Maclean's town hall to question the new prime minister

Maclean's magazine is parlaying the groundswell of public interest in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by holding a live town hall with him on Wednesday, December 16 from Ottawa and using Rogers Media's range of print and broadcast properties and talent to present it. 

Hosted by political editor Paul Wells, the one-hour broadcast will take place from Ottawa's National Arts Centre in front of a live audience. and be carried commercial free on Macleans.ca, City, OMNI 1 in Italian, OMNI 2 in Mandarin, Rogers TV (in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland), CPAC, and CPAC.ca at 2 p.m. ET. Later that evening, City, OMNI 1 in Italian, OMNI 2 in Mandarin, Rogers TV and CPAC will broadcast an encore presentation of the Town Hall, commercial free, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. 

During the question period, the Prime Minister will first take queries from Wells, Rachel Giese (Chatelaine) and Alec Castonguay (L'actualité). Canadians across the country will then have their turn, including those in the live audience, and those on Facebook and Twitter. The public can submit their questions on Macleans.ca and the magazine's Facebook page and, according to Maclean's neither Trudeau nor his staff will see any of the questions in advance.

"The last time Justin Trudeau visited Maclean's five months ago, his party was in third place in the polls and I asked all the questions," says Wells. "Now he's the Prime Minister and we're inviting Canadians to ask their own questions, on the issues they're concerned about."

Chirp magazine launching a new show on CBC TV

Chirp magazine, published by Owlkids, is unveiling a TV show in collaboration with the CBC and, for the occasion, the character of Chirp has had a bit of a makeover. It was created in 1997 (making the little bird about 18) by Bob Kain but a new look was launched in the Jan/Feb issue, illustrated by Cale Atkinson.  

A sort of sneak peek of the show is at 7:15 tomorrow (Friday) and will continue weekly until April 20 when it will be on 5 days a week. A series of books based on the show will be launched later this spring as well as several apps. The show is produced by Sinking Ship Entertainment, licensed by Owlkids, which also publishes Chickadee and Owl magazines for varying ages.  According to Owlkids group publisher Jennifer Canham

"The show will launch in French on SRC this fall. Chirp is already featured in our French-language magazine Pomme d'Api in Quebec. We just got back from Kidscreen in Miami where we met with international broadcasters and should have some new deals to announce shortly."

Cottage Life channel launched

Cottage Life magazine founder Al Zikovitz raised a glass this morning to the launch of the Cottage Life specialty TV channel. 

Owner Blue Ant Media is rebranding its channel bold to be called Cottage Life, keying off the well-known magazine brand, and it will be available as a national preview to 9.2 million potential homes. They can then subscribe by contacting their cable provider. 

Blue Ant to launch TV specialty channel Cottage Life

Blue Ant Media, the owners of Cottage Life and Cottage magazines, has confirmed that it is launching a specialty television channel called...Cottage Life. The launch will be celebrated this weekend at the spring Cottage Life Show at the International Centre in Toronto and the specialty channel will be available across Canada this fall, joining Blue Ant's other specialty channels Travel+Escape, Bite and AUX as well as its four premium commercial-free channels Oasis HD, HIFI, eqHD and radX.

“Cottage Life has always been a trusted source for engaging weekend living content,” said Al Zikovitz, CEO and President, Cottage Life Media. “It’s a natural evolution to see the brand expand into television, where the depth of our content can continue to flourish. ” 

“Cottage Life is a beloved lifestyle brand. The channel will bring the best of what the magazine delivers in every issue to life on TV,” said Vanessa Case, EVP, Programming & Marketing, Blue Ant Media. “This exciting new channel will resonate with viewers coast-to-coast. Cottage Life doesn’t just celebrate a specific place, but a frame of mind."

Rogers launching television shows on Citytv, based on content of Chatelaine magazine

Rogers Media is launching a television show based on Chatelaine magazine on the Rogers-owned Citytv. Chatelaine Day begins Monday, Aug. 14, according to a story in Masthead and will present the "key ingredients" of the magazine; food, health, decor, style and beauty. It is not so much a regularly scheduled show as a series of hour-long specials that will be shown throughout the year.

“Chatelaine is excited to be a part of such a legendary and authoritative program as Cityline,” said publisher Tara Tucker. “Both brands are dedicated to presenting, in an engaging way, what is most important to Canadian women—making this partnership a perfect fit with extraordinary possibilities.”

Videos based on Chatelaine content -- mostly food-related - are already available on Rogers Anyplace TV.

The Walrus launches TV spinoff, with documentaries based on its stories

Walrus TV

Among the many things that The Walrus magazine is noted for is promotion of itself and its events, a critical skill for a magazine that needs to raise considerable money every year to keep publishing. That is why it was no surprise to see big feature coverage in both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star concerning the magazine's partnership in producing high-definition documentaries and today's launch of Walrus TV.

Publisher Shelley Ambrose was quoted in James Adams's story in the Globe saying that the deal between The Walrus Foundation and eqhd (owned by High Fidelity HDTV) was a "natural pairing".

Fourteen documentaries, ranging from eight to 15 minutes have already been shot, based on published Walrus stories and are now screening on the Walrus site as well as eqhd, High Fidelity's 24-hour digital channel. There are also taped interviews with Walrus writers.  More short films are to come, which will first be shown on eqhd and then, five or six weeks later, on the Walrus site. The Walrus intends to sell advertising spots adjacent to the documentaries.

The plan is for eq to create one documentary from an article in each of the magazine's 10 yearly issues.High Fidelity also intends to shoot some of the special debates and events that The Walrus hosts.

Among the documentaries now available are

• Life After Death –based on the cover story in the September 2011 issue of The Walrus about thirty years of AIDS
• Mosque Makeovers –based on an article from the April 2011 issue of The Walrus
• Portraits of the War –based on Joanne Tod’s portraits of Canada’s fallen soldiers from the July/August 2011 issue of The Walrus
• The Meaning of Hockey –based on Stephen Marche’s essay in the November 2011 issue of The Walrus
• Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler’s first-hand account, from the December 2011 issue, of the harrowing time he spent in the desert after being kidnapped by Al Qaeda.
• Plus poetry readings from  Damian Rogers, Paul Vermeersch, Linda Besner, Jacob McArthur Mooney, and Jeff Latosik.

Related posts:

• Torstar buys a piece of Blue Ant, which bought a piece of Quarto, and so on...
• Publishers of Cottage Life sell a share to television and digital startup Blue Ant Media

Torstar buys a piece of Blue Ant, which bought a piece of Quarto, and so on...

Last summer, Blue Ant Media Inc. bought a 15% stake in Quarto Communications, the publishers of Cottage Life, Explore, Canadian Home Workshop and Outdoor Canada. It has an option to raise its stake to 25%. And almost immediately, Quarto plunged ahead with a television project carrying the Cottage Life brand.

Blue Ant is controlled by Michael MacMillan, the former head of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. and he is clearly on a roll building a media company. It recently entered into an agreement to buy High Fidelity TV, which in turn owns four premium HD channels: Oasis HD,  eqhd, radX, and HIFI HD. It also owns a majority stake in GlassBOX, which in turn owns Bite TV, Aux TV and the Travel + Escape channel. 

Now Torstar has bought a 25% stake in Blue Ant.  According to a story in Marketing, David Holland of Torstar said that the company viewed the investment as a strategic way to further diversify its media assets.

“We see the potential in Michael’s vision for a new kind of media company in Canada,” said Holland. 
So, by our math, Torstar nominally now owns 6.25% of Cottage Life et al. Ah, what a complicated web -- one that is typical of the kinds of convergence we will be seeing more of in 2012.