Culture contribution to GDP increased 2.8% in 2014, Statscan study says

A Statistics Canada report released today about cultural indicators across the country reveals that growth (or decline) in contribution of culture to gross domestic product (GDP) nationally rose 2.8%. GDP contribution by provinces were as follows:

• Newfoundland and Labrador 1.5% (visual and applied arts +6.2%)
• Prince Edward Island 0.6%
• Nova Scotia 2.6% (visual and applied arts +6.1%)
• New Brunswick 0.9% 
• Quebec 3.2% (audio-visual and interactive media +3.9%; visual and applied arts +5.0%)
• Ontario 3.8% (sound recording +10.1%)
• Manitoba 2.7% (written and published works +6.0%)
• Saskatchewan 3.1% (written and published works +8.4%)
• Alberta 3.3% (written and published works -5.8%)
• British Columbia 4.2% (audio-visual and interactive media +6.3%; visual and applied arts +7.7%)
• Yukon 1.2% (visual and applied arts +6.6%)
• Northwest Territories - 2.7%
• Nunavut 2.0% 

Nationally, jobs in cultural industries decreased slightly -- 0.8% in 2014 (compared with a 1.1% gain in 2013). 

"GDP of culture industries rose 3.5% nationally in 2014, following a 4.4% gain in 2013. GDP of culture industries in all provinces and territories except Northwest Territories (-2.7%)," the study summary said. "British Columbia (+4.2%) had the strongest growth, followed by Ontario (+3.8%) and Alberta (+3.3%). Nationally, economy-wide GDP increased 4.2% in 2014, compared to 3.9% in 2013."

Source: Provincial and Territorial Culture Indicators, 2010 to 2014 

Canada Council makes improved detailed statistical data about grants available

Anyone interested in Canada Council data, particularly about literary and cultural magazine publishing and CC grant recipients, will likely be very pleased about Open Data. There has always been statistical information available about grants, of course, but this new site will likely make it easier to find and use.

"We can now offer the public detailed statistical data regarding our grant recipients in formatted Excel documents and in a machine readable format (.csv)," the council said on its blog. "This means the data can be sorted by programs, regions (e.g. community and federal riding) and can also be added to other databases on arts and culture activities and organizations in Canada. This is exciting news for researchers, arts organizations, funders and many others: this information will help them to have a better picture of a specific reality, activity or practice. This is also exciting news for us: we are better able to respond to your demand for funding data....

"Our downloadable tables Stats and Stories align with international open data standards and include information on each grant recipient, including geography, program, discipline and equity groups for organizations. In addition to grant figures, you can find information on Canada Council Art Bank purchases, Canadian Commission for UNESCO and Special Funds (endowed prizes, Killam Research Fellowships and Prizes and the Japan-Canada Fund). The data, success stories and arts data go hand in hand to illustrate the breadth of Canada Council’s funding activities across Canada and abroad."

 Writing and publishing grants

North American mag launches outpace closures in 2015

While there were relatively fewer launches of Canadian and U.S. magazines during 2015 (a net gain of 78, compared to 91 in 2014) there were also fewer closures, according to figures tracked by MediaFinder. 

There were fewer launches, but also fewer closures -- only 35, compared with 99 in 2014. 13 new b2b magazines were launched, down from 47 last year, but only 7 titles were closed, compared with 27 in 2014. The margin between launches and closures has reached its narrowest point since 2010, however. 

[Click graph to enlarge]

Bay Street law firms' hireback data is good news and not so good: Precedent

A good example of how a small, specialty magazine can have significant impact in the industry it covers is the Precedent report on the the number of articling students big Toronto law firms have hired back as first-year associates.

For the 7th year the magazine for Ontario lawyers has compiled data that is probably unavailable anywhere else and then ranked the firms by their hireback rates. You can imagine that this is of great interest to law students and law firms alike.

This year, they found that the hireback rates on Bay Street held steady at 77%. In other words, almost 8 out of 10 students who articled got associate jobs. But Precedent also found that the number of articling positions has fallen over six years by about 14%.

"Indeed, this confirms what most students probably feel intuitively: the recruitment battleground on Bay Street is more competitive than ever." 

[Disclosure: I am on the advisory board of Precedent, but have nothing to do with the editorial.]

U.S. magmedia mergers and acquisitions driven by exhibitions and mobile

Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. magazine media industry have held mostly steady in the first six months of the year, though most of the action has been in ancillary categories, according to a story in Folio:, based on data compiled by the Jordan Edmiston Group. 

