Canada's History and Kayak mark centenary of the achievement of women's suffrage

Canada's History and Kayak: Canada's History Magazine for Kids are marking the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage with special editions. A special panel selected "20 Great Women" from political, business, artistic and activist history for inclusion in the issue. Both Canada's History and Kayak are published by Canada's History Society, based in Winnipeg.

"In a perfect world, the women on our list would be household names. But for too long, history textbooks have focused on great men, to the exclusion of all others," editor-in-chief Mark Collin Reid said in a release. "Hopefully, this special feature will launch a broader conversation on outstanding women in Canadian history."

Among the women selected were 

• Abolitionist Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who helped black slaves find freedom in nineteenth-century Canada;
• Kenojuak Ashevak, an Inuit artist who pioneered an artistic vocabulary that inspired a generation;
• Thérèse Casgrain, a tireless Quebec activist and the first woman in Canada to lead a political party;
• Nellie McClung, the iconic suffragist who helped women in Manitoba win the right to vote provincially in January 1916. Saskatchewan and Alberta followed suit later that year.

Readers are asked to vote for their favourite Great Woman and nominate others; all participants are entered into a draw for an original painting by Barbara Paterson, the sculptor of the "Famous Five" monument on Parliament Hill.

Kayak's special issue, aimed at 7 - 12-year-olds explores how women got the vote and features stories and comic book renderings of the story of McClung. 

Quill & Quire celebrating 80th anniversary with special April issue

Quill & Quire magazine is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a special issue that may be downloaded free (as a 30-day trial subscription) for reading on tablets, desktops or smartphones. The April issue showcases 80 books, events and the people that made them happen over the years. 

The venerable magazine reports reported book news and reviews ten times a year to publishing trade professionals, authors, editors, library professionals and avid readers. It has an average circulation of about 5,000 copies per issue (including 3,920 paid subscribers) and claims a total readership of 25,000.

It got its start serving the stationery industry and expanded into book publishing more and more particularly as interest in Canlit grew. It was briefly owned by Southam in 1970 and then flipped to Key Publishers, which ran it for the next 30 years until Key itself was sold to St. Joseph Corporation. 

Canadian Living marks 40th anniversary with 12 monthly guest editors

Olympic star Hayley Wickenheiser will be guest-editing the January issue of Canadian Living magazine, one of twelve accomplished people to do so during 2015 as part of the celebration of the magazine's 40th anniversary. Wickenheiser will also be part of a live Twitter chat on December 17 between 12 and 1 p.m. EST.

“Canadian Living’s evolution from a quarterly publication to a truly multiplatform brand is remarkable. I am thrilled to be joining the team at such a pivotal time in the brand’s history,” says newly hired multiplatform editorial director Sandra E. Martin. “With an estimated 13.6 million brand impressions per month, Canadian Living has always been a tremendous resource for women across Canada, and I plan to continue the tradition of delivering truly accessible food, health, fashion, beauty, entertainment, travel and home decor content to our readers, friends and followers.”

A digital facsimile of the first-ever issue of the magazine is available on the magazine's iPad app. And later this year, the magazine is publishing a 40th anniversary cookbook.

Chatelaine covers itself eight ways to mark 85th anniversary

Chatelaine magazines' June issue, on newsstands today, marks the occasion of its 85th anniversary (not Canada's oldest, but close) by publishing eight different covers in a special bonus double issue. 

The magazine, which is #1 in Canada in terms of paid circulation, now has 800,000 unique monthly visitors to its redesigned chatelaine.com website. According to a company release, the magazine has 40,000 followers on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and has 33,000 monthly visits to its tablet edition. 

Forty years and Briarpatch still scraping by, still scrapping

There's a certain "inside baseball" feel to many reflections by magazines as they reach significant marquee anniversaries. However, the feisty, lefty, scrappy Briarpatch has put together an interesting package of recollection in its May/June issue to mark the occasion. 

It recalls its struggles for funding -- its endless struggles for funding -- and how it has wrestled with whether it should be a Saskatchewan magazine with a national following or a national magazine with a Saskatchewan core. The issues it has confronted are a potent reflection of the changes that have taken place over the past four decades in Saskatchewan and in this country.

"Reflections on forty years of scraping by and thriving" appears in the May/June issue and it reflects the magazine's other tagline "Fiercely independent". 

