The Deep meets its funding target and will start publishing in 2017

It looks like The Deep has been successful in its crowdfunding. The campaign aimed to reach $18,500 after shooting past its $15,000 target and has now raised $19,038  from 321 backers in order to launch the online, long-form journalism site for Atlantic Canada. 

The venture will start by publishing one big story a month in 2017: "sweeping, ambitious, can't-put-them-down Atlantic stories that will stand toe-to-toe with the best magazine writing and reporting found anywhere."

Related and earlier posts:

• Successfully reaching its goal, campaign for The Deep seeks to "stretch" support
• Long-form online magazine called The Deep planned for eastern Canada

Indigenous magazine Red Rising expands into Vancouver

A Winnipeg-based quarterly magazine serving indigenous people launched its fourth issue in Vancouver on Saturday at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre.  

Red Rising magazine is run by a volunteer group of indigenous youth from Winnipeg Treaty 1 territory. The new  issue is themed "Storytelling as Resistance".                     

In an article carried by News 1130, co-founder Lenard Monkman says the magazine intends to bring together indigenous stories and perspectives; they are looking for artists and writers from all over Canada. The magazine has already published three issues and plans to have a fifth one out in February.

“There are a lot of Indigenous people that are going through exactly the same kinds of things across the country,” Monkman says.

In a way, he says, people on the West Coast may remember Red Wire magazine, which was published for a time in the '90s.

“It’s sort of a continuation of that but we’re bringing different perspectives — we’re living in a little bit of a different time but a lot of the issues that were happening 20 years ago are still very much the same as they are today.”

Winnipeg custom publisher to launch global digital magazine Tea Journey

A new digital magazine for tea experts and people who share a passion for tea, called Tea Journey is due to be launched in June. A Kickstarter campaign to help with the launch begins April 4.Dan Bolton, the Winnipeg-based founding editor and publisher, says in a release:

"Tea Journey is like a digital caravan of story tellers who travel to origin and return with authoritative, elusive and exclusive articles, photos, and video that will help our readers discover their tea destiny. It serves a growing marketplace for fine tea with decades of publishing experience and an unprecedented network of devoted and respected tea authorities."

(Bolton is editor of the Tea Biz blog, managing editor of STIR Tea and Coffee magazine and was editor and publisher of Tea Magazine and World Tea News.)

The new digital magazine, published by Mystic Media Custom Publishing, targets established tea lovers looking to discover and refine their taste in tea – selecting, correctly preparing and serving the finest teas from around the world. It will be published three times a year -- the April (Origins) issue, the August (Tea Review) issue, and the November (Gifting) issues -- and delivered via mobile app. Between issues, subscribers receive full-featured articles and multi-media content on the Tea Journey blog. Content can be viewed anytime online at www.teajourney.pub or via custom apps for Apple iOS available on iTunes and the Android store.

There will be profiles of collectors, scientists, antiquities scholars and tea blenders. The magazine will also seek out the best articles from Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese publications and these will be translated by staff.

Subscriptions are $24.95 a year or $14.95 for three months. A 3-day access pass to sample the magazine costs $1.95. Founding sponsorships are $249.50 for 10 subscriptions. 

Lo-res prototype

Online knitting publisher thought there had to be a better way

Opening page of Winter 2012 issue

Here's a heartening story, particularly in light of recent unhappiness about draconian contracts being imposed by magazine publishers on freelancers. It comes from a story in the Montreal Gazette, about an online magazine called Twist Collective which was started when Kate Gilbert refused to sign over the copyright for her knitting patterns to her then publisher.

“I thought there’s gotta be a better way,” she said, of the contract presented to her in 2008 that reflected the rapid changes taking place in the publishing industry at the time. Rather than sign, she decided to launch her own knitting magazine and brought on three partners. Called Twist Collective, it would have “the designer’s interest at heart.”

The magazine makes its money selling patterns to readers and advertising to businesses serving knitters. Designers are paid royalties -- the more patterns sold, the more they're paid --  and the magazine earns enough additionally to pay fees to its writers and production people. Each of the three issues a year carries five or six articles and 30 to 35 patterns. 

Gilbert now is the sole owner and runs the business out of her Outremont home. The magazine has about 160,000 unique visitors in the months with a new issue and 70,000 in other months and it has 18,000 subscribers to its e-letter.