Magazines Canada welcomes three new members, including first Farsi-language title

Magazines Canada has admitted three new members, including the first published in Farsi. 

• Primarily written in Farsi, Dadgar is a legal magazine that delivers unbiased analysis of the general legal issues within Canada.
• I Love My Life Magazine is a full-colour bi-monthly publication, focused on views worth pondering that make one stop and say, "I love my life!" Explore human interest stories, alternative therapies and motivational articles that will inspire you to live your life with passion, laughter and love.
• The Ontario Medical Review is Ontario physicians' essential source of vital health care information. Published 11 times a year, the OMR provides in-depth coverage of the issues and developments affecting the practice of medicine in Ontario, including legislative affairs, health care policy, professional issues, health technology, business and finance.

Deadline for KRW b2b awards is Feb 13; early bird discount until Feb 6

Final online and hard copy deadlines for entries in the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards, recognizing the best in Canadian business-to-business magazine publishing in 25 categories,  is February 13. Early bird discounts on submission fees are available until February 6.  See krwawards.ca. 

Still being accepted are nominations for the Harvey Southam Award for Career Achievement, open to anyone in the business-to-business publishing industry. The deadline there is March 1. 

Canadian Business Media Association (formerly Canadian Business Press) is currently recruiting judges for  written, digital, visual, integrated and special categories. Contact staff@krwawards.ca to nominate yourself or a colleague. Judging process. 

Quebecor Media announces new organizational sales structure

Quebecor Media Sales has been reorganized so that national sales for magazines, newspapers, digital and out-of-home will be divided into five sectors: automotive, consumer products, retail, telecommunications and financial services, and entertainment and recreation. A release said

"The company wants to allow its teams to further deepen their knowledge of their clients’ business sectors and thus promote a more strategic and productive collaboration with the external advertising teams involved in clients’ marketing strategies. Quebecor Media Sales clients will be offered business solutions with high added value, fully in line with their sales targets."

Quebecor, through its TVA Group, is the largest magazine publisher in Quebec, producing such titles as Le Lundi, Derniere Heure, 7 Jours, Moi & Cie, Femmes Plus and Clin d'oeil.

Redpoint Media unveils new-look, new-name WestJet Magazine

WestJet is the new up!  The inflight magazine of WestJet, published by Calgary-based Redpoint Media, is unveiling a new look and a new name (WestJet Magazine) to replace its previous name up!, as well as a redesigned website. 

Associate Publisher Pritha Kalar says the redesign reflects the character of the brand. "It was essential to give WestJet guests the most seamless, inspiring, accessible experience possible, because that's what they've come to expect," says Kalar. "We're extremely proud of the new design, which is contemporary, highly visual and really expresses the passion and excitement of travel."

The January print issue in seatbacks features a curated list of the top 15 places to visit in 2015, as well as advice for dining in New York City from Anthony Bourdain. A digital issue is downloadable for Apple, Android or Kindle. 

Mag world view: Editor-written sponsored content; Taunton exit; Dutch model; Pro pictures

• Condé Nast Launches Sponsored Content Group (Folio:)
• Ten Words That Summarize What Happened to Publishing in 2014 (Dead Tree Edition)
• Taunton President Resigns (Folio:)
• Dutch magazines and newspapers join forces on ad effectiveness model (FIPP)
• When Is a Feature a Product, and a Product a Business? (Scholarly Kitchen)
• Don’t try too hard to please Twitter — and other lessons from The New York Times’ social media desk (Nieman Journalism Lab)
• NPPA study: The most memorable pictures were taken by professional photographers (Romensko)
• Why your Spotify or Netflix for print content is probably doomed (GigaOM)
• ARY Digital Network to launch Newsweek Middle East (FIPP)

Canadian Geographic want readers to help select a national bird

Leading the pack so far, the Common loon

Canadian Geographic magazine is asking its readers to help select the country's national bird. The National Bird Project was created to rectify the fact that there is no national bird, although there is a national tree (the maple), a national horse (the Canadian), two national sports (lacrosse and hockey) and a national animal (the beaver). A selection of 40 candidates are provided on a special click-on web page to be voted on to be designated the official bird by 2017, Canada's sesquicentennial. Readers can nominate their own bird.

Based on more than 10,000 online votes cast so far. the top 5 birds are 

• the Common Loon (2915 votes)
• the Snowy Owl (2203)
• the Gray Jay (1107)
• Canada Goose (951) and
•  the Black-Capped Chickadee (706) 

Atlantic Journalism Awards deadline is Mon. Feb 2

The deadline is Monday, Feb 2 for online entries to the Atlantic Journalism Awards. The AJAs are for all kinds of media, but there are three specific Atlantic magazine categories and some other categories open to magazines.

