada
• Wings
• Aggregates & Roadbuilding
• Canadian Forest Industries
• Canadian Wood Products
• Opérations Forestières et de Scierie

CLB Media titles

• Canadian Auto Dealer
• Canadian Electronics
• Canadian Occupational Safety
• Canadian Security
• Design Product News
• Electrical Business
• Law Times
• Manufacturing Automation
• MP&P
• PEM
• PIQ
• REM
• SP&T News
• Woodworking

Other independent titles joining in the latest round of membership approvals: The Driver, Garden Making, Poetry is Dead, Rotman magazine, Worn Fashion Journal

Canadian Business Press calls for federal fairness in funding

The Canadian Business Press, which represents about 119 b2b, trade and farm titles published by 46 companies, has asked the federal government to completely overhaul its support to the Canadian magazine industry to ensure that the business and trade press gets its fair share of funding. In its 2009 pre-budget submission to the Commons' standing budget committee on finance, the CBP recommended two, major changes:

• Expansion of the eligibility of the forthcoming Canada Periodical Fund to recognize the unique circumstance of business publishers; and
  
• An overall increase its funding for the publishing sector targetted towards the short-term viability of as many existing titles as possible and to assist the industry in the future through a period of transition.

The submission document said, in part

Unfortunately, the funding formula of the past programs - the CMF and PAP - and the one initially proposed for the CPF fail to fully appreciate the cultural and economic contribution of business-to-business (“B2B”) publications. The formula favours a consumer-publication model that does not apply to B2B publications....

While the Canadian Business Press applauds the Government of Canada for revisiting the eligibility criteria for its new program, we are concerned that B2B magazines will continue to be underrepresented and that many publications will cease to be viable.

Although the trade press represents 27% of magazine titles in Canada, the document said, restrictions on the various funding formulas have -- and threaten to continue -- to receive less than 8% of government funding.

Despite representing approximately one quarter of Canada’s magazine industry (by any reasonable measure), B2B periodicals have always received a lower proportion of funds designed to support the magazine industry.

This inequity was always justified in the past by the need to support the extension of Canada’s “culture” through magazines. Yet, a closer examination of the criteria actually supported more successful consumer-oriented magazines indistinguishable from U.S.-based competition rather than important or leading edge publications that emphasized a uniquely Canadian cultural perspective. The most glaring example is that eligibility provisions such as weight were part of the criteria – the heavier the magazine, the more subsidy it received. A glance at your average popular consumer magazine will reveal that much of the magazine’s content, and therefore weight, is comprised of paid advertisements on heavy glossy paper. Therefore, the more ads the publication sells (and therefore the more successful it is) the more the magazines qualified for funds under the program.

The submission says that the policy needs to better address the challenges faced by the b2b press:

• High cost of distribution
• Foreign competition
• Limited access to government assistance

It also says that draft rules for the new Canada Periodical Fund continue to make unwarranted distinctions between "request" and "paid" subscription publications.

The difference between the two is a distribution model and not based on content or importance to the Canadian magazine industry. Both are viable business models for magazines. “Request” is a common model for industry-based B2B magazines and “paid” is a common model for consumer magazines. Both types face exactly the same business challenges – rising postal and distribution rates, foreign competition, the struggle to secure advertisers, the transition to digital media – yet “paid” subscription-based magazines continue to be favoured in the funding formula.

New Canadian Business Press board elected

The Canadian Business Press elected its new board last week at Magazines University. Masthead reports that the new chair is John Kerr, CEO of Toronto-based Kerrwil Publications Ltd. He succeeds Alex Papanou, vice-president of the Business Information Group, who remains on the board as past chair.

New members of the board are:

• Meredith Birchall–Spencer, editor, Human Resources Professionals Association, Toronto
• Jeff Brownlee, publisher, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, Toronto
• Lee Ann Knudsen, publisher, Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association, Milton
• Terri Pavelic, publisher, Promotive Communications, Aurora
• Michael Swan, president, Swan-Erickson Publishing Inc., Oakville

Returning members of the board are:

• Rex Armstead, president, ACT Communications Inc., Vancouver
• Michael Atkins, chairman, IT World Canada Inc., Toronto
• Rosanna Caira, publisher/editor, Kostuch Publications Limited, Toronto
• Bruce Creighton, president, Business Information Group, Toronto
• James O. Hall, president, Keith Communications Inc., Mississauga (1st vice-chair)
• Brian Light, president, Salon Communications Inc., Toronto
• David McClung, president, Baxter Travel Media Inc., Toronto
• Mark Vreugdenhil, publisher, Newcom Business Media, Toronto (2nd vice-chair)
• Bill Whitelaw, president, JuneWarren Publishing Ltd., Calgary

Canadian Business Press publishes digital directory of members

It's a definite sign of the times that the new Canadian Business Press directory is published digitally. Working with Texterity, the Guide to Business and Professional Publications provides thumbnails of all CBPs 156 publications; the directory is searchable and contains live links to the various individual publication and publishing company websites.

