Magazines Canada breaks new ground by holding its annual general meeting online

In a departure from the usual, Magazines Canada is holding its annual general meeting online tomorrow (Tuesday 13) at 1 p.m.. (This is the 2nd such online meeting. Until recently, the AGM has been part of the MagNet  or annual industry gathering.) Member magazines who register and log in will be eligible for a draw for entry fees for next year's MagNet. The meeting will be delivered by Adobe Connect and it's recommended that the connection be tested beforehand. Slides illustrating various aspects of the event will be available online

It is recommended that members have a  high-speed wired Internet connection and use a phone for audio. There are relevant documents to be reviewed beforehand.  

North Americans spend more than 10 hours a day on media consumption

Research has shown that, globally, people read, listened, streamed and posted media for 456 minutes a day in 2016. That's 7.6 hours a day. But North American consumption was up by 1.8 per cent to an astounding 612 minutes a day, or about 10 hours. 

The analysis by the research firm Zenith was reported by Recode said that the global consumption plateaued in the past  year.

According to Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith, mobile internet drove our overall media consumption because it turned “what used to be non-media activity (talking to friends and family) to media activity (social media).”

Hamilton is home to thriving and competitive scene for online literary magazines

Competition is a good thing; the more the merrier. So the announcement this week that a group of authors is soon launching an online literary journal called the Hamilton Review of Books is a capital G good thing. 

It is to be published by an editorial group is comprised of writers, editors, reviewers, and academics from the Hamilton area. These include: editor-in-chief, Dana Hansen, a writer, critic and professor in the English department at Humber College, where she was editor-in-chief of the Humber Literary Review; senior editors Rhonda Dynes, a writer, reviewer and professor at Mohawk College, Sally Cooper, novelist (Tell Everything) and frequent contributor to literary magazines, Krista Foss, a novelist (Smoke River) whose essay writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and Jessica Rose, Director of Programming for gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival, a Living Arts blogger for the Hamilton Arts Council, and she writes "Shelf Life," Hamilton Magazine's books column.

Down the street, so to speak, there is the longer-established HA&L magazine (Hamilton Arts & Letters), founded in 2008 by Paul Lisson, Fiona Kinsella, Peter Stevens and Vikram Bondai. The biannual magazine is devoted to presenting new literary works, graphic novel excerpts, exploratory writing, poetry, literary non-fiction, and the work of visual, audio, and film artists. It is operated by a collective who are dedicated to producing a high-quality arts and letters publication, and are committed to supporting an innovative and burgeoning arts community. It is the co-founder of the Short Works Prize for Hamilton-area authors. It is sustained by a paid membership of about 100 individuals. (HA&L had the distinction of being the first digital literary magazine funded by the Ontario Arts Council. )

TVA Group launches digital newsstand called Molto for its titles

TVA Group has launched its own digital newstand for a roster of its own titles. The newstand is called Molto and it was developed in collaboration with miLibris Solutions of Montreal. It's available in both the Apple Store and Google Play. Among the titles made available are:  Elle Quebec, 7 Jours, Coup de pouce, The Hockey News, Canadian Living, Clin d’œil, Chez Soi, Style at Home, Cool!, Elle Canada, Tellement Bon!, Echoes Vedettes, Dernière Heure, Star Système, Fleurs Plantes Jardins and TV Hebdo.

According to a press release, Molto users will have unlimited access to all TVA Publication titles; an introductory offer if $8.49 a month, with the first month free for new subscribers. 

“The magazine industry is changing fast,” noted Lucie Dumas, Vice-President Group Publisher, Magazine Division. “We are launching Molto to stay ahead of consumer adoption of multiple content delivery methods. Molto offers our readers a versatile 24-hour newsstand stocked with Canada’s leading magazines, making our publications that much more accessible.”

miLibris Solutions Inc, based in Montreal, is the North American subsidiary of miLibris France. It  serves some of the largest newspapers and magazines such as: l'Équipe, Le Figaro, les Échos, la Croix, le Groupe Prisma, l'Express, l'Obs in France, and in Spain with La Vanguardia, Cinco Dias, in Israël with the Jérusalem Post, in the USA with the New York Daily N

CSME event briefs about best free online tools

The Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) is having one of its occasional events on February 3; this time talking about the best free online tools that will save editors money and time and drive engagement with readers. Presenters will be Lauren Reyes-Grange, Digital Engagement Manager at Maverick, an integrated marketing communications agency that’s as smart as it is bold, and Graham Scott, a self-described “media geek” and Deputy Editor for Canadian Business. 