Details of each category can be reviewed at www.AJAs.ca under Category Definitions. Or you can call (902) 240-4080.  Judges Guidelines can also be seen on the same web site. Judging panels from coast to coast select three finalists in each category, except for the Lifetime Achievement Award which has one finalist. The finalist are announced in early April. 

The winners will be honoured at a gala dinner and awards event at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel on Saturday, May 9, 2015.

Annex Media buys print and digital B2B properties from Glacier Media for $19.7 million

[This post has been updated] The business-to-business magazine media in Canada is significantly altered with the announcement late Friday that Glacier Media Inc. has sold off most of its trade media magazine properties in Toronto-based Business Information Group (BIG) to Annex Business Media and Newcom Business Media for $19.65 million. 

Annex and Newcom now acquire 67 trade publications, related websites and other digital assets, giving it more than 100 properties and an additional 230 employees. With that, what had been the largest privately owned b2b company has made another major leap to become the biggest b2b publishing company in Canada. Annex has a reputation for running very lean operations, sharing such things as production, circulation, digital, administration and sales. 

[Update: Newcom Business Media, which is a family-owned company started in 1987, acquired 18 print and digital publications and two trade shows as part of the deal, including Truck News, Truck West and Motor Truck Fleet Executive. These will now join Newcom's other transport-related titles Today's Trucking, Truck and Trailer and Transport Routier.  Also acquired were Scott's Directories and titles in dental,insurance industries and meetings and travel.

Ownership of the new acquisitions will be evenly distributed between the two companies. “It’s called the Annex-Newcom limited partnership.” Annex CEO Mike Fredericks [told Mastheadonline] “We’re 50/50 partners with Alex Papanou (BIG vp) operating it as our president. We will continue to operate our private companyies—effectively it’s a third company that sits between us.

With the acquisition comes the inevitability of similar titles being in direct competition with each other. “We’re going to take our time to study the marketplace and see what’s best,” Fredericks said. “So in the next number of months it will be business as usual and they will continue to compete with each other.”]

With this transaction, Glacier effectively exits a huge swath of the b2b sector (with the exception of Food In Canada, the Northern Miner and the ERIS environmental data company, which it is keeping.) And in the process it is unloading publications it took over in 2006 in the breakup of Conrad Black's  Hollinger Canadian Newspapers, Limited, of which BIG was a subsidiary. Some of the other titles being sold now to Annex were bought by Glacier in 2011 in a purchase from Rogers Publishing Limited.

Read more »

Sandy Crawley named executive director of National Reading Campaign

Sandy Crawley, who was until the end of 2014* the executive director of the Professional Writers' Association of Canada (PWAC) has been named executive director of the National Reading Campaign. Crawley said in a release about the appointment

"I look forward to working with Community Manager Holly Kent and the members of the board to raise the profile and increase the capacity of the NRC to make a real difference for all Canadians' enjoyment of the fundamental enrichment that comes from the many and varied form of reading." NRC co-Chair Kathy Lowinger commented, “We are thrilled to have Sandy with us as we work to create, sustain, and grow a society in which each Canadian has an equal opportunity to become and remain a lifelong reader.

(*Crawley's departure from PWAC was a less-than-happy one, largely because of internal politics. His final report to the PWAC board in December, of which I have seen a copy, was highly critical of a small group of members who opposed the strategic plan recommended by staff and in particular its emphasis on deficit reduction for the cash-strapped organization. It is understood that tomorrow (Jan 22) there will be an online Special Meeting of members to elect a new board.)

Social justice all-stars featured in issue launch event by This Magazine

This Magazine is launching its Social Justice All-Stars issue (January-February 2015) with a special event called "This is Not a Ted Talk" on Wednesday, January 28. Thirty people are profiled in the magazine as everyday superheroes working to make the world a better place, from fighting for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and better mental health services to fighting against racism, discrimination and harmful stereotypes. 

Three of them will be speaking at Supermarket (268 Augusta Avenue), in the heart of Toronto’s Kensington Market. They are

• Sheila Sampath, an educator and activist designer who is, among other things, the editorial and art director of Shameless magazine, the independent magazine for young women and trans youth.
• Nayani Thiyagarajah, a writer, performance artist and filmmaker , doula, yoga teacher and dancer who has worked extensively with multiple arts-based organizations and performance groups across Toronto, including Manifesto Community Projects, ArtReach Toronto, b.current Performing Arts and Schools Without Borders. 
• Farrah Khan is a nationally recognized speaker and a counsellor and advocate at the Barbra Schlifer Clinic in Toronto; among other things she is currently the coordinator of Outburst!, a movement of young Muslim women against gendered violence and the editor of Heartbeats: The IZZAT Project, a graphic novella by South Asian young women.  