The magazine,which grew from a four-page newsletter put out by a welfare rights group in 1971, has had more than its share of problems with government, losing funding and charitable status in an effort to punish, or silence, it.  

"There are two schools of thought," says longtime contributor and activist Clare Powell. "One is that government should be neutral and provide funds for magazines. The other is that if you’re reliant on government for funding, chances are that you’ll back off from criticism, which we never did, and we paid the price."

30th anniversary launch of Ryerson Review of Journalism April 4

Ryerson Review of Journalism  is launching its Summer 2013 issue (which is also the 30th anniversary issue) on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 starting at 5:30 p.m. It's at The Corner Place, located at 11 Jarvis St., at Front St. (St. Lawrence Market). 

This event also marks a change of circulation model for RRJ, which has been publishing two issues annually and starting next year will be publishing an expanded annual, supported by an expanded online presence. 

In a posting on the J-source site, the chair of the journalism faculty, Ivor Shapiro, who also acts as publisher of the magazine, announced that it had become too expensive to produce in its current form.

“The RRJ's always run in the red. There's always been a net cost to the school and it's growing substantial,” he said. “So when a particular activity consistently and predictably produces a net cost, you have to look at that and say, 'Is there another way of doing this?' And I think this a better way of doing it.” Shapiro said the RRJ will potentially cover its costs with the move.

The per-issue cost of publishing the magazines has been about $27,500. The media industry probably spills more than that , yet the RRJ has always had to struggle. A typical issue has been between 72 and 88 pages (the most recent is 88) and each issue has a masthead staff of approximately 15 students who choose to do the project(s). Professional help is provided -- for instance in art direction (the current art director is Tim Davin) -- and professionals from various places are paid a small honorarium to handling editors. 

The magazine relies on advertising -- really sponsorship -- from various media concerns, large and small, a hand which some may have felt bitten when those sponsors were profiled. The magazine's faculty advisors push students to ask some very hard questions and publish the sometimes unflattering answers. 

If that doesn't motivate you to attend the event, consider the $3 pints and the music of 1983, in honour of the year RRJ was launched. 

Saskatoon city mag Planet S celebrates 10 years of "democratic achievement"

Planet S's first cover

The Saskatoon-based bi-weekly city magazine Planet S would like you to know that it's 10 years old, but it goes farther, reporting that the 260 issues have resulted in 80,000 pages and 160 million words. In the current issue, the paper's founder Mitch Diamantopoulos (now associate professor of journalism and chair of the University of Regina school of journalism) says

"Planet S is a different kind of paper, in many ways. It’s built on a cutting-edge business innovation — co-operative worker ownership. It also embodies an important democratic achievement — as a locally rooted venture, it’s about reclaiming media power from distant and remote media conglomerates. And, it ushered in a new, independent frontier in city journalism — bringing alternative journalism, at last, to city readers."

Planet S was created in an alliance with Regina based prairie dog, a similar worker-owned cooperative.

"This city-paper isn’t perfect, and its best work lies ahead of it. But it brings great bunches of freshly plucked fun to the Bridge City every two weeks. It put the local arts and culture scene — long hidden by syndicated Hollywood entertainment — back on the city map. It has carved out a role for itself as a watchdog, not a lap dog. It has connected with those too often left out of public affairs, like young people. And it has demonstrated the awesome power of quality journalism and media diversity to expanding the range, depth and quality of debate about our shared future. It has changed the conversation that is Saskatoon for the better."

Ten years of earning respect: Maisonneuve celebrates with bumper issue

I wasn't able to attend the Toronto celebration of the 10th anniversary of Maisonneuve magazine, but I don't want to let this occasion pass without remarking on it.

As the magazine says, starting an English magazine in 2002 with a French name in Montreal was difficult. But 43 issues later, it has won -- and deserves-- a loyal following.

When founding editor Derek Webster started, it was largely using his own resources and his family's. The investment paid off in a stylish, quirky, eclectic and courageous publication that within 3 years of its launch was selected as Magazine of the Year at the National Magazine Awards. 

The "special collector's edition" f0r the 10th anniversary , on newsstands now, has some provocative stuff, including (among many other things) Tim Falconer finding out why he can't sing, Christopher Szabla exploring why movement such as Occupy and the Arab Spring fail, new fiction by Giller Prize-winner Johanna Skibsrud and an interview with Fredericton-based poet Anita Lahey (who was, until 2011, the editor of ARC Poetry magazine.)