Wednesday, February 3, 2016, 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., Nespresso Boutique Bar, 159 Cumberland St. (in Yorkville), Toronto. Cost: $15 for members, $20 for non-members (or $20 and $25 at the door)

Online marketing guide launched for members of Magazines Canada

Magazines Canada has unveiled an online marketing guide for magazine media brands. Online Marketing Guide for Canadian Magazine Media Brands is available as a member-exclusive resource, concentrating on practicable digital marketing strategies, including search and email marketing, growing and mining subscriber lists and trends in digital marketing.

Contributors to the guide are digital strategy consultant Lisa Murphy, Cornerstone Group of Companies' Don Lange, Consumer Intelligence Group's Kevin Klein. Case studies are shared by Canadian and international magazines including Geist, Real Style, Inside Out (Australia), Magazines Canada, C magazine, Today's Parent, Shout (UK) and Vemma YPR (Germany).

One of the case studies about social media marketing is from Real Style, a quarterly fashion and style magazine. It details an unpaid social media campaign created for its winter 2014/15 issue:

"Our goal was to drive awareness and readership for our Winter 2014/15 digital magazine and to stimulate newsstand sales at Chapters Indigo by using celebrity influencers to promote links to our magazine, which were also retweeted by their numerous followers. We offered the magazine free of charge for the first 48 hours. After the initial major surge of online traffic, we instituted a pay wall and directed the readers to visit their local Chapters Indigo to pick up a print copy.

"We reached over 1.45 million Twitter accounts in December and achieved a 300% increase in newsstand sales. An additional 300,000 accounts were reached on Instagram. Our additional online campaign goal was to encourage readers to buy a print copy at Chapters Indigo.”

MPA unveils new metrics and stops counting print ad pages

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) in the U.S. has launched a new report called Magazine Media 360 which promises to capture unduplicated average consumer readership across multiple platforms, including print, digital editions, websites and video. Essentially, the MPA is abandoning the measurement of print by ad sales and circulation as its yardstick and 30 of the largest companies such as Condé Nast, Time Inc. and Hearst Magazines, publishing 147 of the major titles in the industry have signed on the the new service.

(Not coincidentally, the measurement of monthly and weekly ad page counts and circulation figures published for almost 70 years in the Media Industry Newsletter is being discontinued and MPA will no longer provide ad data from the Publishers Information Bureau free on its web site. Media reporters will have to pay for it.) 

The new approach relies not on audited information but on sampling of GfK MRI's Survey of the American Consumer, combined with unique visitors data about web traffic, mobile web and video measured by third parties such as comScore Media Metrix, Ipsos, comScore, Nielsen Online, Nielsen NetView and a separate social media report from SocialFlow to come out next month detailing numerical changes from month to month in each brand's Facebook likes and Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and Twitter followers.

“With Magazine Media 360, we finally have a comprehensive accounting of consumer demand for our brands, an imperative for the industry since, with the growth of new, rapidly evolving digital platforms, consumer demand is today’s media currency,” said MPA CEO Mary G. Berner in her presentation to the industry. “In fact, given the success of many magazine brands on those new platforms, continuing to rely on print circulation and ad paging counts in isolation to determine demand for magazine media would be like measuring the viewership of the Super Bowl exclusively based on the people who watched it in the stadium.”

Read more »

TC Media launches ad buying site Canadian Programmatic Marketplace (CPM)

TC Media has launched an online marketplace for programmatic buying of advertising on a wide range of websites, principally its own. The Canadian Programmatic Marketplace (www.cpm.tc) means that advertisers can access a large portfolio of digital display advertising through real-time bidding. 

