Bruce Richards

After 27 years in the publishing business, CARDonline publisher Bruce Richards retired this month. According to a note accompanying a recent CARD e-newsletter, Richards began his career at Maclean Hunter with the Financial Post in 1981. He became CARD’s national sales manager in 1990 and led the launch of CARDonline in 1995. Last year, Richards was appointed associate publisher of sister Rogers Publishing-property Marketing Magazine and assisted in the magazine’s website relaunch earlier this year.

Recent surprise cuts to federal arts and culture programs—including the Canada Magazine Fund—are prompting artists and cultural workers to band together to defeat the Harper government in the expected election. A new group cheekily calling itself the “Department of Culture” launched last night in Toronto with just such a goal, and is calling on writers, graphic designers, performers, artists and other sympathetic souls to help.

If you’re interested in selling more advertising (and what magazine isn’t?), but don't have the budget/time to do the necessary prospecting, you may want to consider an opportunity provided by Humber College: This fall semester, second-year Humber students in the Professional Selling course (part of the Advertising - Media Sales program) are expected to gain real-world experience by doing ad prospecting for a professional media company, including magazine publishers.

A virtual flyer promoting the upcoming virtual campus fair, hosted by Maclean's.

With its Guide to Canadian Universities, Best Professional Schools guide, annual university student issue and OnCampus website, Maclean’s pretty much owns the higher education category in Canada. On Oct. 22, the venerable newsweekly will build on this strength by hosting its first-ever virtual campus fair. Like a traditional campus fair, prospective university and college students will have the opportunity to listen to speakers, visit booths, speak with representatives from various campuses and collect information packages. Unlike a traditional campus fair, the Maclean’s OnCampus Virtual Fair will take place entirely on the Web.

According to Hello! associate publisher Peter Willson, a major breakthrough for the magazine came in July 2007, when the cover price was lowered from $4.95 to $2.99. The price has since been raised to $3.49.

[Editor's note: A version of this story, posted yesterday, contained incorrect calculations with regards to percentage gains/losses. Coast to Coast has since corrected these errors. We apologize for the confusion.]

With gross newsstand revenues over $6.4 million in 2007, Hello! Canada catapulted to the top Canadian position on the Canadian Newsstand BoxScore, a ranking of newsstand sales for all magazines sold in Canada, compiled annually by Coast to Coast Newsstand Services Partnership. Climbing from 42nd to 12th place, Hello! surpassed Canadian Living as the top Canuck seller. The Rogers Publishing-owned celebrity weekly increased revenues by 209.9% and grew its unit sales by 313.6% in 2007.