Monday, January 30, 2017

Mag world view: Sport closes; No more CN publishers; Surfing wiped out; Ellies finalists

Thursday, January 26, 2017

MagNet program released

The program for MagNet, the industry conference from April 25 to 28th in Toronto, has been released. Among highlights are 
  • Jane Francisco, editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping as the feature speaker in the MagNet Marquee on the evening of April 25 
  • The Arts and Literary Summit on April 28, a day-long exploration of cultural industries
  • Magazine Grands Prix, the inaugural awards on the evening of April 27 at the Four Seasons Hotel
  • A potent lineup of speakers for both b2b and consumer publishing

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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Pioneer online site Salon Media may be bought up by hedge fund

Control of one of the pioneering online publishers, Salon Media, may soon pass to activist hedge fund Spear Point Capital. New York Post columnist Keith Kelly reports that the 22-year-old venture has seen such declines in its revenue that its stock price has slipped to 8 cents a share (compared with its 1999 public offering at $10.50). It may make it easy pickings for Spear Point, which has been buying up shares in recent weeks. Salon was founded by David Talbot and a handful of refugees from the San Francisco Examiner in 1995 as one of the first entirely digital media outlets and has since been a liberal/progressive website with a reported audience that has grown to about 20 million monthly unique visitors.

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Quote, unquote: Running on enthusiasm

"The Internet has put small Canadian magazines into direct competition with every other magazine in the world. Without our grants from all levels of government, we would not survive. I wish we were not so dependent on these funds, but it is a reality for most small Canadian magazines. Former editor Daniel Viola recently remarked to me that Maisonneuve runs on enthusiasm, and that is exactly right. I wish we could provide more remuneration to everyone who contributes to the magazine. I think every small magazine editor and publisher in Canada feels that way!"
-- Jennifer Varkonyi, publisher of Montreal-based magazine Maisonneuve, in an interview with the National Magazine Awards blog

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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Mag world view: Guardian going tab?; PM cover girl; apps' uneven growth; paper real "killer app"

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Quote, unquote: Getting mags in the hands of the right people

"Magazines are exploring brave, dynamic distribution models to secure the future of their print titles. Getting the product into the hands of the right people, whether they are prepared to pay for the magazine or not, will continue to be key."
-- Sarah Hennessy, managing director of MEC, quoted by FIPP.

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Monday, January 16, 2017

Publishers get a group membership rate for all their titles in CSME

The Canadian Society of Magazine Editors has added a “Publisher” rate for membership. Now, in addition to the individual rate of $125 a person (for editors, writers, art directors and other industry professionals) and a Patron Rate of $450, which covers everyone in a single publication's masthead, the new Publisher's Rate of $750 which gives CSME membership for all of the magazines in a publishing group and 50% off entry fees to CSME events for all employees as well as free entry to the Editors' Choice Awards gala in June for all its magazines-- consumer, trade or custom.

CSME has also announced that Jill Buchner has succeeded Allan Britnell as president of the association. She was formerly with Canadian Living as well as being managing editor and awards director for CSME. 

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Entries for contending awards programs coming down to the wire

We will know soon enough which way the creative contributors and magazine publishers have chosen to celebrate their work in this spring's awards season. The final deadlines for entries are in the next couple of weeks: Jan 20 (this Friday) for the 40th anniversary  National Magazine Awards* and Jan 30 (in just under two weeks) their competitor, the brand-new Magazine Grands Prix . 

Although there has been no indication by either organization to announce the total number of entries, a lot of small- and medium-sized publishers -- particularly independents and literary cultural titles -- to whom I've spoken felt it was an either-or proposition; to stick with entering the established awards or jump to entering the new ones, (though some may choose to enter both.) 

There has been a good deal of puzzlement and discussion about financial and creative choices being required. Either way, one indicator of the industry's views would be a comparison of total entries, a matter of participants voting with their entry fees, so to speak.

*(The NMA Magazine of the Year submissions are Jan 27; The NMA's Digital Publishing Awards deadline is Jan 31 .)

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Thursday, January 12, 2017

Canadian Business Media Association now officially merged with Magazines Canada

The Canadian Business Media Association (CBMA) has now officially merged with Magazines Canada. The intention to do so was announced last February during the a Business Media Leadership Summit hosted by Magazines Canada. The decision was unanimously approved at a special meeting of the CBMA's membership on November 29 and will be marked by a reception today in Toronto.

The merger brings Magazines Canada membership to nearly 400 magazines, including 25 business titles.


The merger may mean the revival of the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for business media, which was suspended this year pending the merger. "Plans for 2018 will be based upon the recommendations of Magazines Canada’s new business media advisory committee," said a release. 

“Magazines Canada has been a leading supporter of the B2B industry for many years now, and this merger is a great step for our sector. It strengthens our voice on the national stage and improves our ability to coordinate on projects that will mean a brighter future for business media,” said Scott Jamieson, vice chair of Magazines Canada’s board of directors and director of content and engagement for Annex Business Media, a CBMA member.
“This move is exactly what we need to do to align our efforts to build a foundation for a stronger trade press in the future,” said John Kerr, CBMA president and CEO of Kerrwil. “In a digital age, having both the consumer and trade press under one roof just makes a ton of sense and I am personally looking forward to rolling up my sleeves to support the next efforts.”