The inventory of ads is from more than 95 premium content partnres and more than 650 websites. Partners include TC Media, Livingly Media, Spin Media and Hockeybuzz along with more than 100 regional newspaper sites in English, French and Atlantic Canada. Even before the launch, the CPM is already delivering over 1 billion monthly impressions to more than 14 million unique Canadian visitors, the company says.

Advertisers will, of course, still have access to traditional advertising and direct sales. The new arrangement makes available premium websites such as canadianliving.ca, ellecanada.com, hockeybuzz.com, stylebistro.com, and spin.com, as well as French properties like ellequebec.com and coupdepouce.com in a 100% programmatic environment” says Patrick Lauzon, senior vice-president of interactive marketing solutions at TC Media.

"TC Media recognizes the importance of programmatic buying and has invested heavily in its team, technology, and partnerships“ [he] says. "This investment includes TC Media’s acquisition of Canadian real-time bidding supply company Redux Media Inc. in May 2012. The Canadian Programmatic Marketplace provides Canada’s only fully transparent, brand safe programmatic environment and can offer advertisers the largest reach of RTB enabled display, video and mobile inventory in Canada, setting the bar in terms of premium programmatic”. 

  

The TORO story comes to an end as online version is being discontinued

The 10-year run of TORO magazine is coming to an end. Following four years as a glossy men's lifestyle title, distributed tucked inside the Globe and Mail, its print version was suspended in 2007. In 2008, was relaunched as a web-only publication. Now, the online version is being discontinued.

While it ran in print, the magazine had been highly regarded for its emphasis on sports, gear and women and a rather roguish, frat boy sense of humour. But it also published, under the editorship of Derek Finkle, a good deal of excellent long-form journalism that gained admiration, including 10 gold National Magazine awards and 5 silver out of 63 nominations. 

It was originally founded by Christopher Bratty, he of the developer family and William Morassutti took over in 2008 as editor in chief of the online-only version of the magazine, a position he maintained for three years. (He left in May 2011 and now lists himself as content editorial director at Venture Communications.) 

The website last posted a "TORO woman" profile in August and issued its last newsletter post in July. There continue to be occasional posts on the site, some as recently as a few days ago, but they are fewer and farther between. When we asked what was happening, we were told that the digital content created in the past five years could continue to appear as an online archive, but no new content would be created after this month. The magazine has closed its office.

"Our owner initially sought to launch TORO in its print form to showcase great Canadian talent, from the editors, writers and photographers who created the content to the subjects it covered," said Christina Butterfield. "We sought to the do the same online, introducing a strong video lineup to the mix and finding some talented new contributors when we launched in 2008. In the end, despite strong audience growth and increased awareness, we experienced sales declines that we couldn't overcome."

Canada's History magazine launches online Destinations portal

Canada's History magazine has launched a new online portal that provides information about historical sites, museums, national parks and galleries and various getaways across the country. When unveiling the new site called Destinations at the St. Boniface Museum on Tuesday, the editor-in-chief of Canada's History, Mark Reid said (as reported by Metro): 

"We want to reach out and help people love history by getting them to go out to places where history happened.Basically we’re there to help (historical sites) get their stories out.”

The director of the St. Boniface Museum said the new site would be very helpful for smaller historical sites that don't have a budget for cross-Canada promotion. Featured destinations on the site are the Royal BC Museum Canadian Museum of Civilization, but also the Cobalt Mining Museum, Fort Ingall and the Ingersoll Cheese and Agricultural Museum. The site allows visitors to log in, plan a trip, save it, print it and have it directed to their smartphone. 

Condé Nast strikes deal to offer print and digital magazine subscriptions through Amazon

Condé Nast has struck a deal with Amazon to have the online retailer handle print and digital subscriptions for such titles as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Wired. According to a Reuters story, this is the first time a publisher has collaborated with Amazon in this way, simplifying its subscription process whereby consumers can subscribe, manage and renew using their Amazon account. The arrangement is not exclusive; subscribers may continue to go directly to Conde Nast or use other partners such as Apple and its Newsstand. But it also exposes these big, glossy magazines to new potential customers among Amazon's worldwide 200 million customers.

