Michael Fox to receive 2015 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement

Photo: Donna Griffith

Michael Fox has been named the recipient of the 2015 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, the highest individual honour given by the Canadian magazine industry. The award will be presented June 5 at the 38th annual National Magazine Awards gala.

Fox is well known to friends and colleagues as a guru of circulation, who started out in editorial at Maclean-Hunter but gradually moved into audience development and helped to steer the ever-changing landscape of Canadian consumer publishing over a four-decade career. He was -- and still is -- the go-to guy for information and understanding about Canada Post and its labyrinthine policies affecting magazines. He has been a generous mentor and volunteer and taken leadership roles in the Circulation Management Association of Canada, Alliance for Audited Media and the Direct Marketing Association of Canada.

His passion for publishing was demonstrated before and after he retired from Rogers 2012 when he and his wife Beckie launched Inspriting Media Inc. and started Garden Making magazine from their home in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He is also chair of Magazines Canada 2013 - 2015. 

"I can't think of anyone else,” said Paul Jones, publisher and former recipient of the Foundation Award,” who has so seamlessly practiced the art of publishing as vocation, avocation, mentor and volunteer.”

[Here's part of what I said in supporting his nomination:

“Michael comes from the behind-the-scenes world of circulation. The Foundation Award is a worthy recognition of this man’s long, unusual, confident contribution to the audience development side of the business."]

Achievers announced for Alberta Magazine Awards

The Alberta Magazine Awards give out two kinds of awards: their showcase awards across a number of categories (see earlier post); and the Achievement Awards, recognizing the accomplishments, innovation and creativity of individuals and publications in the province's magazine industry. The Achievement Awards are announced in advance of the gala which takes place March 5 in Calgary, plus the final shortlist of 3 is announced for Magazine of the Year.) The gala is part of the two day 19th annual Alberta Magazine Conference at the Carriage House Inn in Calgary March 5 and 6. 

This year's achievers are:

• Achievement in Publishing, Chris Bird, Fly Fusion Magazine
• Editor of the Year. Steven Sandor, Avenue Edmonton
• Volunteer of the Year, Jennifer Schmidt-Rempel, Lethbridge Living
• Best New Magazine (Recipient), Grains West

• Magazine of the Year (Shortlist) 
• Avenue Calgary
• Avenue Edmonton
• Glass Buffalo

View the complete list of finalists and read the entries

Deadline looms (March 1) for nominating candidates for Outstanding Achievement award

It's a club in which I am proud to be a member. The National Magazine Awards Foundation each year selects one person to receive the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement. (Sometimes people call it the "lifetime achievement", though there's no  chronological requirement.) 

The selection is made based on nominations from the community and the judging committee and the standard is simple: recognizing innovation and creativity through contributions to the Canadian magazine industry. The deadline for nomination is March 1. 

The very first person named, in 1989, was Prue Hemelrijk, a superlative copy editor and fact-checker. Selecting her was done strictly on its merits, but was intended also as a signal that this award doesn't necessarily go only to editors and publishers (though it certainly can and has gone to fine examples of each.) It also recognizes other important roles and contributions including circulation experts, teachers, marketing, sales and promotion professionals, production managers - in short, every outstanding contributor in the industry.

Recent winners include Kim Jernigan, Stephen Trumper, Heather Robertson, D.B. Scott, Terry Sellwood, Cynthia Brouse, Charles Oberdorf, Neville Gilfoy,John Macfarlane and Paul Jones.