The biggest growth in the number of deals was 40% in exhibitions and conferences and 32% in mobile media and technology.

Consumer media and technology (which includes consumer magazines) saw a 9% increase in the number of deals year-over-year, while B2B media and technology saw 27% fewer deals.  (Click to enlarge)
    
Unfortunately, there is no comparable data available for the Canadian market. But the trends are likely similar.

Alliance for Audited Media holds "get to know our database" webinars

The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) is holding a series of webinars to allow users to take better advantage of its print circulation and digital activity reports and data. Kicking it off is something called “Mastering the Basics of AAM’s Media Intelligence Center in 30 Minutes” which will be held at 2 p.m. on succeeding Tuesdays, July 14, 21 and 28. AAM All Access provides AAM clients complete access to the Media Intelligence Center─including AAM’s Analyzer tools and other report products─at no additional charge.

Six-month AAM magazine circ data shows consumer magazines down 4.8%

The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) reports circulation data for Canadian consumer magazines showing paid and verified circulation down 4.8% for the six months ended June 2014. Paid subs were down 10.1% and single copy sales increased 3%. Digital replica editions comprised 255,764 or 3% of the total paid, verified and analyzed non-paid circulation, nearly three times what it was in the same period a year ago. 

The circ data shows the top 25 Canadian consumer magazines, led by Chatelaine.  The biggest increase in total paid and verified total circulation was Sportsnet magazine, up 27.5%; the biggest drop was Reader's Digest Canadian English edition, down 28.6%.

[click to enlarge]

PMB fall data shows readership of digital magazines up 57% in past 12 months

The fall 2014 Print Measurement Bureau information says that overall readership of digital magazines, which PMB has measured since 2013, has increased by 57%  to 2.9 milllion in the last 12 months.It also found that most digital magazine readers (80%) also read printed magazines. Only 20% read only digital. And the printed versions of the 81 PMB-measured titles has kept steady, reaching an average of 1 million readers per issue.

The data shows that in fall 2014, digital smartphone magazine readers increased 162% (927,000 to 1.6 million) and digital tablet readers 115% (582 to 1,251). It also showed that digital magazine reading is 55% higher in Toronto than in the rest of Canada. And the fused PMB/comScore database shows that incremental website reach of print magazines + websites has increased to 25%, compared with 15% in 2010.

The fall 2014 data, based on sampling over the past 2 years, shows the top 10 magazines in total readership:

	Total readers
Reader's Digest	4518
Canadian Living	3448
Canadian Geographic	3375
Kraft what's cooking	3348
Cineplex Magazine	3033
Chatelaine	2871
People	2730
CAA Magazine	2407
FOOD & DRINK	2088
Maclean's	2074

In terms of measured readers per copy, the top 10 were:

	RPC
The Hockey News Magazine	22.0
Canada's History	21.7
Outdoor Canada	20.6
Canadian Geographic	20.5
People	20.5
Canadian Gardening	15.6
Cottage Life	14.3
Sportsnet Magazine1	13.6
Dernière Heure	13.6
BRITISH COLUMBIA MAGAZINE	12.0

Full PMB topline data for fall 2014

U.S. B2B magazines were up 1.2% in Q1 ad spending

U.S. business to business magazines saw a 1.2% increase in measured ad spending in the first quarter of 2014 (Jan - March), according to data compiled by Kantar Media and reported by Folio:. During the same period, magazine media over all fell 1.6%: consumer magazines fell 2%; Spanish language titles were up by 15.8%; local magazines rose 4.4%; and Sunday magazines declined 5.6%.

Internet ad revenue in Canada in 2013 outpaces U.S., overtops television

For the first time in Canada, online advertising revenue has surpassed television, according to the latest Global Entertainment Media Outlook 2014-2018 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In 2013, internet advertising grew by about 16% (the lowest seen in post-recession years) and brought in $3.8 billion, topping $3.6 billion from television. The report says the likely trend is for internet advertising to approach double television by 2018, $7.2 billion versus $4.1 billion. Compare this with the U.S. where television is expected to still be ahead through 2018. According to a story in Media in Canada

This may be because Canada’s projected 13.9% average growth rate for internet advertising over the next five years outpaces the global rate of 10.7%, while our country’s rate of 2.4% for television is less than half the global rate of 5.5%.

The report attributes the internet ad growth to Canadians being some of the most active internet users in the world, the continuing strength of paid search advertising and huge increases in video and mobile advertising. Video ad spending grew by 47.7% in 2013, while paid searches contributed $1.5 billion to the total. 