The event starts at 7:30; talks will begin at 8 p.m. Admission is $5, which includes a copy of the special issue. 

Canada Council remaking funding: no more than 10 non-discipline-specific programs

Simon Brault

The Canada Council for the Arts is developing an entirely new funding delivery model that will reduce the number of programs from the current 142 discipline-specific programs to no more than ten broad, national non-disciplinary programs by 2016. 

This could ultimately mean major change for the current writing and publishing program as publishers have experienced it for many years. (That envelope alone was worth $3.25 million to cultural and literary magazines in 2013.) 

Simon Brault, the director and CEO of the Council told its annual public meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday

"Like many other arts councils here in Canada and around the world, we need to simplify our administrative and decision-making processes so that artists and organizations can devote more of their creativity and energy to their art practices and interactions with the public, and less trying to wade through the maze of an excessive number of programs....

"Our aim is to arm the Council with less than ten major national, non-disciplinary programs that cover all fields of artistic practice and its outreach in Canada and the world, and that take into account the specific issues of current arts disciplines and emerging art forms."

There will be a specific program supporting Aboriginal arts for First Nations, Metis and Inuit artists as well as allowing them to take advantage of the other programs. 

"The current distribution of funding envelopes by arts disciplines and specialized areas of intervention (publishing, Aboriginal arts, equity, etc.) will be the starting point for the new funding model," [he said.] "Nobody will lose any funding because of this new model. The intention is not to modify the actual allocations of funding or to destabilize arts organizations. It is to create a new baseline to fund Council's priorities with new investments by the government."

Read more »

Mag world view: USPS rates up; no more topless?; return to print; FOI nincompoopacy; Simple Grace

• USPS Raising Rates, Imposing New FSS Rules, and Perhaps Inviting a Legal Challenge (Dead Tree Edition)
• 1105’s Ed Tech Magazine Returns to Print After 2 Digital-Only Years (Folio:)
• Has the Sun axed Page 3 topless pictures? (Guardian)
• The ‘nincompoop’ Blair’s greatest mistake? 10 years of Freedom of Information in the UK (Jon Slattery)
• Bauer launching Simple Grace, its newest magazine for 2015 (Mr. Magazine)
• Compliance: The Coming Storm (Scholarly Kitchen)
• Today Is The Last Day To Buy Google Glass (Tech Crunch)
• Today in Media History: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the news stories from Selma (Romenesko)

New York, The New Yorker and Bon Appetit lead with multiple noms in the U.S. National Magazine Awards

It is no surprise that New York magazine and The New Yorker are among leading contenders again in the [U.S.] National Magazine Awards. 

Recipient of multiple nominations:

• New York (10 nominations)
• The New Yorker (6)
• Bon Appetit (6)
• The Atlantic (4)
• GQ (4)
• Virginia Quarterly Review (4)
• Bloomberg Businessweek (3)
• Harper's Bazaar (3)
• Texas Monthly (3)
• Garden & Gun (2)
• National Geographic (2)
• The New York Times magazine (2)
• Wired (2)

Among new-to-the-awards finalists in digital or digital-only categories:

• California Sunday Magazine (design); 
• Grantland (video, feature writing, columns & commentary); 
• Kinfolk (photography); 
• Matter (public interest and feature photography); 
• Nautilus (general excellence and website); 
• POLITICO (general excellence and website); 
• Powder (multimedia); and 
• Refinery29 (website).

Nominees for magazine of the year:

• Better Homes and Gardens 
• Cosmopolitan 
• The Hollywood Reporter 
• New York 
• Vogue

Winners, including the lifetime achievement award recipient Time photojournalist James Nachtwey, will be announced Feb 2 in New York. 

Postmedia exec hired to be VP, digital of St. Joseph Media

St. Joseph Media has recruited the vice-president of strategic initiatives of the Postmedia Network, Duncan Clark, to replace Ken Hunt as vice-president, digital. Hunt was recently named as the publisher of Toronto Life. A release quoted Clark

“I am very grateful for the tremendous years I have had at Postmedia and I am proud of what we accomplished at the National Post and across Postmedia Network. I am thrilled to be joining the extraordinary team at St. Joseph Media and look forward to building on their success across all platforms for our magazine brands, as well as creating innovative digital solutions for St. Joseph’s corporate and not-for-profit clients.” 

