Rogers Publishing Ltd. has expanded its b-to-b magazine portofolio with the acquisition of Employee Benefit News Canada from New York-based SourceMedia. Rogers already publishes Benefits Canada, Avantages and Working Well, which are all aimed executives and management handling pensions and benefits.

It doesn't look like Canada Post is going to budge on its planned 3% rate hike for publications mail in 2010. The crown corporation has responded to protests from Magazines Canada about the hike by claiming that price increases for publications mail in recent years have been kept "to a reasonable level, well below our increasing costs to serve, and below increases for other Direct Marketing services."

Dauphin Media Group, publisher of Canadian Architecture & Design Magazine, plans to launch another title in the home renovation genre this fall. Holmes Magazine, fronted by famous Canadian contractor and TV host Mike Holmes (HGTV’s Holmes on Homes), will hit newsstands and mailboxes in November, with 75,000 copies being released nationally in stores such as Chapters Indigo, Shoppers Drugmart and Gateway. Cover price is $1.95 $4.95, while an annual subscription costs $23.50.

"The Web is not about shoving a magazine down a wire," St. Joseph Media president Douglas Knight likes to say. That sentiment seems to be spreading through the industry, with publishers, editors, designers and developers investing time and money into redesigning websites that, in some cases, premiered back in the dark days of Web 1.0. To find out what kinds of changes are taking place, we looked into five sites that recently underwent extreme makeovers.

The federal government is set to pass an ammendment to the 1997 Tobacco Act that will ban cigarette advertising from print publications once and for all. The proposed ammendment, which passed through the House of Commons last month, now awaits Senate approval. It states, “Clause 11 repeals section 22(2)(b), which permits the advertising of a tobacco product by means of information advertising or brand-preference advertising in publications that have adult readerships of not less than 85%.”

Transcontinental Media eliminated more than 20 jobs this morning in its newly merged Business and Consumer Solutions Group. The layoffs follow an upper management reorganization that saw Pierre Marcoux replace John Clinton as the head of the company's magazine publishing division.

Mailing rates for magazines will rise by close to 3% in 2010, according to a report from Magazines Canada. Canada Post apparently informed MC of the intended hike during a meeting on May 20 and the association has since responded with a strongly worded letter sent to Rob Merrifield, Minister of State responsible for Canada Post Corporation and James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, as well as Laurene Cihosky, CPC's vice president of direct marketing, advertising and publishing.

The U.S. government has asked a bankruptcy judge to deny Quebecor World’s restructuring plan because of millions owed in unpaid taxes, and environmental fines.

For those who couldn't attend or wish to re-live the MASS talk on the future of publishing in Canada by Walrus publisher Shelley Ambrose and St. Joseph Media president Douglas Knight, a full-length video of the event is now available.

Seven of the top 10 best-selling magazines on Canadian newsstands are about celebrities, according to data from the third annual Canadian Newsstand Box Score. The list, produced by Coast to Coast Newsstand Services Partnership, Canada's largest magazine distributor, ranks the top 2000 magazines sold in this country by revenues earned from the racks, and also tracks unit sales and year-over-year gains/losses.