Thursday, September 24, 2009

Canadian Business Press discontinues MagsU, becomes a partner in MagNet

[This post has been update]Magazines University -- or Mags U as it has come to be called -- is being discontinued by its current owners, the Canadian Business Press (CBP) and CBP is becoming a full partner in MagNet, the annual conference led by Magazines Canada from 2010 and beyond.

The change has come about after long discussion between the board of CBP and the MagNet managment team.

[Update: For a very different spin on this story, read the report in Mastheadonline.]

CBP Board Chair John W. Kerr said in a release, “I really believe that the Canadian magazine industry will be best served by one strong, unified conference devoted to fulfilling the needs of our various members, especially in these challenging economic times.”

MagNet General Manager Barbara Zatyko said, “All the MagNet organizations are looking forward to working closely with publishers from the CBP. The expertise, contacts and knowledge the CBP brings to the table will ensure that our business media offerings at MagNet will be stronger, tighter and, most importantly, of great benefit to the industry.”

CBP will be represented by two publishers on the curriculum development committee and will play a key role in the development of future conferences.

CBP joins the other MagNet organizational partners which are the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors, Circulation Management Association of Canada, Magazines Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada.

“I know the current MagNet partners welcome CBP,” said Magazines Canada Chair Terry Sellwood. “This is an excellent step in our collective goal to serve the magazine industry.”

MagNet 2010 happens at 89 Chestnut, June 1-4, 2010.

The MagsU brand was purchased by CBP in November 2008 from North Island Publishing (Masthead) after the company decided to stop publishing a print edition. It had been managed by Masthead for several years in collaboration with CBP and before that had been operated by a consortium of industry groups, led by Magazines Canada and Masthead.

In 2006, Magazines Canada left the consortium and started its own June conference called MagNet. Both conferences were held the same week, both said they served both the consumer and b2b publishers and it was widely assumed that only one of the conferences would survive.

CBP ran the first MagsU on its own in June 2009, but it is understood that it was not a financial success. Most industry observers felt that the Canadian industry -- even in good economic times -- could not realistically maintain two, rival conferences.

Circumstances have also changed in that in June 2008, Magazines Canada began to accept business-to-business magazines into membership and in November, 2007, the largest trade publisher in Canada, Rogers Publishing, decamped from CBP taking 36 English and French titles with it. It joined Magazines Canada in 2008.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bravo!!! Well done!!!

2:05 pm  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home