(Some will recall that Clark was deputy editor of CanWest's short-lived daily magazine Dose in 2006.) 

Pink Triangle Press closes down all print editions of Xtra; to go all-digital in February

Pink Triangle Press, the leading gay and lesbian publisher in Canada, is discontinuing all print editions of Xtra newspapers in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. The company is repositioning into an all-digital publisher.

The final issues of Xtra Vancouver and Xtra Ottawa will appear on streets February 12, 2015. The Toronto edition of Xtra will close on the newspaper's 31st anniversary; final issue on streets on February 19, 2015. In a release, Pink Triangle explained

PTP will focus on developing its journalism website DailyXtra.com and gay adult dating website Squirt.org. The all-digital direction is a result of an eight-month strategic assessment process senior management at PTP began in spring 2014. 

"We have concluded that a complete transition to digital media offers the best opportunity to continue to engage our audiences over the long term. The move to all-digital journalism will bring with it significant benefits — a wider audience for PTP's message, greater currency, more effective advocacy, and, global news combined with local action," says Ken Popert, executive director and president of PTP. 

"We have a good track record of online engagement through Daily Xtra and other channels like YouTube. Most of our revenues already come through digital membership sales in the adult dating space, where we've had great success building a growing online community. We are looking to hone our journalism focus and develop a number of our unique strengths," says David Walberg, CEO of digital media at PTP.

With the discontinuation of the printed papers will go the jobs of 12 full-time employees; as a digital publisher, PTP will employ 57 in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. 

Pink Triangle began in 1971 when it launched The Body Politic, Canada's gay newspaper of record. Xtra Toronto was launched in 1984 and The Body Politic was closed down in 1987 so the company could concentrate on Xtra; Vancouver and Ottawa editions were launched in 1993. In 2010, Pink Triangle closed down a printed gay travel guide and moved it strictly online. In 2013 it closed its Fab magazine after 20 years of publication. 

In its release about going all-digital, the company said it had grown from a small, grassroots organization to "one of the most diversified gay multi-media enterprises in the world, with a roster of brands ranging from print to online publishing and television production."

“Although the scale of the Press has grown hugely since 1971, we remain true to our founding principles. We have no owners or shareholders profiting from our work and our overriding message remains that collective action is the way to advance the common good,” says Popert.

Quote, unquote: Stop being such slobs, you guys

“It’s an embarrassment: coffee stains on walls (and countertops and desks), overflowing compost bins, abandoned drafts of stories and layouts (full of highly confidential content), day-old, half-eaten food, and, yes, I’m going to say it, action figures,” Mr. Dadich wrote. “Please. Wired is no longer a pirate ship. It’s the home of world-changing journalism.It’s the West Coast home of Condé Nast. And it’s increasingly a place where we, and our New York colleagues and owners, host artists, founders, CEOs, and advertisers.”

-- Wired magazine editor-in-chief Scott Dadich quoted in a New York Observer story, from a widely mocked memo to staff about their slobbish treatment of the magazine's new San Francisco office. The memo was published by The Awl.  

Charlie Hebdo special may be available at Halifax newsstand, but under the counter

Michele Gerard, co-owner of Atlantic News 

One of Canada's premier independent magazine stores, Atlantic News in Halifax, has decided to make copies of the special edition of Charlie Hebdo magazine available to its customers; but they'll have to ask for it because it will be kept out of sight. 

The weekly magazine, which normally has a print run of 60,000 is now printing 5 million to meet worldwide demand in the wake of the killing of 12 people at the magazine's headquarters in Paris last week. Yet even then, demand will probably outstrip supply. The special edition just released has a cover cartoon of the prophet Muhammad, replicating one of the images that are deeply offensive to Muslims. 

“We are one of the few remaining newsstands in Atlantic Canada and we are proud to supply our community with an extensive variety of titles, including Charlie Hebdo. The next issue should (be) arriving next week and as we have always done with other covers that customers may find offensive, we will be sensitive and not be displaying the title.”

Michelle Gerard told the Halifax Chronicle Herald that she tries to respect the diversity of the store's customers and their interests and she knows that they can access the cartoon images online. Her original idea was to bring in just a few copies for her local customers who were interested. Now, she has asked for 50, though she's not at all sure her distributor can provide them. Her store handles some 5,000 publications and is probably they only place in Nova Scotia any copies will be available at all. 

“I’m conflicted. I come back to tolerance and respect,” she said. “This magazine has offended other people. I’m terribly torn. I don’t know how to put it. It’s gone from being an interest and curiosity to feeling like one of, I don’t know, a keepsake.”