"We are using the partnership with Amazon to make purchasing and renewing subscriptions as easy as humanly possible," said Bob Sauerberg, president of Condé Nast  in an interview last Wednesday. "We want to go from selling print subscriptions to selling access to all our content."

“Combining Condé Nast's must-have content with Amazon's 1-Click shopping platform is a huge win," said Sauerberg [in a company release] “Our influential and loyal customers want to be the first to know, purchase and share, which is why we wanted to be the first to develop a service like 'All Access' with Amazon, the world’s most trusted and proven e-commerce platform.”

 Digital subscriptions will be made available on various mobile platform, including the iPad, Android and Kindle.

"Condé Nast will offer introductory bundled rates for $6 or less for six months for both print and digital versions of Vogue, Glamour, Bon Appetit, Lucky, Golf Digest, Vanity Fair and Wired," said the Reuters story. "It plans to roll out its other 11 consumer titles including the New Yorker later in the year. 

"Magazines have real deep value in both formats," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content at Amazon. "A lot of consumers want to keep one foot in both camps."

St. Joseph's FASHION launches online shopping platform

Fashionmagazine.com, published by St. Joseph Media, has launched an online shopping platform called FASHION Shopping. It features 1,500 items  including clothing and accessories selected by the editors of the website from its retailing partners. It's available on desktops and smartphones.

“From a business perspective, FASHION Shopping makes so much sense,” says Angie McKaig, director, digital lifestyle brands, St. Joseph Media. “Our mandate is to bring the world of international fashion home to our style-conscious readers and that’s exactly what we’re doing by partnering with both Canadian and global retailers, showcasing their e-commerce offerings. The revenue-sharing model is a win-win for everyone involved.”

Online magazine Covet Garden asking readers to contribute to print SIP

There has to be a better word for "crowdsourcing" when an online publication is actually passing the hat to its own readers to get enough money to publish a print special interest pub. Covet Garden, the online home and garden title, is asking its readers to pony up $18,000 between now and July 6 in order to produce Covet Garden Home, a 100+-page magabook.

The hope is to use the money it raises to pay some of the addition production costs such as paper and printing and that the difference between the $18,000 and what it really costs will be covered by selling the magazine/book in newsstands and in booksellers as well as online. So far, about $4,100 has been pledged. 

"We know you love our past features, but we also want to make the print version a new experience. Which is why we want to photograph new spaces, bring you updates on past homeowners and novel DIY projects and food and drink ideas for entertaining."

Like many such enterprises done through indiegogo.com and similar sites, contributors get varying rewards depending on the amount pledged. For $30 or more, they get a copy of the publication delivered to their door. For $1,000 (if it's in the Toronto area), their home will be featured in a CG photo shoot. For $2,000 they can get a full page advertisement in the book. 

Covet Garden has been publishing online, monthly, for about two and a half years from its base in Toronto. 

New online magazine launched, called AmongMen

Ideon Media, which had previously launched 29Secrets.com, BabyPost.com and Nexopia.com is now launching a national online magazine for men called AmongMen.com. Based in Toronto, the magazine's site features the usual fare for men's magazines in print and online: style and grooming, food and travel, tech and cars, health and fitness, women and relationships and entertainment.

“I think that we've created a unique, online magazine for men that takes the type of content that you would normally find in the pages of a traditional glossy publication and brought it to the web,” says AmongMen’s editor-in-chief Christopher Turner.

Consumers and marketers prefer reading ads in favourite mag over ads online

(Click on image to enlarge)

Consumers prefer favourite print magazines to favourite online sites as a place to look at ads, a study of consumer and marketers' attitudes to online advertising reports.  45% of consumers prefer their favourite magazine and 23% the favourite TV show. Among marketers, the trend to magazines is more pronounced with 55% saying they preferred to look at ads in their favourite magazine.

However, only 26 per cent of respondents pay full attention to ads in magazines and newspapers and only 7% to online ads. 

(The study on behalf of Adobe Corp. was conducted by research firm Edelman Berland and involved 1,250 adults,18 years or older; including 1,000 general population and 250 Marketing Decision Makers, each in the U.S.)