Still time to enter KRW awards

The extended entry deadline for the Kenneth R. Wilson awards, the awards program for Canada's business-to-business magazine sector, is Friday, February 13. The KRWs (as the competition is most often known) is open to all open to all business, trade, professional and farm print and online publications and recognizes editorial and design achievement. Five winners in each of the 20 categories receive media recognition and cash prizes of $1,000 and $500 are presented to gold and silver winners. Entrants do not have to be members of the Canadian Business Press which administers the awards.

Canada Wide's Legge steps down from Canadian Business Press board

Not quite 6 months after joining the board of the Canadian Business Press, Peter Legge has stepped down as a director, according to a notice on the CBP website. Legge, who is chairman of Canada Wide Media in Vancouver, is being replaced by Mark Vreugdehnil, publisher with Newcom Business Media of Toronto. Newcom publishes Today's Trucking, Highway Star, Plumbing & HVAC and Logistics.

Canadian Business Press buys the Magazine University name

Canadian Business Press (CBP), the service and lobbying group for many of Canada's trade publications has purchased the rights to the name Magazines University from North Island Publishing along with an associated web property. The deal means that CBP will continue running the annual Mags U event (and, possibly some sort of trade show) that had previously been co-produced with North Island's magazine Masthead, which is folding by year's end. The deal was reported yesterday by Masthead.

That would mean there will continue to be two June events offering professional development seminars to the magazine industry, the other being MagNet, run by a partnership of Magazines Canada, the Canadian Circulation Marketing Association (CMC) and the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME), the Professional Writers Association of Canada, the Canadian Authors Association and associated with the various provincial magazine associations and the Editors Association of Canada and .

“We are pleased that CBP will continue the Mags U tradition,” said North Island president Alexander Donald. “We have been great partners for many years, and we feel this agreement that clarifies ownership is in the best interests of both Mags U and the industry at large.”

“The Magazines University trademark is very important to us at the CBP because the name has been associated with quality and excellence within the magazine publishing community,” said Alex Papanou, Chair of the CBP. “The CBP and its partners will continue to provide our industry with a quality event that we can all be proud of.”

Interestingly, the name Magazines University is only North Island's to sell because it trademarked the brand in 2002 to the surprise of its then partners. The collaborative and cooperative approach that had begun many years before soon deteriorated. Magazines University had been launched in 1992 as a collaboration between the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association (the predecessor to Magazines Canada) and Masthead and later involved other partner organizations to a greater or lesser degree, including CBP and CMC. The industry associations provided the seminars and Masthead ran a trade show and a joint working group shared marketing, costs, revenues and responsibility for the event.

CBP's move is complicated somewhat by the fact that Rogers Media trade publications have left the organization and joined Magazines Canada and the MagNet conference will be offering a range of b2b-related seminars.

Related posts:

• Magazines Canada to allow business-to-business magazine membership
• Message from participants in magazines conferences: kiss and make up

Magazines Canada to allow business-to-business magazine membership

Trade magazines are in -- if they want to be. The annual general meeting of Magazines Canada, the country's consumer magazine association, has passed a board recommendation that changes the bylaws to allow business-to-business titles to join.

This opens the door to Rogers Publishing to bring its stable of trade magazines -- which recently left the Canadian Business Press -- to join Magazines Canada. It also opens the door to the kind of "big tent" approach to represent all magazine interests under one umbrella, something that has been written about frequently here (see related posts below).

(It is also not entirely coincidental that Ian Locks, the recently retired President of the British Periodical Publishers Association, made a presentation today at the MagNet conference, outlining the 20-year development of an all-encompassing association that not only represents b-to-b but also custom publishers and has alliances with online and directory publishers.)

