Survey respondents tell Western mag awards to offer a stripped-down version

The board of the Western Magazine Awards says in a message to its members that as a consequence of a survey, the awards program -- suspended last year -- is likely to come back to life, though not as the gala event of past years. 

Some 87 per cent of respondents said they hoped the WMAF would continue its work. More than half (52%) said they'd be most likely to support a seminar-based conference with an awards competition element. 70% of respondents said the awards program had been the organization's most significant contribution to the western Canadian magazine industry.

[click graphs to enlarge]

Among the suggestions made by respondents were:

• Presenting awards in a more casual, less costly format
• Seeking more sponsorship from private donors
• Changing the locations of events to more truly represent Western Canada
• Hosting more educational and professional development events
• Collaborating with organizations like MagsBC and/or the Alberta Magazine Publishing Association
• Collaborating with schools (publishing, journalism, design, photography) to offer educational and networking opportunities for students
• Encouraging more students to attend by making student award entries free
• Reviewing and expanding awards categories

Related posts:

• Western Magazine Awards officially cancelled; board asking what should happen next
• Western Magazine Awards seem to have been suspended

Western Magazine Awards officially cancelled; board asking what should happen next

The Western Magazine Awards Foundation has officially confirmed that the 2015 competition has been cancelled. (We reported this likelihood in late April when executive director Kate Cockerill had quietly resigned and the foundation's website no longer functioned.)

The volunteer board of directors says despite efforts to reduce costs, including trying to create a targeted sponsorship campaign, it still has insufficient resources to run the competition this year.With the loss of federal funding, the event would have been faced with at least a $25,000 deficit.

"Many forces have come together in recent years to inhibit the work of the WMAF," the board said in a mesage. "Among them, as industry budgets continue to tighten, attendance of the Gala Awards has undergone a steady decline, especially among our colleagues outside B.C. 

"The year’s most critical challenge by far, however, has been the decision by the Canadian Heritage ministry to cease funding any and all “initiatives to recognize and/or reward” Canadian magazines through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF). These federal grants traditionally covered the vast majority of the WMAF’s operating expenses, including the position of Executive Director, which is now vacant."

 The board is asking its community of interest to respond to a brief survey by September 30 "on how to best continue recognizing excellence and supporting innovation in the Western Canadian magazine industry." 

The survey questions ask, among other things, about the relative importance of the awards competition and gala compared to other professional development the foundation has run or a range of possible alternatives for the future.  

The annual awards were established in 1983 to honour and celebrate editorial excellence in magazine writing, photography, illustration and art direction in the four western provinces. This is accomplished through the annual awards competition, a gala event where winners are announced and recognized with cash prizes, and The Magazine School, an educational program featuring WMA-winning work.

Western Magazine Awards seem to have been suspended

By this time each year, entries are usually being submitted to the Western Magazine Awards, but the event seems to be suspended. The executive director, Kate Cockerill, quietly resigned effective March after barely a year in the job. Its website is closed down. When I enquired, acting president Jennifer Giesbrecht said simply: "Please look for an announcement about this year’s awards in the coming weeks."

Cockerill's resignation followed word from Canadian Heritage that it would no longer be funding "celebrations" of magazines and without that funding, it was apparently not possible to carry on. As far as we can determine, no public announcement has yet been made by the awards foundation. 

Last year the WMAs had trouble getting airborne. The event extended its entry deadlines twice in the spring, citing "technical difficulties", although the awards event did take place in September in Vancouver. 

The annual awards were established in 1983 to honour and celebrate editorial excellence in magazine writing, photography, illustration and art direction in the four western provinces. This is accomplished through the annual awards competition, a gala event where winners are announced and recognized with cash prizes, and The Magazine School, an educational program featuring WMA-winning work.

With the loss of federal funding, the foundation board running the event would have been faced with at least a $25,000 deficit. 

(According to latest Canada Revenue filings , the annual total revenues for the Foundation in 2013 was $136,148, of which $36,710 (26%) came from the federal government, $5,800 from the province of BC (4.2%) and the $93,638 balance (69%) from non-receipted fundraising (presumably entry fees and gala dinner tickets.) Total expenditures were $127,917.) 

Western Magazine Award winners

Up Here magazine from Yellowknife, edited by Aaron Spitzer, was celebrated as Western Canada magazine of the year at the 32nd annual Western

Best art direction, cover

Magazine Awards, presented at a gala last Friday in Vancouver. It was also  regional magazine of the year for Alberta and Northwest Territories.

MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR, BY PROVINCE

ALBERTA + NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

• Up Here, Aaron Spitzer, Editor

BRITISH COLUMBIA + YUKON

• Western Living, Anicka Quin, Editor-in- Chief

MANITOBA

• Border Crossings, Lisa Kehler, Editor

SASKATCHEWAN

• Saskatoon HOME, Rob Soulodre, Editor

BEST NEW MAGAZINE

• Homes & Living Magazine, Calgary, Michelle van der Merwe, Editor 

BEST ONLINE MAGAZINE

• MONTECRISTOmagazine.com, Kristin Ramsey, Editor 

BEST TRADE MAGAZINE

• AgAdvance Journal, Tracey Tjaden, Editor  

Read more »

Brian Kaufman of subTerrain to receive WMA lifetime achievement award

Brian Kaufman, the longtime founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine subTerrain, has been selected to receive the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Western Magazine Awards. The presentation will be made September 26 at the awards gala in Vancouver. Each year, the WMAs select one individual who has had exemplary, sustained accomplishment in the magazine publishing industry.

Kauffman founded the three-time-a-year journal -- which used the tagline “Strong words for a Polite Nation” -- in 1988 to showcase visual art, creative non-fiction, poetry, social commentary, and photography. In a 2008 blog post he said "subTerrain started out as a dream, an idea of literary rebellion, a shadow-self calling out to be born.”

“Kaufman is a richly deserving recipient,” said Jane Zatylny, President of the WMAF. “We are very pleased to highlight his many contributions to our industry with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.”

“Brian has been responsible for launching the careers of a new breed of writers and artists onto the literary scene in Vancouver and indeed the rest of the country,” wrote Margaret Reynolds, Executive Director of the Association of Book Publishers of BC.

Also a book publisher, a founding member of the predecessor to MagsBC and a director of the Literary Press Group, in 2009 he also received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Awards for his “significant contribution to Vancouver's arts and cultural community, for shaping Vancouver as a creative city and for enriching the lives of Vancouver's citizens.”

Tickets available for Western Magazine Awards gala September 26 in Vancouver

The 32nd annual Western Magazine Awards are to be presented on September 26, 2014 at a gala at the Renaissance Harbourside Hotel in downtown Vancouver. The finalists in the 30 categories of entry represent some 136 submission from across the four western provinces. The gala consists of a reception at 6 p.m. with cash bar, a sit-down dinner at 7 p.m. and the award presentation at 8.  

Tickets are available now and until September 24. A table of eight is $860 and single tickets are $115. 

Western Magazine Awards nominees announced

The finalists in the Western Magazine Awards 2014 have been announced; the winners will be named Friday, September 26th, 2014 at the Renaissance Harbourside Hotel in downtown Vancouver. 

The nominees for Magazine of the Year are:

ALBERTA + NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

• Alberta Views magazine
• Eighteen Bridges
• Swerve
• Up Here
• Up Here Business

BRITISH COLUMBIA + YUKON

• BC Business Magazine
• British Columbia Magazine
• MONTECRISTO Magazine
• Vancouver Magazine
• Western Living

MANITOBA

• Border Crossings
• Canada's History
• Prairie Fire
• The Cottager

SASKATCHEWAN

• Farming For Tomorrow
• Saskatoon HOME Magazine
• Westworld Saskatchewan

BEST NEW MAGAZINE

• Glass Buffalo
• Homes & Living Magazine - Calgary
• NICHE magazine

BEST ON-LINE MAGAZINE

• BCLiving.ca
• GalleriesWest.ca
• Kerrisdale Playbook
• MONTECRISTOmagazine.com
• Vitamin Daily

BEST TRADE MAGAZINE

• AgAdvance Journal
• Border Crossings
• Just for Canadian Dentists
• Oilsands Review
• Oilweek

Complete nominees list

Western Magazine Awards temporarily suspending online submissions

The Western Magazine Awards has temporarily suspended receipt of online entries to the competition because of problems with their website. An online note from Jane Zatylny, the president of the awards says

We regret that some entrants are experiencing challenges in regards to their online submission of entries to the competition.  We are working closely with the website provider to resolve these issues.  Accordingly, we have decided to temporarily suspend the submission process for the 2014 Awards Competition until we have the full confidence in the website.  Our intention is to have all areas of the website corrected, re-tested and verified before the end of this month.  As soon as the problems have been resolved, we will let you know and will post new deadlines at the beginning of April when we reopen the submission process. 

