Toronto's Presse Internationale named Magazines Canada retailer of the year

Huashan Liu and Qing Yang

Presse Internationale on Bloor Street in Toronto, has been named Magazines Canada's retailer of the year. 

"Since August 24, 2005, this magazine superstore has been run by husband and wife team Huashan Liu and Qing Yang," said the organization's citation. "The store is a franchise of the once powerful Presse Internationale chain, which at its peak had four stores in Toronto and another in Ottawa. Now two remain (the other is in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood). 

"Presse Internationale and the convenience store model (with cigarettes, soft drinks, phone cards and lottery) that devotes the bulk of its energy—and space—to French and English press, is one of the last of its kind in Toronto. Good stores adapt and Presse Internationale is no different, recently adding a white pull-down screen and offering passport photos. But it's a big magazine store at heart."

The Magazines Canada Retailer of the Year Award is made annually to an outstanding client of Magazines Canada's distribution service who cultivates this connection between consumers and their Canadian magazines. It will be presented at the Magazines Canada luncheon on Thursday, April 27, 2017 at MagNet: Canada's Magazine Conference at the Courtyard Toronto Downtown at 475 Yonge St. in Toronto.

Atlantic News, the much-loved Halifax newsstand is offering its customers a "surprise bag" wrapped to hide what is inside. In this case, sight unseen, you pay $6.50, including tax, to find out what magazine you get. 

Munro's Books of Victoria named Magazines Canada's Retailer of the Year

BC's Munro's Books has been named Magazines Canada's Retailer of the Year for 2015, It is well known as having been co-founded by renowned short story writer Alica Munro and her then husband Jim. Here's the text of the Magazines Canada announcement:

Co-owner Ian Cochran, along with Sarah Frye, Carol Mentha and principal owner Jessica Walker, was pleased to add the Retailer of the Year award to another recent accolade from none other than National Geographic: in their 2015 book Destinations of a Lifetime, Munro's was #3 on a list of their top 10 bookstores in the world. 

From the National Geographic citation: "In 1963, exactly a half century before she won the Nobel Prize in literature, Alice Munro cofounded a bookstore with her then husband, Jim. Munro's has since moved into a magnificent, neoclassical former bank, decorated with gorgeous fabrics, in Old Town, Victoria, British Columbia." 

Open at its first of three locations on Yates Street in 1963, the store watched as the neighbourhood changed and the library and movie theatres that were the anchors moved away and, in 1979, Munro's followed the pedestrian traffic flow to a new location on 4th Street. This is where Cochran joined the staff just before the move in 1984 to its current location on Government Street. 

When asked about the role of magazines at the store, Cochran said this could be dated back to the early 1990s: Munro's added magazines "when Chapters came to town in order to compete with them." The store has been a great seller of Canadian magazines and literary magazines in particular, and a great support of Magazines Canada's promotions over the years. 

The Magazines Canada Retailer of the Year Award recognizes the vital role retailers play in the Canadian magazine landscape, and is awarded annually to an outstanding client of Magazines Canada's distribution service who cultivates this connection between consumers and their Canadian magazines. Congratulations to Munro's! 

The Retailer of the Year Award will be presented at the Magazines Canada reception on Thursday, June 9, 2016 at MagNet: Canada's Magazine Conference at the Courtyard Toronto Downtown at 475 Yonge St. in Toronto.

The battle continues for space at the checkout

Magazines have for a very long time been a staple of the checkout line at grocery and other stores. The major reason is that they are the most profitable items, ahead of (among many other things) gum and candy. Yet, according to a post by Jerry Lynch of the International Periodical Distributors Association (IPDA) in Publishing Executive  Mars Inc. the owners of Mars bars and Wrigley candy and gum brands are putting on a concerted effort to push magazines out of the space and, of course, take it over themselves.

Research shows that magazines are the most profitable item at the checkout ($1.07 true profit per unit), bring in 5 times the revenue of candy and are 14th in profit among 229 total store categories.

In my view, the Mars push should be taken as a call to action. In response to competitors’ intensifying efforts to secure more retail display space, magazine publishers, NDs and distribution partners should all be intensifying our own efforts to shout our category’s documented strengths from the rooftops.

Type Books named retailer of the year by Magazines Canada

Type Books, the boutique store on Queen Street West in Toronto, has been named Magazines Canada Retailer of the Year for 2014. The award is made annually to recognize the importance of good, often independent, stores in building and maintaining the magazine landscape. 