Related posts:

• Segal to CBP Board: the merger train is leaving...
• Magazines Canada board recommends allowing trade magazines as members
• Rogers pullout costs CBP 20% of membership revenue
• CBP Prez says trade publishing association should stay independent
• Rogers b-to-b titles to pull out of Canadian Business Press
• One magazine organization
  

Mags Canada board recommends allowing trade magazines as members

The board of Magazines Canada is recommending to its members that trade magazines be welcomed as members. The proposed bylaw change will be considered at the Magazines Canada annual general meeting in June and would remove the restriction on trades from its bylaws which have, until now, allowed membership only for consumer magazines.

If approved, as seems reasonably likely, this bylaw change could result in a tectonic shift in the business, clearing the way for developing some sort of "trade" caucus within an expanded Magazines Canada. And it is not good news for Canadian Business Press (CBP) which, until now, has said that it speaks for the business-to-business sector.

Frequent readers will know already that one of the biggest publishers of trade magazines, Rogers Publishing, has pulled its members and their membership fees out of CBP and started talks with Magazines Canada. CBP says that Rogers represented 20% of its members and 9% of its revenue.

However, it doesn't take a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.

Should other major trade publishing companies follow Rogers's lead, CBP might be unsustainable. While there have been suggestions in the past that the two associations merge, and that the industry speak with one voice, there has been significant resistance from the CBP side. In fact, that option is probably now off the table since CBP President Phil Boyd -- a paid employee of the association -- has said he believes that the two kinds of magazines are "fundamentally different" and he is firmly in favour of maintaining an independent trade publishing association.

There are implications beyond the membership budget for CBP. For instance, the Kenneth R. Wilson (KRW) Awards for trades might have expected 175 entries from Rogers books in previous years; this year it got 10. CBP is also a senior partner (with Masthead magazine) in the annual conference Magazines University. (At one time, Magazines Canada and the Circulation Marketing Association of Canada (CMC) were also partners in Mags U, but pulled out ago and are now in the second year of running an event of their own, called MagNet in partnership with the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME). The two conferences run simultaneously this year.

CBP has 43 member companies with 153 titles, including: Business Information Group (32); CLB Media (23); Annex Printing and Publishing (17);Baum Publications Ltd. (7); June Warren Publishing Ltd. (4); Kenilworth Media Inc. (4)

Magazines Canada has more than 300 member consumer magazines (not yet including Rogers' trade titles).

One of the first postings on this blog three years ago was about the need for discussion about an umbrella organization for magazines in Canada. Most of what was said then remains necessary and plausible.

Rogers trade books decline to enter KRWs

It's not altogether surprising that Rogers Publishing's trade magazines, having pulled their membership from the Canadian Business Press recently, have largely refrained from entering the Kenneth R. Wilson awards (commonly known as the KRWs) that are run by CBP. According to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd), with the deadline passed, fewer than 10 entries were received for the 2008 KRWs. Phil Boyd, the president of the Canadian Business Press said they would normally expect 175.

Boyd would not confirm an actual figure, but Masthead estimates less than 10 entries were received, which would put the loss of revenue for the CBP at around $14,000. Rogers also pulled its $2,500 sponsorship of the awards earlier this year. No Rogers editors were present at the KRW Peer Judging panel held last week. Several Rogers entries came from freelancers, Boyd said.

Rogers and some other trade publishers are known to be in conversation with Magazines Canada about offering membership and services to b to b publishers or creating some sort of trade publishing division.

The situation is pregnant with irony since Kenneth R. Wilson, the man after whom the awards are named, was a well-respected Ottawa Editor of the Financial Post and worked for Maclean Hunter, the predecessor to Rogers.

Canadian Business Press cuts membership deal with its American counterpart

The Canadian Business Press, representing about 42 publishing companies and about 170 trade magazines, has cut a deal with its American counterpart, American Business Media, to give members non-voting access to all the resources of the U.S. association. The arrangement became effective June 5.

ABM has about 300 members companies, representing about 5,000 print and online publications.

CBP members will get passwords at no cost and no increase in their membership fees (at least for now) and as a result, will have access to members-only products and services provided by the ABM, including "an extensive library of advertising and editorial research, white papers and webinars on industry issues."

CBP members will also be encouraged to serve on ABM committees and a new International Advisory Board, which will comprise several Canadian members and representatives from other countries. This initiative will provide all CBP Members with a "window on the world of business press publishing," says the CBP announcement.

It is also important to point out that the agreement in no way inhibits the ability of the Canadian Business Press to aggressively support the Canadian policy on Canadian ownership and content rules; and other matters related to international trade and the publishing sector, says the announcement.

(Interestingly, while this arrangement is clearly important to CBP, there is no mention of it on the ABM website.)