Carrie Gillis new director of events at St. Joseph Media

Carrie Gillis, until recently the associate publisher of Realscreen magazine (and before that of The Grid) has been hired to be the new director of events and experiential marketing at St Joseph Media. The position is within the custom content division.

According to Doug Kelly the vice-president of Strategic Concept Labs, Gillis's job will be to capitalize on the demand for client based events and to create sponsorship and ticket revenue.

Access Copyright prevails in "fair dealing" suit against York University

Though it is but one step in what may still be extended litigation, it was heartening to see that after a long struggle, Access Copyright, the Canadian copyright licensing agency, won a suit against York University over copyright infringement. 

It is a test case against York, but could well apply to other universities who took a button in the new Copyright Act and sewed a suit on it, essentially turning "fair dealing" provisions into a wholesale grab for the work of artists and other creators. 

Universities have in recent years opted out of agreements with Access which required fees to be paid for copying digital and hard copies for students, according to a tariff published by Access Copyright. Universities have interpreted the regulations so broadly that writers and publishers had virtually no rights at all to control the use of their work that was deemed for "educational" purposes. 

The guidelines adopted by various universities, including York, said that up to 10% of a given work could be copied, but it effectively meant much more. The result has been that Access, which previously has passed on a modest share of fees to creators, wasn't able to pay but a pittance. Justice Michael L. Phelan  of the Federal court said in delivering judgement,

““The fact that the guidelines could allow for copying of up to 100 per cent of the work of a particular author, so long as the copying was divided up between courses, indicates that the guidelines are arbitrary and are not soundly based in principle.”

“York has not satisfied the fairness aspect of the quantitative amount of the dealing. There is no explanation why 10 per cent or a single article or any other limitation is fair.

"It is evident that York created the guidelines and operated under them primarily to obtain for free that which they had previously paid for.” 

Here is a summary of the judgement.

The full judgement can be obtained from the web site of the Federal Court.  

Quote, unquote: You have to laugh, or you'll cry

“I’ve had a great response to the cover. I think the image allows you to look at a scary subject and laugh about it. People need a release and the laughter holds back the tears.”

-- illustrator Andrew Rae talking to The Drum about the most recent Trumpian cover for the New York Times Magazine. (We particularly like the flight of the Twitter birds.)

Litmags' stories longlisted for this year's Journey Prize

The longlist has been announced for this year's $10,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for best short story by an emerging Canadian writer. (It should be noted how important literary magazines are in bringing these stories to  view.)

• Lisa Alward from Fredericton, NB for "Old Growth" (The New Quarterly: Canadian Writers & Writing) 
• Sharon Bala from St. John's, NL for "Butter Tea At Starbucks" (The New Quarterly) and "Reading Week" (PRISM international)
• Patrick Doerksen from Abbotsford, BC for "Leech" ((parenthetical)) 
• Sarah Kabamba from Ottawa, ON for "They Come Crying" (Room magazine) 
• Richard Kelly Kemick from Calgary, AB for "The Most Human Part Of You" (Maisonneuve) and "The Unitarian Church's Annual Young Writer's Short Story Competition" (The New Quarterly)
• Michael Meagher from Halifax, NS for "Used To It" (PRISM international)
• Darlene Naponse from Naughton, ON for "She Is Water" (The Malahat Review)
• Maria Reva from Vancouver, BC for "Subject Winifred" (The Malahat Review)
• Jack Wang from Vancouver, BC for "The Nature Of Things" (The Malahat Review)
• Kelly Ward from Toronto, ON for "A Girl And A Dog On A Friday Night" (Taddle Creek)

A shortlist will be released on September 13, and the winner on November 14, at the Writers' Trust Awards in Toronto. The winner will receive $10,000; Finalists: $1,000. The publications that first published these stories are also contenders for a $2,000 prize made possible by McClelland & Stewart.

The longlist of 12 stories are to be featured in The Journey Prize Stories 29, available in bookstores September 26. 

Mag world view: Losing sparkle; MJ staffs up; The Week buys MoneyWeek; 8 WSJ blogs shuttered

• Owner of local magazine indicted on tax evasion charges (Santa Fe New Mexican) 
• Change at top for The Australian Women's Weekly as editorship loses sparkle (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Mother Jones adds seven new staff (Folio:)
• Elle Decor Names Whitney Robinson Editor-in-Chief  (Folio:)
• The Wall Street Journal shutters eight blogs: “The tools for telling” stories have changed (Nieman Journalism Lab)
• Leave campaigner Dia Chakravarty appointed Brexit editor of the Telegraph (Press Gazette)
• Time Inc.’s DNA Is Incredible Content And Brands (Mr. Magazine)
• Owner of The Week, Dennis Publishing, has bought financial magazine MoneyWeek (Press Gazette)
• Independence Lost — Taxpayer Funding and Information Access Takes a Dark Turn (Scholarly Kitchen)
• Why Oxford University is switching its alumni magazine from print to digital (Press Gazette)
• Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation (BuzzMachine)