"A neighbourhood bookstore on bustling Queen West across from Trinity Bellwoods Park, Type opened heroically in April, 2006, at a time when few other bookstores were starting up," says Magazines Canada. "The store has been devoted to magazines from a wide array of distributors and publishers direct, and has been committed to Canadian magazines from the beginning."

The store has the distinction of being the location for the 2014 filming of the promotional video Anything Can Happen at a Magazine Stand. 

Previous winners of the award were: 

• 2013 Salt Spring Books, Salt Spring Island BC
• 2012 Read’s Newsstand and Café, Fredericton NB
• 2011 Book City, Toronto ON, Danforth
• 2010 McNally Robinson, Winnipeg MB
• 2009 Spruceland News, Prince George BC
• 2008 Mags & Fags, Ottawa ON

Salt Spring Books named Magazines Canada retailer of the year

Salt Spring Books from the village of Ganges, in the heart of the vibrant BC island community, has been named Magazines Canada retailer of the year.

Adina Hildebrandt and her knowledgeable staff will set you up with what you need. Choose a magazine, listen to the ocean and relax into the land of reading. It's the Salt Spring Books motto: "Eat, sleep, read. Life is simple."

The store regularly participates in various Magazines Canada promotions, including the Newsstand Markeeting Project; they consistently carry over 100 Canadian titles.  

Though announced now, the Magazines Canada Retailer of the Year Award will be presented at the Magazines Canada luncheon on Thursday, June 5, 2014 at MagNet: Canada's Magazine Conference in Toronto.

Online store locator searches out where to get Canadian magazines

Magazines Canada has launched an online store locator which allows readers to use their postal code to find places that carry Canadian magazines. It's part of Canada's Magazine Store, the successor to the Zinio-based digital newsstand which was recently discontinued. The store allows searches of titles by region and category. The store locator is based on Google Maps. 

Magazines Canada consolidates DM, digital and retail promotion efforts

Magazines Canada has merged three of its circulation campaigns and, beginning this fall will promote for its members Canadian Magazines Everywhere -- direct mail, the digital newsstand and Independent retail promotions. Participants in the combined program, promoting delivery of magazines on many different platforms, including desktops and tablets, will contribute one print ad and active participation in promotional e-mails and/or social media (previously they had provided their subscriber list to MC and contributed two print ads.)

"By integrating our marketing efforts, this project will leverage the strengths of each program and create better efficiencies and results. Running one program instead of three also means that your contributions are simplified," [said a bulletin to members].

The deadline for signing a participation agreements is September 3, 2013. 

Magazines Canada has enjoyed considerable success in its annual cooperative direct mail marketing campaign since its launch in 2003. Its most recent Buy 2, Get 1 Free campaign, which ended in February, had about 190 titles participating  with over 100 available in both print and digital (most pdf replicas through the MC partnership with Zinio). The DM campaign has sold more than 10,000 subs annually (the biggest result was 2009, with 14,600.) In the past three years, that totals 267,000 copies delivered.

However funding has become tighter in recent years, necessitating the consolidation of promotional efforts. The various campaigns are largely subsidized by the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) as well as through support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, Canada Post, Consumer Intelligence Group and CDS Global. 

Read's Newsstand and Cafe of Fredericton named MagsCan retailer of the year

Read's Newsstand and Cafe in Fredericton, New Brunswick, has been named Magazines Canada's retailer of the year for 2012.

The downtown Fredericton store is the flagship of the Read’s/United chain of stores, with other stores in Moncton, Riverview, St. John and Halifax and in addition to the best selection of magazines for miles around (including most Magazines Canada-distributed titles),  also sell books, have a healthy foods section and a full-service café with sandwiches and a patio on Main Street.

Jeff Magnusson, who co-owns the chain with John Devona and Mark Smith, has been managing the Fredericton store for nine years, he and Devona designed it when they moved from a location down the street in 2004.  

“Our idea at the time was to get away from the convenience store end—tobacco was getting trickier and we wanted to offer a different experience....We’re specialists and proud,” Magnusson says.

Read's joins a select club of other recent winners of the retailer of the year award, including Book City (Toronto Danforth), McNally Robinson (Winnipeg), Spruceland News (Prince George, B.C.), Mags & Fags (Ottawa) and Atlantic News (Halifax, NS). 

Book City Danforth named magazine retailer of the year by Magazines Canada

Book City Toronto's Danforth branch and its magazine manager June Shoji has been named 2011 Retailer of the year by Magazines Canada. The award will be presented this week at a luncheon being held as part of the MagNet conference.