CAmagazine celebrates 100 years of keeping chartered accountants informed

Now

CAmagazine is celebrating one hundred years of publication come July, making it one of Canada's oldest continuously published magazines. It was launched in July 1911 as a modest black-and-white journal called The Canadian Chartered Accountant, serving the Dominion Association of Chartered Accountants' 246 members. at that time promising ""Our pages will be open for discussions, for news and any other purposes tending to bring the members more closely in touch with one another."It was renamed CA magazine in 1973 and today has a circulation of 90,000, ten times a year. 

The anniversary was marked by a gala event last night in Toronto and the centennial edition features a special section looking at the accounting profession decade-by-decade as well as a special reprint of the first-ever edition.  A digital version of Vol 1, no. 1 is available.

Then

Carine Wilson, the publisher and vice-president, member services of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants said in a release:

"The magazine has been the profession's historian, advisor, referee and its conscience. It has given Chartered Accountants a voice and helped them connect with peers from coast to coast."

The recently appointed editor, Okey Chigbo, told those at the gala event the magazine is proudly committed to the mission set out in the first issue, but would be striving to keep on top of or ahead of the challenges of CAs in the future. He joked that someone told him he was responsible for the next 100 years.

OWL magazine for tweens celebrates 35 years of publication

OWL, the magazine for 9- to 13-year-olds, is celebrating 35 years of publishing in June with a series of events, giveaways and what it calls a "very cool T-shirt". The OWL editors have asked some of their favourite authors, including Cary Fagan, Carol Matas and Arthur Slade, to contribute original stories inspired by a "birthday word". (So, for instance, Kenneth Oppel's story in the June birthday issue features the word party.)

OWL was launched in 1976 and together with its companion age-related magazines Chirp (ages 3 to 6) and chickaDEE (ages 6 to 9) were bought in 1997 by the youth division of Bayard Canada, which also publishes a number of other English and French lanugage periodicals, including Pomme d"Api Quebec, Les Debrouillards, J'aime lire Quebec, Good Times and Le Bel Age (the latter two in partnership with Transcontinental Media). It also produces books under the Owlkids imprint. Bayard is a large international publishing operation. 

A 10-issue print subscription is $34; 10 digital issues are $19.95.

45 years of covering the issues -- This Magazine celebrates anniversary

First issue

45th anniversary issue

It's interesting to see the evolution of a magazine, both in focus and design, over a period of years. This is particularly so for This Magazine, which is celebrating 45 years of progressive publishing. Its 45th anniversary issue which is on newsstands now features 45 profiles by alumni of the magazine, each writing about individuals or organizations they consider are doing the most exciting, creative, and important work in politics, activism, art, and so on.

The magazine has posted scanned images of every cover going back to April 1966 when the publication started as This Magazine Is About Schools.

[Disclosure: the editor is my son.]

Waterloo Region newspaper's lifestyle title Grand going strong after 5 years

Five years ago, when the Waterloo Region Record newspaper launched a couple of magazines -- one about business, one lifestyle title, there was some well-founded scepticism; newspapers routinely think it is no big whoops to do a magazine the same way they do the daily, and often fail. 

However the Record (a subsidiary of Torstsar's Metroland media group which publishes an astonishing number of targetted lifestyle magazines across Ontario) has proven its mettle. While the business title foundered, the lifestyle bimonthly, Grand magazine, has gone from strength to strength and is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a fat holiday issue. 

The magazine has a controlled circulation of 19,000 in this booming region, which includes the cities of Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo plus four rural townships.It has the expected focus on people and stuff: home decor, local cuisine, health and fitness and travel. By exclusively spotlighting local people and local goods and services, it has carved out a valuable niche and augmented it by insisting on professional design, photography and production values (a perfect-bound glossy).

It has also given its advertisers the online opportunity to offer promotions and their own digital flyers. Those who don't pick it up at a participating location can have a 6-issue mail subscription for $33.76 (including HST). And it has developed a branded consumer show.

A 1x full page ad in the magazine is $2,650 and a leaderboard on the magazine's website is $199 a month.