 [ photo: Ryan Taplin, Herald staff]

There's two sides to every story in the Feathertale Review

One of my favourite little but mighty magazines, Feathertale Review, has created its latest version (no. 14) with 152 pages of satirical poetry, fiction and illustrations. That's not unusual, but the format is: a magazine with two beginnings and no end, as demonstrated by the trailer below. (The magazine, which comes out twice a year and won the 2012 National Magazine Award for best single issue, is on the newsstands now for $15.)

"This issue is the end result of a creative and social experiment: a magazine with two beginnings and no end, presented to you like an old vinyl record. Like an LP, this issue has two sides. Unlike an LP, those two sides are equal in merit: that is, the stories, poems and illustrations you find on the B-side are just as entertaining as those on the A-side.

"What’s more, the two sides of the magazine mirror each other. We recently approached thirty writers and told them we had fifteen story titles they could choose to write from. Each writer could take on one title, but each title required two writers. The pairings were not meant to spur a creative duel, but rather a creative duality. And in the end to prove that old adage: that no two minds actually think alike."

CMC seminar to ponder how to fix the newsstand

The CMC is hosting a seminar on January 29 to address the vexed and vexing question of how to fix the newsstand:

"The newsstand has gone through tremendous change over the past decade. While popular celebrity and weekly news magazines had stratospheric sales at the newsstand, all publishers now face the same challenges and long to return to their pre-2008 newsstand sales....These are unprecedented times for publishers. What are the growth areas for newsstand sales? Are there better ways to get consumers’ attention? What are some of the successful models around the world to adopt? What are current growth areas/categories at newsstand? What are the current challenges in each segment of the newsstand chain and how do we deal with them?"

The panelists for the discussion will be

• Kevin Brannigan, Vice President Circulation, TNG Canada
• Mike Martin, Director, Category Management / National Account Manager, CMMI
• Glenn Morgan, President and CEO, Coast to Coast
• Mark Yelic, President/Publisher, OP Media Group Ltd. 

The event is held at the Minto Quantum South Tower, 2181 Yonge Street from 3:30 to 5 p.m., followed by the CMC's Winter Social. CMC members get in free; all others pay $25 for the seminar and social or $10 for the social only. Register for the seminar and/or the social.

Mag world view: Canada controls mag paper; DIY Time; "real time" publishing; Pay up in UK; 2015 media predictions

• Coated Paper Shakeup Leaves Most U.S. Capacity in Foreign [Canadian] Hands (Dead Tree Edition)
• Time Inc. Introduces DIY Hub for Millennials (Folio:)
• New edition of Charlie Hebdo will 'obviously' include Mohammad cartoons (Press Gazette)
• Media M&A Soars in 2014 (Folio:)
• Magazine brought to life using augmented reality (FIPP)
• BBC Good Food moves to ‘real time’ publishing (FIPP)
• Sasha Frere-Jones leaves the New Yorker – a Genius move? (Guardian)
• 2014 was a great year for new magazines (Mr. Magazine)
• Is Google Now a Publisher Offering Other Publishers an Inadequate Deal? (Scholarly Kitchen)
• Wages on the rise at [UK] media owners (Media Week)
• Chris Llewellyn's 2015 magazine media predictions (FIPP)

Don Cherry is The Hockey News's cover guy

The Hockey News's issue Money & Power, on newsstands now, has a particularly strong cover...even if it is Don Cherry.  

Other Top 100 people of power and influence in the game include Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, chief NHL disciplinarian Stephane Quintal, Russian hockey legend cum movie star Slava Fetisov, Senators GM Bryan Murray, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy and the ever-controversial Mike Milbury.

Ken Hunt named publisher of Toronto Life

Ken Hunt

A new publisher has been appointed at Toronto Life magazine, with David Hamilton stepping down after more than three years. As he noted, he came on a one-year contract in August 2011 and now it's time to hand over to someone else. That someone is Ken Hunt, the vice-president of digital at St. Joseph Media. A release from the St Joseph Communications, Media Group president Douglas Knight said

Along with his many accomplishments across the company’s full range of magazine and digital properties, and in building innovative digital strategies for corporate and not-for-profit clients, Mr. Hunt also led the growth of Torontolife.com and Toronto Life’s related digital platforms. In addition to serving an audience of more than 600,000 print magazine readers, Toronto Life’s digital audience now exceeds 1.2 million.