For those who have already provided a submission, or are in the process of submitting, please be assured that your entries will be maintained. 

In the meantime, I would like to thank you for your understanding and patience as we deal with these technical challenges.

The original entry deadlines were March 31 for early bird discount and April 30 for all entries. The awards are scheduled for September 26 in Vancouver at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside.  

Western Magazine Awards appoints Kate Cockerill as new executive director

The Western Magazine Awards Foundation has appointed Kate Cockerill as its new executive director.

Cockerill is the owner of Kate + Sebastian, a Vancouver-based communications and design firm, and brings both association and event management experience to the job. She replaces interim executive director Sylvia Skene and Corey Van't Haaff, the former executive director. 

"After an extensive executive search, the board of directors is very pleased that Kate has agreed to join our organization. We look forward to building on the strengths of the foundation with Kate at the helm,” said Jane Nahirny, WMAF president. 

Cockerill has held senior positions with the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies - BC (ACEC-BC), from 1998 to 2005, the International Institute of Communications (IIC), from 1993 to 1997 and has served on a number of boards including: Architectural Foundation of BC; Society for the Museum of Original Costume; International Children's Film Festival; and the Vancouver Opera Guild.

The 32nd annual Western Magazine Awards are being presented this year at a gala reception on Friday, June 20. Finalists will be announced in May.

Western awards honour Paul and Audrey Grescoe for a lifetime of magazine achievement

Paul and Audrey Grescoe have been named the winners of the Western Magazine Awards Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. It is the first time that a couple have been so honoured.

"Legendary pioneers in the Western Canadian magazine industry, Paul and Audrey's long personal and professional collaboration in journalism and publishing makes them an ideal choice for this prestigious award," said the WMAF release. The LAA judges said, 'in recognition of contributing contributions, and at a risk of weakening individualism, but in celebration of lifelong partnerships, for the first time, and perhaps never to be repeated, the panel of judges recommends Paul and Audrey Grescoe for the 2013 WMAF Lifetime Achievement Award."

Paul Grescoe moved from the newspaper business to become a staff writer and editor with The Canadian magazine and Maclean's and during the 1970s and 1980s was co-owner and editorial director of city magazines in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Later, often in collaboration with his wife, he has written books on business, publishing and travel (notably on Alaskan cruising) as well as crime fiction. 

The awards will be presented Friday, June 21 at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside. The host for the evening will be CBC Radio host Jo-Ann Roberts, who is currently the Harvey Southam Guest Lecturer at University of Victoria.

The nominees for the written, visual, gold awards and provincial magazine of the year categories have been released.

Nominated as best new magazine were Coast Mountain Culture magazine, Homes & Living Magazine, Vancouver and Interlake Arts, Life & Leisure. 

Nominees for trade magazine of the year are 

Alberta Oil, British Columbia Medical Journal, CGA Magazine, reel west magazine and West Coast Veterinarian

For best online magazine, the nominees are: BCLiving.ca,  Swerve, Toque & Canoe and VitaminDaily.com

Regional magazine of the year nominees (from whom is selected the over all Western magazine of the year, are:

ALBERTA/NWT

Alberta Venture
Eighteen Bridges
Up Here
Up Here Business
UPPERCASE

BC/YUKON
BCBusiness
Geist
Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine
Vancouver Magazine
Western Living

MANITOBA
Sponsored by Government of Manitoba Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Tourism
Border Crossings
Canada's History
Canadian Journal of Green Building & Design
Prairie Fire
The Cottager

SASKATCHEWAN
Sponsored by Government of Saskatchewan Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport
BlackFlash
Grain Magazine
Saskatoon HOME Magazine
Westworld Saskatchewan

Western Magazine Awards deadline March 1

If you're involved in a western Canadian magazine, you've got 10 days to make your entries for the Western Magazine Awards.  www.westernmagazineawards.ca  The awards are also looking for nominations for the Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Eighteen Bridges named best new western magazine

Eighteen Bridges, an Alberta-based literary magazine that came out of the gate with a fresh take on a traditional form, was named as best new magazine at the Western Magazine Awards, presented Saturday in Vancouver. It was also named magazine of the year for Alberta/NWT.

