Masthead News Archives
August 2006

August 23, 2006
Senior biz publishing exec retires
TORONTO—In the wake of Harvey Botting’s retirement earlier this year, Rogers Publishing is losing another Maclean Hunter veteran from its business magazine operation.  

Doug Dingeldein, Rogers’ director of business process management, has announced he will be taking early retirement. 

“I’m at a point in my career where I’m close to retirement anyway. I’m 63-and-a-half, so  I only have a year-and-a-half to go.” 

In an e-mail to Rogers employees, Brian Segal, Rogers Media president and CEO, said Dingeldein “has made a great contribution to Rogers, to our Business and Professional publications and to the industry in Canada. We have all benefited enormously from his knowledge, insight and analytical skills.” 

Dingeldein’s last day will be August 31.

August 22, 2006
Small U.S. title under fire from big name clothing retailer
TOLEDO, Ohio—Clamor, a small-circ social justice magazine, is caught in a staring contest with American Apparel over an upcoming feature on the company’s business practices and its CEO’s legal woes. 

"That a social justice magazine with a yearly operating budget of less than $150,000 is being issued an ultimatum by a company that turned $250 million in profit last year seems a little incongruous to me," said Jason Kucsma, Clamor's co-founder.
Clamor’s Fall issue takes aim at the clothing chain that has earned an anti-sweatshop, “progressive” reputation. According to the staff at Clamor, that reputation is false. 

“We’ve printed our shirts with American Apparel up until now,” says Jen Angel, one of Clamor’s founders and editors. “We‘re part of the same kind of culture that they’re trying to appeal to…but we’d been hearing about how they’re not really that great of a company. So we decided to do a story on them, and it kind of expanded from there.” 

A 10-page feature section will cover the company’s alleged union-busting tactics and a sexual harassment suit that has been brought against its CEO, Dov Charney. The company became aware of the articles and sent a letter of demands to Clamor’s publishers on August 16. 

The letter pulled no punches. Cynthia Semon, the clothier’s director of media relations, said the company was given no opportunity to comment on these issues and accused the magazine of “yellow journalism.” 

Semon wrote, “If the article is not immediately removed online, along with a retraction and an public apology posted online and published appropriately, we will be forced to seek legal action in light of such gross, blatant, negligent and irresponsible journalism. (sic)” 

In a phone interview with Masthead, Angel said, “We’re not under any obligation to allow them to comment.” Clamor has issued a press release, stating “we have no intention of retracting the stories or the issue in which they appear.” 

The Fall issue is due on newsstands September 1. 

August 21, 2006
New air rules threaten mag retailers
TORONTO—The ongoing liquid restrictions on many international flights leaving from Canadian airports is hitting businesses like HDS Retail hard.

The fluid ban on airplanes that resulted from terrorism-related arrests in London on August 10 is impacting businesses here in Canada that sell convenience items like bottled water and toothpaste to travelers.

Airport retailers have been banned from selling such products by order of the federal government. While fluid restrictions have eased somewhat since the initial ban, many flights require passengers to check things like bottled water with their luggage.

Air commuters who can no longer stock-up on water before flights are avoiding airport retailers and, subsequently, not looking at the magazines that line their walls. 

“It will have an impact on the presence of magazines in the airport,” says Jean-Baptiste Morin, HDS president and CEO. “One of the reasons you have 35 newsstands and bookstores in Pearson is you have a balanced mix of products that are offered. If you remove one of the legs, then it doesn’t work anymore.” 

Morin estimates his company loses as much as 25% of its airport sales for every day the restrictions are in place. This comes at a time when seven of Pearson International Airport’s 12 duty free shops have shut down and laid off 170 employees as a result of the ban. 

Hachette Distribution Services (HDS) owns more than 100 airport stores across Canada, most of them under the Relay brand name.

August 18, 2006
OMDC deadline looms
TORONTO—August 24 is the last day to submit applications to the Ontario Media Development Corporation for a share of the more than $500,000 that will be made available to magazines in 2007. 

OMDC will give Canadian-owned, Ontario-based publications up to $25,000. Details are available at the OMDC website.

August 17, 2006
Magazine critique service now offered
CLEVELAND, Ohio—Trade Association Business Publications International (TABPI) has begun offering a new service to biz publishers looking to revamp their titles without breaking their budgets on private consultants.

A pool of nine editors, designers and consultants are at your beck and call for less than $1000 US.
A new magazine critique service is available to English-language business magazines across North America. For $575 US, a three-member team of editors and designers will review a publication’s architecture (i.e. cover, TOC, departments, etc.) and editorial scope to produce a joint report of their recommendations. A premium critique that includes a one-on-one conference call with a reviewer is also available for $975 US.

According to the TABPI website’s critique FAQ, the process takes eight to 10 weeks. The deadline for submissions is “on or about” September 22.

PPE modernizes to become IPAO
TORONTO—The Periodical Publishers Exchange has finalized its name change.