The second biggest area of advertising growth in Canada last year was in the video game industry, growing by 13.4%. By 2018, revenue from video game advertising is predicted to nearly double from $89 million to $164 million.

Universities coming to grips with big data

Funny how a phrase or buzzword pops up and spreads quickly through day to day conversations. "Big data" is one of these. Freelancer John Lorinc has explored the field in a feature in the current issue of University Affairs. Essentially, he explains, there is a lot of data out there in many different formats, sometimes "a vast soup that can include snippets of text and images and all sorts of background noise". Some examples include GPS signals from cell phones or transaction records generated by e-commerce or satellite data about the movement of ships. 

"Computer science faculties have been teaching and researching very technical topics related to database management, data mining and machine learning for many years, but the potential of big data and its applications go well beyond these bounds," says Lorinc.

Many universities have moved as quickly as they may to establish big-data programs. Dalhousie in Halifax did so in 2011 with its Institute for Big Data Analytics. Ryerson University in Toronto has just named Ontario's outgoing information and privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian to be executive director of its new Institute of Privacy and Big Data. The Université de Montréal is developing a masters program in big-text data. Simon Fraser is offering a new four-semester professional masters program in big data starting this fall. 

"Many students are drawn to the field of big data because it offers them a chance to get involved in an emerging, knowledge-intensive profession," says Lorinc. There could be a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 workers in the emerging field by 2018.

Hold on a minute, says MPA of AAM circulation first-half circulation figures

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) takes issue with the gloomy first half circulation Snapshot published by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), noting that the tally includes only a third of total magazine audience and tracks only a small number of newsstand titles. A statement issued by Mary G. Berner, the president and chief executive of the MPA (the principal U.S. magazine industry association) says 

"Despite what is going on in newsstand, the audience for print plus digital editions (excluding online) increased by +3% from Spring 2013 vs. Spring 2012 (GfK MRI) for titles common to both studies."

The statement went on to say that a preliminary analysis of the AAM's Snapshot shows:

• Almost a third (30%) of the titles (177 of 390) titles saw an increase in total circulation
• More than half (56%, or 217 titles) posted an increase in subscriptions
• Slightly less than a quarter (23%, or 91 titles) showed gains in single copy sales

AAM six-month data on Canadian consumer mags shows 7% decline in total paid and verified circ

[This post has been updated]Paid and verified circulation of Canadian consumer magazines tracked by the Alliance for Audited Media was down 7% for the first half of 2013, compared with the same six months in 2012. (Similar U.S. results were down approximately 1%.)   Paid subscriptions were down 7.4%  (they were flat in the U.S.) and single copy sales down 5.4% (10% in the U.S..) Of the top 10 Canadian magazines by paid and verified circulation, only MoneySense magazine had a significant increase. Reader's Digest (English) had the largest decline, at 17.1%.  AAM audits the performance of about 60 Canadian magazines ans 290 U.S. consumer magazines. 

In single copy sales, Readers's Digest (English), Chatelaine and Maclean's showed significant increases; Reader's Digest up 52.5% from 2012. 

Things are looking up according to U.S. B2B publishers

B2B publishers in the U.S. say they are increasingly confident in current and future business conditions, according to the CEO Confidence Index published by the Association for Business Media (ABM). 

"The percent of CEOs who see current economic conditions as positive increased from 58 percent to 66 percent. The portion who expect the coming year to be better than the year past rose from 61 percent to 75 percent."

The Confidence Index, which was launched in January, is updated twice annually.

Digital now accounts for 22% of audited BPA-measured circ

BPA Worldwide, the media audience auditing organization, says that more than one-third of the print titles it audits now report having digital circulation  It is based on an analysis of data from the six month period ended December 31. Digital now accounts for about 22% of all total qualified circulation. Most of the BPA's top 25 titles (see below) are b2b, trade or technical.

Among the publications reporting the most total digital subscribers was CFO, which averaged363,311 digital copies per issue for the six-month period. Other titles high on BPA’s list in terms of average digital circulation included Chief Executive China with an average of 336,333 digital copies;  PM Network with 309,478; The Journal (101,179); and PT In Motion (73,818).

[click on image to enlarge]

Kids these days: some print products have never been more popular among the young

According to data analysis done by Condé Nast of historical data from the media research company Gfk MRI, some print products have never been more popular among the young. A story published by Audience Development reports some surprising trends in consumer readership.

Some categories -- fashion/beauty, men's, celebrity, health and upscale lifestyle titles -- attract more young readers today than they did 10 or even 20 years ago. Scott McDonald, senior vice president of marketing research for Conde Nast says a higher gross audience can be attributed in part to the simple existence of more magazines in some of the growing categories, such as fashion and beauty.