 “New technologies, new platforms, new media habits have opened up tremendous opportunity for Toronto Life to find new and innovative ways to serve the needs of our city,” said Mr. Hunt. “I am thrilled to take on that challenge and to build on the award-winning journalistic standards of the magazine, the growth of our digital operations and the appeal of the many events we have introduced to the city.”

Hamilton had been brought in in October 2011 with a strong magazine background, having been the longtime publisher of Flare magazine at Rogers Publishing, then publisher of Hello! Canada before a stint as co-general director of Opera Canada. In his time in the Toronto Life publisher's chair he led several initiatives, introducing Toronto Life’s We Love Our City campaign along with a series of events including Toronto’s Most Influential, recognizing Toronto leaders making a difference in the city, and Toronto’s Most Stylish, which launches Toronto’s red carpet season each September. Hamilton said

“I’d like to thank Doug Knight and Tony Gagliano, Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications, for their confidence in bringing me into Toronto Life and for their tremendous support. I have enjoyed working with the incredibly talented and enthusiastic team of people at the magazine; it has been very rewarding and a lot of fun. I believe I’m leaving the brand stronger than ever and, while there are certainly challenges facing media today, I know that Toronto Life will continue to grow and excel as it has for almost 50 years – yes, Toronto Life will be 50 in 2016!”

Family, friends, colleagues to mark the life -- and death at 68 -- of Sean Rossiter

Rossiter self-portrait, 1968

Two years ago, Sean Rossiter won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Western Magazine Awards. Last week, after a 10-year struggle with Parkinson's disease, he died at the lamentably early age of 68 His friends and colleagues are gathering at 6 p.m. on Thursday the 15th in Vancouver at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden to mark his passing. His friend, photographer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward, wrote an appreciation of Rossiter on his blog. Charles Campbell did the same at the Georgia Straight, noting -- among many other things -- Rossiter's role in saving Vancouver magazine in 1974. He went on to write many articles for the revived magazine (many of those award-winners) and his long-running Twelfth and Cambie column. He wrote about municipal politics with a passion and provided clarity to sometimes arcane and complex planning issues. He wrote with similar passion about flyers, flying and airplanes. 

I had not seen Rossiter in years, going back to our days in the later '60s on The Gazette at the (then) University of Western Ontario. He was the editor when I first worked for and knew him (this was when he was Tom, not Sean) and I eventually succeeded him. He was also the editorial cartoonist and met the weekly deadline by the skin of his teeth each issue. At one point, I seem to recall, he "tried out" law school. And did some commercial art work. But eventually migrated to the west coast which seemed to have been the perfect place for him and for his journalism. He clearly made good, long-term friendships there and I imagine most of those friends will be sharing their memories on Thursday. 

Gastown (print) Magazine being unveiled on Saturday in Vancouver

The first-ever print edition of The Gastown Gazette Magazine will get its official unveiling  on Saturday, January 10 7 - 8 p.m at the Alexander Club in downtown Vancouver. (The magazine has been available at various places since mid-December.) Andy Patton, the editor, had this to say about the magazine:

"The Gazette is about accurately describing and chronicling our world in Gastown starting with the people who live here. We may get some things wrong, but we will endeavor to bring the community together at every turn, and drive us toward a brighter common future."

The Gazette has hitherto been an online-only site, since February 2013, keyed to the revival/renaissance of the Gastown neighbourhood.

"Today we look to Gastown to provide a model of urban renewal. One that is equitable, reasonable and just. Now that the third rebuilding of Gastown has begun in earnest – an important dialogue with the whole community must be kept alive."

 The magazine will cost $10 a copy. 

Andy Patton interviewed on The Jill Bennett Show on CKNW AM 980

Conference call: editors of the world, unite

 

Those among you who are grammar and usage mavens (you know who you are) may be interested in the forthcoming Editing Goes Global, an international conference of editors hosted by the Editors' Association of Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada June 12 - 14 in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre.

Keynote speakers will be Carol Fisher Saller, editor of the Chicago Manual of Style's online Q&A and the author of The Subversive Copy Editor and Katherine Barber, the former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and author of Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language and Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs. Other presenters from the U.S., UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and of course Canada. 

Cottage Life brand extensions to range from furniture and bedding to candles and dips

Taking advantage of a magazine brand built over the past 26 years, Cottage Life Media is rolling out a whole menu of consumer products to retailers at the upcoming Toronto Gift Fair. Consumers themselves will see the new products at the annual Spring Cottage Life Show March 27 - 29 at the International Centre in Toronto. 