The association of independent magazine publishers, which meets at dinners held ten times throughout the year, has chosen Independent Publishers Association of Ontario as its new moniker. 

In a press release issued earlier this week, Michael Brooke, IPAO board member and publisher of skateboarding mag Concrete Wave, said, “we realized that the word periodical was a little out of date. Most people use the word magazine. We needed something more up to date.”

August 16, 2006
Another exit at Chatelaine
TORONTO—The doors at the Rogers campus are spinning with comings and goings at the nation’s largest women’s magazine.

Daniel MacKinnon, Chatelaine’s deputy art director, announced his resignation on August 9. He says he’ll continue working a few days a week until the end of September, at which time he’ll go freelance. 

MacKinnon is not the only Chatelaine staffer going back to self-employment. Within the last month, features editor Dré Dee, copy and research chief Ruth Hanley and home editor Amanda Eaton have all given notice with the stated intention of working freelance. 

Of course there are bodies filing through the revolving door in the other direction as well. A press release from last week announced the appointments of three new editorial staffers made by editor-in-chief Sara Angel. 

Deborah Fulsang, a former fashion and style editor at The Globe and Mail, is now the mag’s senior style editor. Sheilagh McEvenue, arriving from The National Post, will become senior articles editor. And Anna Sharratt joined as health editor last month, having worked in Rogers’ Healthcare and Publishing Group for four years. 

Maryam Sanati and Shawna Cohen have also joined the editorial team as deputy editor and consulting features editor respectively. Their appointments were previously covered in MastheadOnline.com.

August 15, 2006
Universities boycott Maclean’s
TORONTO—Eleven Canadian universities have pulled out of Maclean’s annual university ranking survey citing unfair and ineffective research methods.

University of Toronto president David Naylor has been publicly critical of Maclean's university rankings for some time, and is among the signatories of the letter announcing an 11-university boycott.
In a letter to Tony Keller, Maclean’s managing editor of special projects, the presidents of the boycotting universities stated they will not commit resources to compiling information for the survey as they find its ranking method “oversimplified and arbitrary.” 

“It is inappropriate to aggregate information across a range of programs at a large and multidimensional research university into a single ranking number,” the letter said. 

The letter caps a season of discontent with the ranking survey. David Naylor, the president of the University of Toronto, offered similar criticisms in an open letter printed in the Ottawa Citizen. “If one of your hands is plunged in boiling water,” Naylor wrote, “while the other is frozen in a block of ice, then the average temperature of your two hands is just fine. That’s exactly what happens when a range of data about a university are averaged into a single ranking.” 

In addition to U of T, the letter’s other signatories include the presidents of Dalhousie University, McMaster University, Simon Fraser University, and the universities of British Columbia, Alberta, Calgary, Lethbridge, Montreal and Ottawa. 

In an interview with the CBC, Keller stated the info used in the survey is publicly available. “The decision of some universities to say they are not going to fill out an information form that we sent them doesn't really change anything,” he said. 

Keller also said Maclean’s staff will be responsible for compiling the data for the eleven universities.

August 14, 2006
ABC okays new reporting method
SCHAUMBURG, Ill—The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ board of directors has approved a new kind of reporting that accounts for audited web traffic and pass-along readership as well as qualified circulation. 

Starting with the June 2006 reporting period, ABC will produce its new consolidated media report for B2B magazines. The report will provide publishers with a new aggregated readership measurement called total audience reach. 

Stacking pass-along readers atop qualified subscribers, ABC's new consolidated media report aims to provide publishers and advertisers with a new metric to analyse readership.
This new metric adds audited elements such as unique web views, pass-along readership and e-newsletters to a magazine’s total qualified circulation score.

 “It’s really a top-line summary of ABC services,” says Neal Lulofs, ABC’s vice-president of corporate communications. “It’s an additional metric for publishers to use to market themselves to advertisers.”

ABC’s competition has raised its eyebrows at the concept. Glen Hansen, CEO of BPA Worldwide, was quoted in Circulations Management as saying advertisers don’t care about figures that suggest the total number of people who look at a business publication. He thinks they want to know who the readers are. “It’s about the quality of the eyeballs,” Hansen says. “It is not a matter of gross eyeballs.” 

When this was put to Lulofs, he replied the new report was not meant to replace ABC’s in-depth audit reports, but was additional information a publisher could keep on hand for advertisers. 

“It’s a way of recognizing that people who are engaging with a print publication likely have a relationship with them in other forms as well.”

August 10, 2006
Chatelaine forges deputy editor position
TORONTO—Editor Sara Angel has tapped an experienced journalist and editor from The Globe and Mail to supplement her team.

Maryam Sanati, 36, former editor at ROB Magazine and Shift, may fill-in for Sara Angel if and when she goes on maternity leave.
Maryam Sanati, a 13-year editorial veteran will join Chatelaine’s staff on August 28 as deputy editor. She will be leaving her current post as deputy editor of the Globe’s Review section and editor of its weekly entertainment supplement, 7. 