Rider-themed issue put out by Saskatchewan History magazine in time for Grey Cup

Timed to come out on the team's 100th anniversary and serendipitously on the eve of the team's appearance in the Grey Cup in Edmonton this Sunday, Saskatchewan History magazine has published an all-Saskatchewan Roughriders-themed issue.

According to a story in the Regina Leader-Post, the magazine  put 2,000 copies on sale at a price of $10 about two weeks ago, featuring photographs from the Saskatchewan government archives, which publishes the magazine. These include a picture of the 1934 Riders wearing leather helmets and some shots from the 1950s with quarterback Frank Tripuka demonstrating "correct football technique".

In their search for Rider content, magazine staff also unearthed recordings of the team's homecoming after the 1951 Grey Cup in Toronto.

"The team lost the Grey Cup (to Ottawa) that year, but they came back to this amazing reception from the people of Regina and Saskatchewan," said Charabin. "They wouldn't allow the players to leave the stadium until every single one of them got up to the mic and said something. Some of (the players) were feeling a little bit sheepish because they hadn't won, and yet they were being celebrated like this."

Fans can make arrangements to listen to the recordings at both the Saskatoon and Regina offices of the Saskatchewan Archives Board.

"To me, that's an amazing document to have," said [publication coordinator Nadine]Charabin, "and it speaks to the Rider tradition of people celebrating the team and being there thick or thin."

Kids' title The Magazine celebrates 10 years

The Magazine, a Toronto-based title for young people 8 to 14 is celebrating its 10th anniversary that has seen it grow from 2,000 paid subscribers to over 20,000. According to a company release, the magazine's content is mostly reader-written or by co-op students working in a placement at the magazine.

"It's a win-win for everyone: readers appreciate relevant content written by their peers, and our co-op students get a taste of the exciting world of journalism," says Ed Conroy, Publisher,The Magazine.

The reason that the magazine's print subs have grown, says editor Karen Wong:

"You can't cut out stuff from the Internet or iPads and put it on your wall or locker. Our style is very visual and not so much based on breaking news, so we complement the Internet nicely.""

The magazine apparently has a television show in development and it will be putting out a special Santa Claus parade cover and games insert in its November edition, 50,000 copies of which will be handed out in goody bags during the November 21 parade in Toronto. The magazine's regular cover price is $4.75.

Maclean's marks 20th anniversary of popular and successful universities ranking issue

Maclean's magazine is launching its 20th annual edition of the much-talked-about university rankings. The issue is on newsstands starting tomorrow (November 11). To mark the occasion, the magazine announced a $20,000 scholarship that students from Grade 12 to 3rd year university can enter to win (OK, it's not a scholarship, so much as a contest.)

In keeping with the provocative editorial of the weekly magazine, this special  includes a feature that probes students' perceptions of "too Asian" enrollment in hard-to-get-into programs. There's also an interview with Senator Linda Frum asking what she got wrong, and right, in her 1987 guide to Canadian universities. And, as usual, there are rankings of 49 universities, using stats and judgement calls that will give academics, administrators, parents and students something to chew on

Top school in the medical doctoral category is McGill university, which has held top spot for 6 years now, this year followed by University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. In a demotion sure to cause some academic gnashing of teeth, Queen's University has slipped to fifth place from third. (Inevitably, when this and other rankings are done, the slipees denounce the methodology; when they advance in the standings, they put out a press release.)

In the comprehensive category, based on a broad range of research, undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as professional schooling, Simon Fraser University came first, University of Victoria second and the University of Waterloo third. No change from last year.

Among primarily undergraduate universities, Mount Allison University maintained its top spot for the fourth year, followed by Acadia University and the University of Northern B.C.

Sad magazine celebrates first year witha smile

Sad Mag marks its first anniversary and the launch of its 5th issue with a party at the Cultch on October 9. The local arts and culture quarterly will be celebrating  and raising money. According to a post on Vancouver Observer, those who attend will hear live, on-stage interviews featuring young Vancouver innovators Graeme Berglund (Founder, The Cheaper Show), Cameron Reed (Director, Music Waste), Lizzy Karp (Director, Rain City Chronicles), and Dave Deveau (Director, Zee Zee Theatre).

“Sad Mag is proud to be celebrating its first year anniversary, particularly after a tumultuous year for publishing and the arts in BC,” says Deanne Beattie, editor and co-founder.The Sad Mag Live event gives us an opportunity to reflect on what the Vancouver arts community has experienced in the last year, and to ask ‘what’s next?’”.