Book City is a mini chain, owned and run by Frans Donker, and carries a comprehensive collection of magazines from a diversity of distributors.

The Danforth store, managed by Patricia Magosse, is the quintessential Book City: great books, great remainders and, in a small, efficient space, a spectacular selection of magazines. Somehow in this ever-changing retail landscape, Book City has found the right combination of factors to survive. Obviously this includes having a great location, a hands-on, knowledgeable staff and carrying a good selection of Canadian magazines.

What has evolved into Magazines Week in Canada begins tomorrow, with the first event in the four-day MagNet conference in Toronto, managed by a consortium of industry associations.

Iconic Hub Cigar in Edmonton to reopen, you know, for a while longer

Photo: Bruce Edwards

Western Canada's oldest independent newsstand in Edmonton is...reopening? For those of us who have become used to the attrition of indy newsstands and bookstores, the planned relaunch of Hub Cigar (founded 1910)  in the Old Strathcona district is an amazing and heartening development, even if the new owners don't seem quite sure of what the future holds or if they will still be in business a decade from now. 

According to a story in the Edmonton Journal the new owners, which includes previous owner Hal Roseberg (it's complicated), plan a grander opening in a while, but will have a "soft opening" on May 12; they're ordering new stock and cigars.

The store has been closed for several months after the most recent owner Steven Cleall became ill.

“I was trying to sell the business for Steven Cleall, and I had no bites on it,” said Roseberg. “Whoever was interested seemed to have fallen by the wayside. I just sort of felt bad. I don’t know why, but I felt some responsibility. I didn’t want Hub to become another distant Edmonton memory.”

Roseberg feels the magazine business will remain viable for five to 10 years, despite the increasing role of digital technology in media consumption of all kinds.

“I think there’s still a market for printed media. If you’re in the bathtub, you don’t want to have your laptop sitting on your chest,” he said. “I think anybody that’s over 30, probably, still likes to have some magazines coming around.”

 Hub Cigar was well-known for stocking difficult-to-find publications, including a very wide range of magazines (reportedly 6,000 titles). The business even survived a 2005 fire that destroyed the original store on Whyte Avenue

“Hub’s got a pretty dedicated clientele,” [Roseberg] said. “I just thought, you know, it’s worth giving it one more go before I’m satisfied it’s not going to work.”

Related posts: 

• Edmonton's Hub Cigar and Newsstand sold to employees 

Sweetspot founder to launch online retail site

The woman who started Sweetspot.ca is about to launch a new venture, an online retailer and shopping destination called Dealuxe. According to a story in Marketing magazine, Joanne Track has hired the Toronto media agency Blammo to create a campaign that will start April 4, preceeding Dealuxe's official lauch May 2.

A self-described “start-up junkie” who launched Sweetspot.ca in 2004 (the site was subsequently acquired by Rogers Publishing), Track said she was drawn to online retail because of the dearth of Canadian players in the space.

“I love the idea of starting with a completely blank slate and figuring out what I’m going to turn it into,” she said. “There’s been a huge gap in the market for a purely Canadian online retailer, so my intention is to fill that gap and take a leading role.”

She described Dealuxe as a blend of the “flash sale” sites Gilt Group and Net-A-Porter.com, taking best practices from both.

The focus of the membership-based shopping site will be on women's fashion, though there is an intention to move into men's and kids' lines. It will have editorial features. Sign up for the site is free, but people who do so now get a $10 credit to their account. 

Rogers Publishing's LouLou magazine last fall struck a deal with an American online private sale shopping site Beyond the Rack. Today's Parent magazine recently launched a free mobile application called Gift Finder to allow readers to shop online for childrens' gifts. Transcontinental has a searchable online flyer site called Dealstreet.ca which allows readers to research products, locate sources and print coupons and read content from such magazines as Style at Home, Canadian Living and Homemakers.

Indigo Books & Music stores to branch out into more toys, more gifts and photography

Indigo Books & Music Inc. is a lynchpin in the single copy sale of Canadian magazines; whatever it decides to do may have a major impact on dollars and circulation. What's happening now, according to a Financial Post report is that the company intends to counter the global decline in book sales by expanding gift, toy and designer paper products and investing in new photography departments.

CEO Heather Reisman told the company's annual general meeting that the company's 75 superstores across the country will be branching out into photography. Two in-store pilot projects will start this fall.

In the new section, customers will be able to bring in their own digital files to print photographs, create photo books and keepsakes, or have their photographs taken in a studio by an on-staff portrait photographer. Indigo will also sell photographs as art.