Citing magazines as her first love (she served as deputy editor of Report On Business Magazine for three years, and executive editor of the now-defunct Shift), Sanati says she is eager to “be a part of the most successful magazine in Canada, a magazine with such history and depth and a great leader with Sara.” 

Sanati has actually worked with Angel before on a university guide Angel spearheaded while attending McGill University. Sanati attended the University of Toronto. 

The deputy editor position is a new one at Chatelaine. When asked about her specific responsibilities, Sanati replied, “I’m going to work very closely with Sara helping her map out the magazine from beginning to end. We’re going to look at the total package. It’s very much an exercise in packaging. I’ll be involved in every aspect with her.” 

An internal memo at the Globe announcing her appointment to Chatelaine also suggested Sanati would be “filling in for [Angel] during her pending maternity leave.” Sanati said that decision would be left to Angel. 

“I know her. She doesn’t stay away from work very long. I think it will be a brief maternity leave.”

August 9, 2006
IAB course offers online aid
TORONTO—The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada is offering its expertise to those publishers trying to jump-start online advertising campaigns.  

A new one-day, eight-hour course will be offered in three cities to “provide attendees with a thorough understanding of the Interactive (sic) medium,” according to the IAB website. The program is designed to aid publishers and ad reps with display advertising, e-mail and search campaigns, online sponsorship, as well as pricing various online properties and services. 

The course will be offered in Toronto on September 11 and in Vancouver and Montreal on September 18. Registration costs $500, and acceptance into the course is on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

For additional information, including a detailed course outline, visit the IAB’s course website.

August 8, 2006
Myth: ad location is important
TORONTO—New research done by Magazines Canada and Starch Research Canada debunks a few myths about ad placement.

A new study supports some ad conventions, such as the idea that big ads are better than small ads. But some conventions don't hold water according to statistics.
“Thousands of advertisements” were analyzed in the Magazine Essentials study to see if elements such as size, colour or placement—the elements most asked-for by media planners—affected how memorable advertisements were. 

While most advertisers value far forward placements on the right-hand page, those positions did not score noticeably better than left-hand page ads, or ads in the middle or back of a book. 

Some ad conventions were supported by the study’s findings. Inside and outside cover ads scored highest for ad recall, with the outside back cover showing 20% more recall than a typical run-of-press ad. Colour ads were also shown to be more effective than black and white. 

The full results are available from Magazines Canada.

August 3, 2006
Rogers’ profits up across the board
TORONTO—Rogers Communications Inc. has released the financial results for its second quarter.

Rogers Media saw a 13.8% increase in its operating revenue in Q2, which contributed to its parent company's strong second quarter.
For the three-month period ending June 30, 2006, Rogers shows increased operating revenue, profit and net income over the same period in 2005. The company earned $277.5 million during that time, a significant increase over the $19.2 million revenue it earned for those three months last year. 

With a 29.1% overall increase in operating revenue (up to $2.24 million from $1.73 million), Rogers Media—the division which houses Rogers Publishing and its stable of magazines— saw 13.8% growth in operating revenue. 

In addition to the publishing division, Rogers Media owns radio and television stations across the country.

August 2, 2006
Walrus to use INDAS for fulfillment
TORONTO—The Walrus is switching fulfillment providers and will be the first to take advantage of INDAS’ services for charities.

INDAS will provide The Walrus with charity-enabled back-end services starting with the October issue.
After launching with Cornerstone as its fulfillment company in 2003, The Walrus will switch to industry giant INDAS starting with its October issue. 

The Walrus became a charitable organization in November 2005, and publisher Bernard Schiff says the change provided the magazine with the opportunity to make a variety of changes. 

“We had been with Cornerstone for three years,” Schiff says, calling the relationship “friendly.” 

The Walrus will be the first to use INDAS’ Serv/Pf services that provide data required by the government for charitable donations—tax receipts, for example.

August 1, 2006
Masthead announces new award
MISSISSAUGA, Ont.—There will be no ceremony or black tie luncheon, but The Dexters will reveal which among the nation’s most honoured titles truly are champions.

The first annual Masthead Awards Index (known colloquially as The Dexters) charts award nominees and winners from eight award institutions, revealing who has won the most golds, silvers and honourable mentions across the country.

One hundred and eighty nine trade and consumer magazines made the Index, ranging from top-ten finisher Québec Science to Canadian Living, which placed 140th overall with its honourable mention at the Canadian Newsstand Awards.

The top 102 award winners will be printed in the July/August issue of Masthead, due to appear on newsstands next week. The full Index will be published simultaneously on MastheadOnline.com.

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Jaded says:
Wow, Torstar really seems to be on a mission to bankrupt one magazine after another....
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Full of terrific information, Thanks!...