Vancouver magazine was named magazine of the year for all of western Canada (also for BC/Yukon), which is ironic in light of the recent departure of the editor, Gary Ross. Other notable winners

• Sean Rossiter was named winner of the Lifetime Achievement award (see earlier post)
• Trade magazine of the year was Alberta Oil, published by Venture Publishing of Edmonton. Alberta Oil was recently named magazine of the year in the Kenneth R. Wilson awards for business-to-business publications. 
• Best online magazine was The Tyee.
• Magazine of the year for Manitoba was Geez.
• Magazine of the year for Saskatchewan was Grain.
•  Gold awards for writing:
• Alberta/NWT, Eighteen Bridges, Chris Turner, "Bearing Witness"
• BC/Yukon. Vancouver Magazine, Timothy Taylor, "Blood Brothers
• Manitoba, Western Living, Shel Zolkewich, "Hooked" 
• Saskatchewan, The Crow, Kent Morrison, "The La Loche Project"

For other winners, go to the Western Magazine Awards site.

Swerve named western magazine of the year at Western Magazine Awards

Swerve EIC Shelley Youngblut, AD Danae Thompson, Living editor Meghan Jessiman

This post is a bit late acknowledging the winners of the Western Magazine Awards, announced on Friday in Vancouver. Swerve magazine  of Calgary was the standout winner, named Western Canada magazine of the year, as well as magazine of the year for NWT/Alberta and winning  a gold award for best article, five written awards and one visual award. (Swerve's post on the wins here.)

• Trade magazine of the year was Enterprise (it has won the award 7 times in a row)
• Best new magazine was Sandbox Magazine (Winnipeg)
• Regional magazines of the year:  for BC/Yukon, Mountain Life; for Saskatchewan, Blackflash; for Manitoba, Canada's History

As announced in advance, the lifetime achievement award was presented to photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward.

Full list of finalists and winners

Geist western magazine of the year

Geist was named magazine of the year on Friday at the 28th annual Western Magazine Awards, held in Vancouver. It was also magazine of the year for BC/Yukon. Other MOY winners were:

• Alberta Views -- Alberta/NWT
• Border Crossings -- Manitoba
• Blackflash -- Saskatchewan

•  Trade magazine of the year was Enterprise.

Multiple award-winning magazines were Swerve (4), AlbertaViews (3), BCBusiness,Vancouver Review (2), Vancouver magazine (2), Border Crossings (2), Up Here (2) and The Beaver (2).

Written awards:

• Arts, Culture, and Entertainment --Timothy Taylor, Foodville: Part One, Vancouver Review 
• Business -- Tyee Bridge, Managed to Fail, BCBusiness 
• Environmental -- James Glave, Rees’s Thesis, Vancouver Magazine
•  Fiction -- Andrew MacDonald, Eat Fist!, Event 
• Human Experience -- Lindsay Cuff, On Atrocity and Grace: A Contrapuntal Vision, The Malahat Review 
• Profile -- Jeremy Klaszus, Mr. Tree, AlbertaViews 
• Public Issues  --Paul Webster, Fixed, Vancouver Magazine  
• Regular Column or Department  -- Robert Enright, Column, Border Crossings 
• Science, Technology, and Medicine -- Katharine Sandiford, The Man in the Ice, Up Here 
• Service --  Julie McLaughlin and Staff, The Best Time To, Swerve 
• Student Writing -- Kerianne Sproule, Terri & Me, Swerve 
• Travel and Leisure -- Katharine Sandiford, The Wild Quest, Up Here

Provincial gold awards:

• Gold Award Best Article - Alberta/NWT  -- Jeremy Klaszus, Mr. Tree, AlbertaViews
• Gold Award Best Article - BC/Yukon  -- Timothy Taylor, Foodville: Part One, Vancouver Review
• Gold Award Best Article - Manitoba -- Mary Horodyski, The Geography of Ambiguity, Prairie Fire
• Gold Award Best Article - Saskatchewan -- John Campbell, Getting Their Kicks, Westworld

Visual awards:

• Best Art Direction - Article  -- Danae Thompson, You’re Invited, Swerve
• Best Art Direction - Cover  -- Catherine Mullaly, July Cover, BCBusiness
• Best Illustration or Illustration Feature -- Byron Eggenschwiler, Tales from Riverheights Terrace, Swerve
• Best Photograph - Architectural, Landscape, or Still Life  -- Clinton Hussey, The Real Deal, Western Living
• Best Photograph - Feature or Series  -- Venturi + Karpa, Saving Skid Row, The Beaver
• Best Photograph - People and Portraiture -- Venturi + Karpa, Saving Skid Row, The Beaver

Western Magazine Awards finalists announced, but no new magazine or lifetime achievement

In what is surely a highly unusual development, the Western Magazine Awards have decided this year to give out neither its Lifetime Achievement nor its Best New Magazine awards.