The Cottage Life brand has been licensed on the company's behalf by brand management agency The Licensing Shop Inc. and among the products to be produced and marketed by Canadian-based manufacturers and designers will be 

• Hand-crafted bedroom and dining room furniture by RuffSawn 
• Bedding and kitchen linens from Brunelli 
• Outdoor furniture Collection in western red cedar and pine from Dundalk LeisureCraft
• Scented candles from Country Home Candle
• Grilling seasonings and sauces, hot and cold dips, salsas, and salad dressings from Premier Gifts and Orange Crate Foods

The new products will be promoted on the branded TV channel, through the magazine, website and three annual consumer shows.  Cottage Life Media is a division of Blue Ant Media Partnership and publishes Cottage Life & Cottage Life West and produces the annual Cottage Life consumer shows in Toronto and Edmonton. Cottage Life, a national television channel launched this past fall. Cottage Life Media brands reach more than 4.5 million Canadians every month.

McGill celebrates alumnus Jonathan Kay's accession to The Walrus editor's chair

McGill University's publication McGill News has profiled alumnus Jonathan Kay (BEng'92, MEng'94) who assumed the editorship of The Walrus in December. He says that he didn't plan to go into journalism when he was at McGill, but his engineering studies proved useful to his later journalism.

“I worked on stories that other journalists wouldn't touch because they were scared off by science,” he says. Kay’s knowledge of metallurgy came in handy when he debunked conspiracy theories about the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers in Among the Truthers. The book, which examined the factors that fuel conspiracy theories, drew praise from both the New York Times and The Economist.

Kay says Walrus readers should not expect any drastic changes concerning contributors.

“I would like to retain the magazine’s writers from the Annex [a left-leaning neighbourhood in Toronto],” says Kay, “but I would also like to use writers whom I respected at the National Post. But they wouldn't necessarily write on politics.” He suggests Conrad Black, MA’73, might contribute an essay on prison reform and Father Raymond J. de Souza could write on college sports.

In early 2014, Kay helped Justin Trudeau (another McGill alumnus, BA'94) write his memoir Common Ground. 

“I’d never worked closely with a politician at that level,” he says. He interviewed the Liberal Party of Canada leader for 40 hours about his life and politics, coming away with enormous regard for Trudeau’s honesty and warmth, if not his policies.

Kay says he expects to be at The Walrus at least five years.

 “After 16 years at the National Post opinion pages, I felt like I was getting a little stale,” he says. “I also felt like I had written enough 700-word editorials on, say, the Middle East or Quebec separatism — and that it was time for someone else to take over. The pages will profit from someone else bringing a fresh perspective. 

“Over time, my interests as a journalist had drifted more toward essays and long-form journalism, which is what The Walrus serves up. So it’s a great fit for me.” 

Related posts:

• Jonathan Kay of The National Post is named as editor of The Walrus, succeeding John Macfarlane

Charlene Rooke returns to Vancouver to be chief content officer of Canada Wide

Canada Wide Media has lured Charlene Rooke back from Toronto to become chief content officer and publisher for BCBusiness and BCLiving magazines in Vancouver. For more than 3 years Rooke -- who was at one time the editor-in-chief of Western Living, editor of Avenue Calgary and of enRoute magazine --  has been the editorial director of the custom content group at the Globe and Mail. She is also a contributing editor to LCBO Food & Drink magazine. 

Entries open for Canadian Cover Awards

Entries are open for the Canadian Cover Awards, produced by the Circulation Management Association of Canada and Magazines Canada. Deadline for submissions is January 26.
There are eight award categories. Newsstand sales are worth 50 percent of an entry's final score; the remaining 50 percent is determined by five judges representing our industry: a retailer, a wholesaler, a national distributor, a circulation director and an art director. The entry fee is $90 for the first entry, $75 for the second and $55 for all additional entries. For the Small Magazine category, the cost is $35. Entries are made online. 

Nominations are also welcomed for Newsstand Marketer of the Year, for which there is no entry fee. It is meant to recognize an individual working for a Canadian publishing house, a national distributor or a wholesaler who has demonstrated passion and innovation—and produced results—for a newsstand project. 

This was the year that was [Part Two]: a look back at 2014 in Canadian magazines

Here's the second installment of the a fairly arbitrary rundown on some of the stories that were published this year on the Canadian Magazines blog. [Today, July to the end of the year; yesterday, January to June.]