British Press Association accepts €706,000 from Google to fund robot reporting

The Press Association in Britain has accepted €706,000 from Google to develop a robot local reporting project. (PA is the British equivalent of the Canadian Press wire service.) The grant will fund Reporters and Data and Robots (RADAR) starting in early 2018 as part of Google's €150m three-year Digital News Initiative. PA said in a statement: 

“RADAR is intended to meet the increasing demand for consistent, fact-based insights into local communities, for the benefit of established regional media outlets, as well as the growing sector of independent publishers, hyperlocal outlets and bloggers.” 

A team of five journalists working on project will use open government and local authority databases, and story templates, to create automatic stories about health, crime, employment and other subjects.“Natural Language Generation” software will be used to produce multiple versions of stories, to “scale up the mass localisation of news content”.

PA Editor Pete Clifton said

“At a time when many media outlets are experiencing commercial pressures, RADAR will provide the news ecosystem with a cost-effective way to provide incisive local stories, enabling audiences to hold democratic bodies to account. We have already provided an outline of our plans to some of our regional customers, and they have been universally positive. One described it as ‘genius’. 

“Skilled human journalists will still be vital in the process, but RADAR allows us to harness artificial intelligence to scale up to a volume of local stories that would be impossible to provide manually.”

Winnipeg health mag Wave shifting from print to digital

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has converted its bi-monthly health and wellness magazine Wave from print to a digital-only format. It will be delivered through a new website WaveMag.ca. 

First launched in 2009, featuring content surrounding nutrition, active living and mental health, it also features stories that delve into the inner workings of the health-care system, particularly in the areas of clinical care, research and innovation.

Shared Mag Moments campaign draws 18,000 responses, 50,000 video views

Magazines Canada's contest campaign Share Your Magazine Moment to promote consumer engagement with and purchase of Canadian magazines, both English and French, concluded at the end of May with

• 33,000 visits to Canada's Magazine Store
• 50,000 video views and 
• 18,000 shared magazine moments

Every contest entry included a favourite magazine moment.  Three grand prize winners were selected to receive a 3-night Fairmont Hotel stay for two, a $500 Roots Canada Gift Card and $1,500 for travel expenses, plus admission to attractions and events:

• Calgary – Fairmont Palliser: Daniel Lemire, Magog QC
• Toronto – Fairmont Royal York: Suzanne Giroux, Ponteix SK
• Québec City – Le Château Frontenac: Andrea Alexander, Vancouver BC

Five second prize winners were selected to each receive a $100 Roots Gift Card: Sarah Ferguson, Saskatoon SK; Bruce Litowitz, Victoria BC; Michael Bradburn, Pickering ON; Louise Blouin, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC; and Cathy Robichaud, Sarnia ON.

James Hewes to be named president of international media organization FIPP

James Hewes has been appointed president of FIPP, the network for global media. He succeeds Chris Llewellyn, who is stepping down in September. Hewes has been a director of the FIPP management board since October 2015 and worked for BBC Worldwide and BBC Magazines from 2001 to 2012.

He has recently been the interim CEO for The Art Newspaper. And had been publishing director of Dubai-based Gulf News Publishing where he had responsibility for more than 30 product areas including digital across mobile, websites and apps, live events, magazines, books, newspaper supplements, content marketing and contract publishing. He launched new brands across digital, live events and print including www.gntech.ae and Cititzen K Arabia and the launch of the group’s first consumer title in Arabic – wheels Arabic.

He was the launch publisher of olive magazine, and grew BBC Magazines’ licensing portfolio from eight to 55 editions including 20 editions of Top Gear Magazine. James was also a key member of the team that sold BBC Magazines to private equity in November 2011 for £120m. He subsequently became publishing director for Top Gear, Good Food, Easy Cook and Lonely Planet Magazine, responsible for the brands across print and mobile applications as well as a director of the BBC Haymarket Exhibitions joint venture.

Hewes said: 

“I am a huge supporter of FIPP and it’s an incredible honour to be asked to lead the organisation. FIPP’s ability to connect its members with the information networking opportunities and expertise they need are more important than ever.”

He added: “The media industry is undergoing a period of rapid transformation. I look forward to engaging with our members to ensure FIPP continues to deliver products and services that reflect these changes and enhance our members’ ability to thrive in a changing media environment.”

Magazines Canada is a member of FIPP.