In the case of lifetime achievement, the board is reviewing the criteria and the application form.

To ensure all nominees are adequately represented in the process, the board is developing a comprehensive application form to support nominations for 2011, and is gathering input from key stakeholders in the industry. In view of the lack of consistency in the nominations this year, the judges have not named a winner for 2010. The Board recognizes that there are several candidates who are worthy of nomination and its decision not to offer this award this year is not a reflection of them.

In the case of the new magazine award,

The judges determined that while the magazines reviewed for this year’s Best New category each showed potential, none offered an editorial package that merited inclusion as a finalist for the WMA.

Finalists in all other categories were announced today (full details here). Among them:

Magazine of the Year (given out by province/territory, from which a "best in show" award is made)

• Alberta/NWT 
• Alberta Venture
• Alberta Views
• Avenue
• Up Here Business
• Up Here

• BC/Yukon

• BC Business
• British Columbia Magazine
• Geist
• Vancouver Magazine
• Western Living

• Manitoba 
• The Beaver 
• Border Crossings
• Prairie Fire
• Wave

• Saskatchewan
• Blackflash
• Grain Magazine
• Westworld

• Trade magazine of the year finalists
• Alberta Oil
• CGA Magazine
• Enterprise
• West

Vancouver named mag of the year at Western Magazine Awards

Writer Chris Koentges has had quite a couple of weeks. He won a gold and a silver award at the National Magazine awards for a memoir of his mother Helen (those were two of the four medals he won that night); now, for the same article, he has won two awards at the Western Magazine Awards, which was published in Calgary's Swerve magazine (a supplement to the Calgary Herald).

"What a gift for Calgarians to have such an original homegrown talent publishing his best work here," said Shelley Youngblut, the magazine's editor-in-chief.

Youngblut herself won the lifetime achievement award at the Western magazine awards gala in Vancouver on Friday night. She praised the Calgary Herald in her acceptance speech for the existence of Swerve:

"Thank you to the Calgary Herald, which has enabled the Swerve team to present an original, heartfelt, smart, funny, unpredictable, relentlessly local magazine every week for the past five years. It's weird and wonderful to be its editor."

Youngblut, a native Calgarian, became the founding editor at Swerve in 2004 after a career in Canadian and U.S. magazines, including ESPN: The Magazine, Western Living, Cosmopolitan, West and All About Men

Magazine of the year for western Canada and for BC/Yukon was Vancouver magazine (shown is November 08 cover). Other provincial/regional magazines of the year were:

• Alberta/NWT: Unlimited
• BC/Yukon: Vancouver
• Saskatchewan: Blackflash
• Manitoba: Border Crossings
  

Best new magazine was Techlife (published by the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology)

Trade magazine of the year was Enterprise (the "voice of Canadian credit unions" is published in B.C. and has been trade mag of the year four out of the past five years)

Gold awards for best article by province/region were:

• Alberta/NWT: Chris Koentges -- Helen Koentges (Swerve)
• BC/Yukon: Chris Koentges -- Tourists, Stay Away (up! magazine)
• Saskatchewan: Allan Casey -- The Little Boat that Could (Westworld)
• Manitoba: Chris Webb, Nelle Oosterom, Phil Koch -- 10 Photos that Changed Canada (The Beaver)

Full details of winners and runners-up in all categories

Western Magazine Awards deadline extended

The deadline for entry the Western Magazine Awards has been extended to Friday, March 6 at 9 p.m.

Geez wins Magazine of the Year in Western Magazine Awards

The iconoclastic Winnipeg religious magazine Geez, edited by Will Braun and Aiden Enns, was named

• Magazine of the Year for Western Canada
• Best New Magazine and
  
• Magazine of the Year - Manitoba

in the Western Magazine Awards, announced Friday evening in Vancouver. (It should be noted that Geez is on a roll, having won 7 awards from the Canadian Church Press in 2007.)