The event, hosted by CBC Radio 3 host Lana Gay, also features live performances from singer-songwriter Jasper Sloane Yip, slam poet and singer Barbara Adler, new media artist Sammy Chien, and the ever-sassy drag performer Isolde N. Barron.

Tickets are $18, and can be purchased from The Cultch, online at www.thecultch.com or at the box office. Admission includes a copy of issue 5 which features local artists' visions of Vancouver, inspired by native son Douglas Coupland. Hence, "the City of Doug" coverline. Ticket proceeds go directly to Sad Mag Writers & Artists Fund, which sustains the magazine’s content.

Alphabet magazine got its start 50 years ago

[This post has been updated] James Reaney, who is a journalist for the London Free Press, has written a blog posting  marking the 50th anniversary of the semi-annual Alphabet magazine, subtitled "The iconography of the imagination". Created and edited by his father, the noted poet, English professor and playwright James Reaney, for an important decade starting in September 1960 the little literary magazine was iconic in the emergence of what came to be known as CanLit. 

Alphabet was one of the places where Margaret Atwood was first published and many now-well-known poets and writers contributed. That first issue had a cover [Update: shown here] and format by Allan Fleming the noted designer (famous for the unmistakeable CN logo). It carried the modest colophon "Edited and handset by James Reaney in 12 pt. Subscriptions can be sent to the editor at 17 Craig Street, London, Ont." 

" My mom [poet Colleen Thibaudeau] was saying just the other day that’s she not sure dad ever paid anyone -- starting with himself -- for any of what went in Alphabet during its 10-year or so run of excellence. Perhaps lamentable, but its amateur status was part of the pre-grant world of Canadian arts, I would think."

 [Update: more about Alphabet can be read at http://www.jamesreaney.com/2010/09/happy-50th-alphabet/   Thanks Susan Reaney.]

Quill & Quire magazine turns 75

Quill & Quire magazine, which has covered the book and library trade for 75 years, is celebrating its diamond jubilee. The publication, owned by St. Joseph Media, is using its anniversary issue to examine how Indigo is making its bold move into the global e-book wars with Kobo, and publishing insiders talk about what the industry can do to remain vital in the future.

Azure celebrates anniversary with whimsical stop-motion video

Azure, the design magazine, is celebrating 25 years of publication with its March/April issue and, in honour of the occasion has posted a whimsical YouTube video called "25 ways to read Azure". The stop-motion video was shot by emerging photographers Alex vs Alex in Toronto's historic Burroughes Building.

The anniversary issue features 25 front-runners the magazine considers are creating the future of design.

"Since we founded the magazine in 1985," says editor Nelda Rodger in a release, "we've seen the awareness of design and architecture grow from almost insignificant to fundamental. This independent magazine - which we have often considered a lab, a place to experiment - has become something of an institution. Azure has launched careers, marked milestones, created buzz and brought awareness to the issues of the times."

The Fiddlehead turns 65 and reflects on constancy in a changing world

One of Canada's longest-standing literary journals, The Fiddlehead, has been published since 1945 and this year is celebrating its 65th anniversary. According to a story in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal, editor Ross Leckie says the quarterly journal's slogan is "sixty-five and not retiring".

In the shadow of the Second World War, the magazine was founded by a few Fredericton writers trying to get a sense of the local writing community and who hoped they just might meet writers in other places.

"When The Fiddlehead began, I think there was a sense that Canadian literature didn't mean a lot, it didn't have any cohesive energy. The writers were feeling very much alone," Leckie, who has edited the journal since 1997, says.

"So the journals began in this very simple way."

Leckie says he's content with the relatively small circulation (around 1,000) which he describes as "a full and rich diverse community who read it. If you can find a walk of life, I can probably find a subscriber." And he's not particularly worried about the encroachment of the internet; in fact, he suggests it might actually be good for literature:

"If I'm looking for what's really good in Canadian literature, I'm not going to go to the web, I'm going to go to the top journals. You have to think of it in terms of the reader. If I go on the Internet, I can find a vast amount of literature. But it also means I have to pore through endless gobs of terrible stuff in order to find something useful or interesting. The Fiddlehead is kind of a name that says what you will find in here is of quality."