July

RIP The Grid 
The Star Media Group announces the shutdown of its weekly magazine The Grid after 162 issues.
First, online-only; now nowhere
TV Guide Canada ended its 61 year run by dispensing with its online-only version and eliminating its last full-time editorial position.
We presume they were screwed together
Renovation Contractor, founded by the Caruk Media Group, merges with the Homes Publishing Group. 
Rogers 3.0 and go
Several senior editors at Rogers were laid off at Rogers Publishing as part of the company plan to position itself for growth; what was called Rogers 3.0.
Smaller, leaner, but still MagsBC
The Magazine Association of BC wound up operating out of executive editor Sylvia Skene's living room, giving up its longtime Homer Street offices as a last ditch response to money difficulties.
Room at the top
Terry Sellwood promoted to president of Cottage Life Media. 

August

Slumping benchmark
A new study carried out for Magazines Canada, based on funding applications to the Canada Council, shows a dramatic drop in paid-for sales; partly because of loss of titles in the funding program; partly because of a fall in single copy sales for literary and cultural titles.
A different shade of Whyte
Ken Whyte, who relinquished his role as head of Rogers Publishing to become president of Next Issue Canada, quietly left the digital newsstand subscription service to take a background role as senior vice-president of public policy for Rogers.
Children, do we have your attention?
OWL, the magazine for kids 9 to 13, unveiled a complete relaunch: new logo, new mascot, new content.
No more E-ack
The Editors' Association of Canada (EAC) rebranded itself Editors Canada/Réviseurs Canada.
Take over the tiller
John Macfarlane announces he is stepping down from the editorship of The Walrus, five years after taking the job as a temp.

September

Literary lion of the lower mainland
The Western Magazine Awards named Brian Kaufman, the longtime founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine subTerrain to receive the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award.
WORN out
WORN Fashion Journal, the resolutely non-mainstream, twice-a-year title, announces it is closing after 10 year with the release of a bumper November issue. 
Winners in aisle three
The National Magazine Awards partners with Indigo to promote the top award-winning magazine in a special newsstand feature in 91 stores across the country.
Room at the top
Major changes made at TC Media as the editor and art director of flagship Canadian Living are let go.
Crosstown move
Tom Gierasimczuk leaves Canada Wide, where he was vice-president, editorial and business development at Canada Wide Media to become general manager of the Western Media Group for TC Media, including being publisher of Vancouver and Western Living. 
No more pages for you
The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) shucks its longtime habit of publishing ad page counts for U.S. magazines.

Read more »

This was the year that was [Part One]: a look-back at 2014 in Canadian magazines

Here's a fairly arbitrary rundown on some of the stories that were published this year on the Canadian Magazines blog. [Today, January to June. Tomorrow: July to the end of the year.]

January

Mother figure

Sasha Emmons named EIC of Today’s Parent. Described by Steve Maich, gm of publishing at Rogers Media as “a natural leader and spokesperson”.

Both are fattening; both delicious

A new, twice-a-year literary food journal called Beer & Butter Tarts is launched in Toronto

Return engagement

Cameron Williamson named EIC of Flare

We didn't mean it like that

Toronto Life publishes a "clarification" about its October story about the fear of sexual assault at York University. York University subsequently agreed to a dismissal of its lawsuit against the magazine. 

Moving up a rung

John Intini named editor-in-chief of Sportsnet magazine, replacing Steve Maich, who was named senior vice-president and general manager of publishing at Rogers Media.

All -- or most -- is forgiven

Matt O'Grady, who quit BCBusiness in a dispute about the publisher Peter Legge spiking an investigative story, was welcomed back. Legge said it was a misunderstanding. 

Southern exposure

Joyce Byrne, longtime 2IC at Edmonton's Venture Publishing, moves to Calgary to become publisher of Redpoint Media's Avenue Calgary.

100 years and out

Benjamin News Group announced that the family owned centenary business was to close down in April. 225 people were to lose their jobs.

February

Clean up woman
Jane Francisco, the former  EIC of Chatelaine, wasted no time in redesigning and putting her personal stamp on Hearst's Good Housekeeping. 
Two into one
First, Canada's two biggest accounting associations merged. Then their two magazines merged. Result: CPA magazine
Group therapy
Rogers Publishing reorganizes with group publishers: one for current affairs; one for Quebec-based titles; one for fashion and beauty.
Squeeze play
TC Media closes down Fresh Juice, its partnership magazine with Loblaw. 

March

Globe-al style advice
Style Advisor, a twice-annual lifestyle supplement magazine is launched by the Globe and Mail. 
Nutty settlement
It took two years, but Patricia Pearson and Rogers Publishing came to a settlement about the use of her story on peanut allergies on 3rd party websites.
Mike didn't make it right
Dauphin Media, partner with TV handyman Mike Holmes in Holmes magazine, left town, stiffing its landlord and subscribers who had prepaid $500,000 in subscriptions. 

Read more »