Jim Sutherland, who is now freelancing after a distinguished run editing Western Living, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Multiple winners were:

• Blackflash magazine, for Magazine of the Year -- Saskatchewan, as well as for a feature by Danny Bradbury called "Epicentre", which won the Gold Award for Best Article -- Saskatchewan. In addition it won two awards -- the Science, Technology and Medicine category and Arts, Culture and Entertainment -- for "The Seven Pillars of Winnipeg" by Matthew Rankin.
  
• Western Living won Gold Award Best Article -- Manitoba for "Water in the Basement" by Jake MacDonald and two awards for "The Beach" by Andrew Struthers: the Gold Award for Best Article, BC/Yukon and the award for Business.
  
• Vancouver magazine won for Profile, with "The Healer" by Sylvia Fraser, and for "Meth & Kin" by Colleen Friesen in the Human Experience category
• Swerve magazine for Service, with "The Wonderfully Compromised Wedding" by Jacquie Moore and Gold Award Best Article -- Alberta/NWT, for "The Macleod Trail Expedition" by Harryt Vandervlist.
• Color magazine, Best Illustration or Illustration Feature for "A Tour Story" by Ben Tour and Best Art Direction -- Cover, for "Said and Done, Issue 4.4", by Sandra Grison
  

Other written winners were:

• Vancouver Review, in Travel and Leisure, for "Sporting Life", by John Moore.
• Northword, in Regular Column or Department, for "North of Unreal" by Betsy Trumpener.
• Prairie Fire, in Fiction, for "Jumper" by Stephen Gauer.
• Alberta Views in Public Issues for "Big Oil on Trial", by Jeremy Klaszus.
  

Other visual category winners were:

• The Block, in Best Photograph -- Architectural, Landscape or Still Life for "Knobs" by Alastair Bird.
• Ion, Best Photographic Feature or Series for "Dead Ringer" by Kate Szatmari.
• Alberta Views, Best Photograph -- People and Portraiture, for "The Lion-Hearted" by James May
• Avenue - Calgary for Best Art Direction -- Article, for "Minds for Design" by Anders Knudsen.
  

Trade magazine of the Year went to Enterprise, Roberta Staley, editor.

Magazine of the Year - Alberta/NWT went to Orange Life, Daniel Gibbons and Susie Hutchinson, editors.

Magazine of the Year - BC/Yukon went to BC Business, Tracy Tjaden, editor. Winners in the four Gold categories receive $1,000 each. This year for the first time, all written and visual category winners will receive $750, up from $500 in recent years.

For a complete list of all the finalists in all categories, please go the awards website.

June is magazine conference month

This is shaping up to be a heckuva three weeks in Canadian magazines with a whole lotta learning, networking and schmoozing goin' on.

Starting today (June 4) and through Wednesday, June 6, Masthead magazine and the Canadian Business Press are partnering for Magazines University at the Old Mill in the west end of Toronto (with other partners being the audit organizations CCAB/BPA Worldwide and the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors and the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario). This event has been held for many years at this location. Masthead reports that 1,200 registrations are in hand for a variety of seminars, dinners, trade show and awards programs, including the Canadian Newsstand Awards and the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards gala for the Canadian Business Press.

Starting next Wednesday 13th at 89 Chestnut Street in downtown Toronto, MagNet kicks off, partnered by Magazines Canada and the Circulation Management Association of Canada (CMC), along with the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors, the Professional Writers Association of Canada and the National Magazine Awards Foundation. This is the first such event since MagsCanada and CMC left Magazines University (see postings passim) and it includes a program of seminars, dinners, events and awards, culminating on Friday 15th with the 30th annual National Magazine Awards. Word is that more than 2,000 registrations been received for that event.

Then the following Thursday 21 and Friday 22, Magazines West is co-produced by the British Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP) and the Western Magazine Awards Foundation. There are two days of seminars, culminating in the Western Magazine Awards are held at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside hotel. No word on the registrations there but it can be expected to be more than 500.

Jim Sutherland to get outstanding lifetime achievement award at WMAs

Jim Sutherland, until recently the editor of Western Living magazine, is being honoured at the forthcoming Western Magazine Awards for outstanding lifetime achievement. The awards are being presented at a gala event Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside in Vancouver. It is the culmination of the two-day Magazines West professional development conference, co-sponsored by the British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers and the Western Magazine Awards Foundation.

Full details of the finalists in the awards are available at the WMA. website.