Sticking up for magazines

Some people in the business may be finding it heavy sledding defending the future and health of magazines in the wake of the Rogers Publishing announcement last week*.

But Joyce Byrne showed a lot of spunk (and had some fun) explaining what the situation means to host Rob Brown and his call-in listeners on Wednesday on CBC Alberta@Noon in Calgary. Byrne is the publisher of Avenue Calgary and is the president of the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association. 

*Rogers is closing the print versions of some well-known magazines (FLARE, Sportsnet, MoneySense and Canadian Business) making them available exclusively on the web, selling off its business-to-business titles and its French language mags (Châtelaine, LOULOU, and L'actualité) and cutting back on frequency of Maclean's, Chatelaine (English) and Today's Parent.
Here's how Byrne set the scene:

"I think as somebody who loves magazine and media and speaks to colleagues and readers and people who work within those brands, "heartbreaking" is the word of the day. Two of those brands are over 100 years old: Maclean's and Canadian Business. Chatelaine was founded in 1928. We're talking about motherhood brands for Canadians and for many people they've been reading them all their lives. It doesn't matter who published them. They invite them into their homes every month, every week and it's difficult to imagine making that transition. A lot of those people probably also consumed the brands in other ways, which is what we see as a pattern in media generally, that people spend a certain amount of time with the brand in one way and just as people might watch television on their computer as well as on the box or listen to radio on their computer while they're moving around. They'll also consume or dip into content on the internet or on social media."

Start at the 30.4-minute mark:  
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2695923985/