For food, travel and upscale lifestyle titles, the gross audience of people 18-24 has seen its index jump from 11 in 1991 to almost 25 in 2011. However the recession took a real toll on shelter titles, which were 13 in 1991 and are 10 now.  There has been a decline in titles within the women's service category and news, he said.

“There’s always a certain amount of turnover within a category,” says McDonald. “Women’s service magazines are going through the same kind of long term decline as news magazines. There has been some dynamism within the category, though. You have the arrival of new kinds of women service magazines like O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple that have been successful, but their growth hasn’t offset the ‘seven sisters,’”(referring to Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, Redbook and Woman's Day.)

“It’s fundamentally wrong to say young people don’t read magazines printed on paper,” says McDonald. “In just the basic ink on paper proposition: you’ve had enough growth that’s kept up with the interest of the population; they’re (young people) still reading it. It’s a more complicated story, and if it’s dominated by looking at the decline of Reader’s Digest, TV Guide or the ‘seven sisters,’ then it’s missing the real story of what’s going on.”

Canadian magazine launches appear to be pulling out of their slump in Masthead tally

Magazine launches appear to have pulled out of their steep dive, though it is a little early to claim the worst is over. Masthead has for many years done the industry a great favour by compiling a year-by-year tally of launches and closures and the latest compilation, for the years 2010 and 2011 shows that 19 titles were launched last year and 9 publications stopped. That's a 58% increase in launches, though on a lamentably small base and a far cry from the palmy days of 2003 and 2004 when net launches totalled 159.

Masthead (itself now published only online) has been tallying online launches and closures data since 2009 and found that 12 were started last year and 9 the year before.It defines these as having "some measure of independent editorial content, whether supported by advertising or not, but something more than a blog."

[table: Masthead]

Advertising services revenues up 2.2% to $7 billion in 2010, mostly due to online display

Operating revenues for advertising and related services in 2010 were up 2.2% and reached almost $7 billion, according to information released by Statistics Canada. The increase was attributed mostly to display advertising services, which saw a 17.3% increase, largely due to the use of new technologies (read: online advertising). (See summary table)

• Salaries, wages and benefits fell 3.2% while operating profits rose to 11% from 9% in 2009. 
• Ad agencies got most of the operating revenues (41.2%), though they also saw the largest decrease in revenues compared with 2009, which went down 2.8%.
• Operating profit was 11%, up from 9% in 2009

For comparison, previous Statscan data released in December for periodical publishing showed that the industry had $2.2 billion in operating revenues, down 1.2% from 2009. The largest decreases were in the Prairies, down 6% year over year. Operating expenses fell by 4.2%, resulting in profit margins rising to 8.5% compared with 5.7% in 2009.

Alberta Venture launches microsite with 5 years of Venture 100 data

Alberta Venture magazine has compiled the last 5 years of data from its annual Venture 100 ranking of top-grossing Alberta-based companies and put it on a dedicated microsite. It contains data that can be sorted by specific size, industry, growth rate, annual revenue, rank and other metrics, along with articles from the past 5 years and some expanded web-focussed editorial content. The site also features "mouse-over" quick facts on many of the organizations and CEOs. 

“We’ve designed the site to be used as both the definitive guide to Albertan big business as well as a comprehensive database for all our V100 content” says Ruth Kelly, Publisher and CEO of Alberta Venture. “Building on the work we’ve done in the past, we hope to provide the Alberta business community with a resource that will be consulted year-round.”

The 10th annual Venture 100 print issue, compiled by Alberta Venture staff with the assistance of PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be on newsstands next week. AV is Alberta's only province-wide business magazine

CBC radio podcasts are downloaded by the bunch

Though it's peripheral to the usual focus of this blog, many of its readers are regular CBC radio listeners. A friend has sent some ineresting data on the weekly average downloads of CBC radio podcasts between the end of August and the end of October, drawn from Web Trends. Among the highest numbers were

• Q -- 90,141
• The Current -- 80,857
• Vinyl Cafe -- 61,231
• As It Happens -- 61,157
• CBC News: The Hourly Edition -- 59,469
• Wiretap -- 57,115
• Between the Covers -- 40,505
• Ideas -- 35,818
• Quirks & Quarks -- 30,584
• Laugh Out Loud -- 28,303
• NL: St John's Morning -- 25,698
• R3: Track of the Day -- 25,664

[Thanks, Brian]