Marketing magazine tightens controls on online commenting

Marketing magazine is imposing a "don't be a jerk" commenting policy on its website MarketingMag.ca. All comments will now be moderated. 

'This means there will be some delay between when you click “Submit my comment” and your words appearing on screen. We hope this will lead to a strong community of opinionated, thoughtful, well-informed readers."

The new policy, set out by online editor Jeromy Lloyd, encourages brief, relevant and constructive comments. While the magazine, which serves the media, advertising and public relations sectors,  is continuing to allow anonymous comments, "your opinion carries more weight if you’re willing to stand behind it with your real name."  Blocked will be comments that are abusive, harassing, threatening, or vulgar, personal attack, advertising or spam or personal conversations better suited for private messaging

"Remember that Marketing’s readership is a diverse group including creatives, executives, clients and vendors, students and gurus, small business owners and corporate CEOs. We publish stories to suit a wide variety of experience and expertise, so if a story doesn’t suit you, it may suit someone else."

Yonge Street casting its net wider, out into York Region

Yonge Street, the weekly online magazine, is looking to expand its coverage outside the city of Toronto and into York Region. It's looking for journalists to write about things in Richmond Hill, Newmarket, Markham, Stouffville, Aurora, and Georgina. Managing editor Paul Gallant told the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list (TFEW)

"We're interested in stories about R&D, entrepreneurship, startups, social innovation, not-for-profit endeavours and public-private partnerships (particularly those aimed at inclusivity, diversity, community building, sustainability, conservation and environmentalism), interesting real estate developments and the like. Although the quantity of stuff we're looking for out of York Region is yet to be determined, this could be a regular freelance gig for the right person/people. I'm primarily looking for writers who can pitch story ideas, but if you can take photos, we are indeed going to need someone to shoot York Region features. Yes, we pay."

Yonge Street, which was launched in January 2010, is published by the Issue Media Group 

The Walrus magazine foundation has built a new online portal

The Walrus foundation, publishers of The Walrus magazine, has relaunched its online presence with a new look and feel and a new address, TheWalrus.ca becomes the portal for things like articles from the magazine, but is also integrated with Walrus TV and various digital projects, podcasts etc. Walrus online editor Matthew McKinnon and web developer John Piasetzki have used a WordPress platform to create a site optimized for all devices, from smartphones to ten-inch tablets.McKonnon writes a brief introduction to the project, which he says will allow the site to overcome the limits of "our old dirty content management system" and add new features.

“The new Walrus site is a joy to read and use—it stands up next to some of the best digital magazines I've read anywhere," according to Mathew Ingram, senior writer at GigaOm and co-founder of the mesh conference in Toronto (quoted in a Walrus release).

Since its launch, the magazine had been reached online at walrusmagazine.com. 

TC Media to sell ads for Glacier Media's online properties

TC Media has announced a strategic digital partnership with Glacier Media Inc., to sell national online advertising sales on Glacier Media’s 60 local websites in western Canada. In turn, Glacier Media will distribute e-flyers and digital promotional offers from TC Media’s advertisers on its properties.

“This new partnership with Glacier Media, an important media player in Western Canada, strengthens our positioning in that region”, said Dominique-Sébastien Forest, Vice President, National Digital Solutions, TC Media in a release.

“Partnering is one of the quickest, most effective ways of expanding and growing a business. This is not just a representation agreement for Glacier Media, but a true marriage of digital strengths between companies to strategically support each other’s long term vision”, said Shelly Wilson, Vice President Digital Sales, Glacier Media.

Willingness to pay for apps is diminishing, study shows

Tablet owners and users are keen on apps, but not so much on paying for them. A study commissioned by the odnline Publishers Association -- detailes reported by AdAge -- found that 54% of respondents to a survey prefer free, ad-supported apps, up from 40% just a year ago. Only 19% said they'd pay to have ad-free apps, down from 30% a year ago.

The study found that 54% of respondents have bought content online have done so as the result of seeing a tablet ad, compared with 38% who haven't paid for any content.

 "The numbers show that these audiences have an appetite for advertising," said Pam Horan, president of the OPA. "Now it's time to take advantage of it with the capabilities the platform offers, not just transferring print ads to the tablet."