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

New BPA Worldwide rules approved for business and consumer publications

BPA Worldwide, the circulation auditing agency, has announced some new rules that will apply to business and consumer publications and which were approved at its December 2016 meeting.
  • All  members may choose which issue they wish to have analyzed for the reporting period, but then must not change it for 36 months;
  • Web traffic metrics are being tweaked, effective June 2017:
    • Page Impressions will change to Page Views
    • Unique Browsers will change to Users
    • User Sessions will change to Sessions 
    • Average session duration reporting is mandatory
  • Copies accessed or downloaded through 3rd party distribution companies shall be reported as “multi-title digital subscriptions.” Only unique recipients/users may be reported for each issue, multiple accesses or downloads of an issue by the same user shall be reported as one circulation unit.
  • BPA rules require subscribers receive an alert from the publisher when their digital issue is available for download or viewing. The Board clarified the current rule to require a digital alert (email or mobile push notifications) be sent to the subscriber. Publications with a daily frequency do not require a digital alert.

Ontario Arts Council applications will now all be submitted online through new website

The Ontario Arts Council has launched a new website that will be home to its new online application Nova; all of the approximately 12,000 grant applications each year will now be submitted online. Some of the 2017 application deadlines have changed. Applications may be done two months in advance of the program deadlines

The new website and online application complement the major reworking of the OAC's funding framework which was recently announced and launched. (Some 31 magazines received funding in 2015 for a total of $574,383.)

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Weight, sex, work figure in Chatelaine's survey

52 per cent of women feel they need to lose at least 20 pounds; about the same (51%) of women who compare their bodies to the bodies of women they know. These, among many other revelations, are included in the report on Chatelaine's This is 40ish survey. 

The 2nd annual survey was conducted online with 1,029 women between 35 and 45 in Canada and asked some fairly nosy questions about sex and love, work and home, body and health and everything from pimples to cheating. Among some other answers the survey found:
  • 49% of the respondents are married and 56% working full time
  • 42% live in a city, 36% in the suburbs
  • 41% suspect other couples have more sex than they do
  • 60% of partnered (married, common law) fantazsize about being single again
  • 25% say they've cheated on a partner (76% kept the information to themselves)
  • 54% of women fantasize about quitting their jobs at least once a month
  • 73% say they do the majority of cleaning
  • 44% occasionally or often think about whether other couples are happier than they are

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Saturday, January 07, 2017

Atlantic Business Magazine's women's issue gets a negative earful

A special issue of Atlantic Business Magazine highlighting women in business has provoked a surprising number of negative response. Dawn Chafe, the executive editor said she was shocked to receive the online comments. 
"People coming online and telling us that we needed to build a wall around businesswomen, that a lot of Canadian men are out of work because there's too many women in the workforce," she told the CBC in an interview from St. John's, N.L. "And that was some of the more polite comments."
There are more than 40 women featured on the January-February cover including designer Lisa Drader-Murphy, former federal NDP leader Alexa McDonough and Emera Energy CEO Judy Steele.
"Frankly, if you had asked me a year ago did I think we even need this kind of issue, I would have said, 'No, hardly, not in Canada and not in Atlantic Canada. We're far too smart. We're far too advanced for anything like that,'" she said.

Now Chafe said she sees this cover as an apology to businesswomen who have been overlooked and she said the magazine will push to have more women in the magazine in future issues as well. 
"I guess after 28 years of producing magazines that have been almost exclusively about men in business, we finally woke up and realized we really needed to pay tribute to the amazing and intelligent and talented businesswomen that are out there in Atlantic Canada," she said.

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Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Entries are open for Digital Publishing Awards 2017; deadline Jan 31

The National Magazine Awards Foundation is now accepting entries for the 2017 Digital Publishing Awards, honouring excellence by Canada's digital publishers and creators in 22 awards categories. The deadline is January 31.

Entries are open to Canadian digital publishers and content creators whose work appeared during 2016. Eligible publications—including those that support established brands in magazine, newspaper, broadcast, B2B and other journalism, as well as those that serve their audiences exclusively as digital brands—is one with a permanent editorial staff in Canada and published in either English or French or a combination of both.

Awards for individual creators include a cash prize of $500. Entry fees for most awards is $95 at the early-bird rate (by January 20).

After its inauguration in 2016, the Digital Publishing Awards has expanded its program under the guidance of our Advisory Committee, feedback from participants and judges, and the NMAF Board of Directors. New this year:
  • The top overall prize—General Excellence in Digital Publishing—will be presented in two divisions, for large and small publications.
  • Other new categories include:
    • Best Social Storytelling
    • Best Online Video in 3 divisions:
    • Short (under 2 minutes)
    • Feature (2-5 minutes)
    • Mini-Doc (more than 5 minutes
    • Best News Coverage in 2 divisions:
    • Provincial & Local
    • National & International
  • Best Personal Essay
  • Best Arts & Culture
  • Best Service Feature: Lifestyle
  • Best Service Feature: Family, Health & Careers
  • Best Fashion & Beauty
  • Emerging Excellence Award
  • Digital Publishing Leadership Award
"In our second year as Canada's preeminent digital awards competition, the 2017 DPAs have expanded to reflect new trends and attitudes in digital publishing and content," said Nino Di Cara, president of the NMAF. "Over the past year, Canadian publishers and creators have thrilled audiences with informative and innovative digital journalism and storytelling. We are looking forward to rewarding the very best of Canada's digital creators."
Full press release

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