"It will be affordable, unbelievably well-curated art," [she said] ."People are walking around taking pictures all the time," she added, holding up her BlackBerry. "What are we doing with those? How do we organize them? We think there is an opportunity."

The company has also created a division called Indigo Wholesale to sell its branded private-label goods to other retailers. 

Last year, Indigo's net earnings rose by an impressive 14 per cent to $1.42 a share from $1.24 a year earlier. Revenue was up 3% to $969 million. Interestingly, online sales decreased 4.8 per cent. Book sales were up 4 per cent in dollars and 1 per cent in volume. Reisman said that merchandise sales increases were "in the double digits".

Photo: Brett Gundlock, CanWest News Service, Financial Post

Former Duthie's manager to open new indy bookstore in Vancouver

It's nice, for a change, to be able to report on an indie book and magazine store starting up, rather than closing. Out of the ashes of Duthie Books is arising Sitka Books & Art, setting up shop just two blocks (and $10,000 less in rent) than Duthie's old location on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver. 

Ria Bleumer (right above), the former manager of Duthie Books, which closed in February after 53 years, has partnered with Karel Carnohan and, backed by some equity investors has  found 2,800 less expensive feet at 2025 West 4th and expects to open in late August, according to an article in the Georgia Straight. ; in fact, the space was until recently occupied by Book Warehouse.

“In that moment when we received our notice, it was absolutely crystal clear to me that what I should do is continue and build my own bookstore,” Bleumer told the Straight today (July 5) in a phone interview.

Bleumer explained that it wasn’t a lack of business that saw the demise of Duthie’s earlier this year, but rather the high rent costs that kept increasing with each passing year...

“I know that people in this neighbourhood are looking for a place they can go to and be welcomed by knowledgeable staff and like-minded customers,” she said.

 In a press release, Bleumer had this to say about swimming against the apparent current:

"The printed book is not dead. Demand for a high-service bookstore where customers can find new books, explore new subjects and exchange ideas and opinions is as high or higher than ever before. We will provide that place and I believe it is a vital part of this city's cultural community.

"I keep getting stopped on the street by former customers, many in tears, bemoaning the closing of Duthie Books," Bleumer said. She added that "Vancouverites are big readers, they appreciate the feel, the smell and the art of a good book and they will support a local, independent bookstore."

 [Photo: Carmine Marinelli, 24 Hours]

New European magazine kiosks will feature preview touch screens

Pushing back against the erosion of single copy magazine sales and the closing of many newsstands in Europe, a leading shopping mall owner will be launching a new kind of  sales outlet, according to a story from  lesaffaires.com. Unibail-Rodamco, which owns a hundred shopping malls in Europe and 35 in France, is partnering wtih Mediakiosq, a company which controls some 800 newsstands in France. The new kiosks are created by leading designers, including Ora Ito of France.

The new newsstands remind visitors of  sleek iPad or iPhone technology and the analogy is not just in appearance. The space traditionally used for promotion (posters, pockets etc)  is largely foregone in favour of touchscreens that allow prospective buyers to preview various publications before they buy. The first kiosks will be installed in the next few months.
[thanks Michel]

McNally Robinson booksellers emerges smaller and wiser from bankruptcy protection

McNally Robinson Booksellers, one of Canada's largest magazine and book stores, has emerged from bankrupty protection with two stores instead of four and chastened by business decisions that nearly put them over the edge. The company's bookstores in Saskatoon and Winnipeg's Grant Park shopping centre are open for business and continue to employ about 250 people.

Owner Paul McNally said in a story on CBC.ca that the court supervision and reorganization was "punishing and very emotional"

"It involved terminating a lot of employees and as you surely know, is deeply emotional and painful. A lot of money was lost."

The company, which was founded in Winnipeg in 1981, had to let go 175 people and close a Winnipeg store at the Polo Park shopping centre and one in Toronto at the Shops at Don Mills, which only opened last April. "It was clear from the opening sales at Don Mills that we had entered into a death spiral." said McNally, acknowledging it was a big mistake; it was opened in the wrong location and the wrong time and ended up being one of the biggest reasons the company suffered such significant losses -- more than $2 million in the 2009 financial year.

Mapping magazine stores

Here's a good rainy day project. The magCulture blog has published a Google map of the best magazine stores in London.


View London magazine stores in a larger map

Maybe a project for the next couple of months would be to do a Canada-wide map of the best magazine stores in each city. You send me the stores and their addresses, I'll compile the map.