Ricardo's English version has been suspended.

While preparing our annual tally of Canadian magazine launches and closures for 2008 (which will be published here later this month), we have learned of several shutterings that have not yet been covered on MastheadOnline.

Below you’ll find short items about eight titles that will no longer be with us in 2009.

Consumer

Name: National Rugby Post
Publisher: Rugby Canada
Located: Edmonton
Founded: 1985
Final issue: 2007
Category: Sports
Notes on closure: Last year, Davie Graham, the magazine’s founding publisher, donated the magazine to Rugby Canada, the sport's governing body, who subsequently suspended publication of the magazine. In related news, Scrum Magazine, which covers rugby in Ontario, was launched in November 2008.

Name: Ricardo (English edition)
Publisher: Les Éditions Gesca
Located: Montreal
Founded: 2006
Final issue: November/December 2008
Category: Food and drink
Notes on closure: Publication of this magazine built around the personality of Quebecois TV chef been “suspended for an undetermined period.” A spokesperson told the Ottawa Citizen that “there were insufficient paid subscriptions to continue.” Gesca will continue to publish the French version of Ricardo, which was launched in 2003.

Name: The Seniors Choice
Publisher: Pinnacle Systems Ltd.
Located: Kelowna, B.C.
Founded: 1989
Final issue: August 2008
Category: Mature market
Notes on closure: The magazine was closed due to insufficient advertising revenue, editor Patricia Archibald said. There are plans to continue publishing online. 

Trade

Name: National Review of Medicine
Publisher: NRM Publications Inc.
Located: Montreal
Founded: 2004
Final issue: July 2008
Category: Medical
Notes on closure: The parent company, Parkhurst Publishing, has re-invested resources into its Doctor’s Review magazine and shifted several editorial sections from the NRM to the Parkhurst Exchange Web site.

Name: PME
Publisher: Transcontinental Media Inc.
Located: Montreal
Founded: 1984
Final issue: October 2008
Category: Business
Notes on closure: “The final decision, after studying several scenarios, was made within the Business publications budget exercise,” Sylvain Bédard, Transcontinental’s publisher for business magazines, told Transcontinentental staff in a memo. The control-circ title went out to about 35,000 small business executives and managers.

Name: Simcoe Business
Publisher: Osprey Media Group
Located: Barrie, Ont.
Founded: 2004
Final issue: February 2008
Category: Business
Notes on closure: The magazine was closed to achieve better “efficiencies,” according to a company representative. Business-related editorial has been folded into the biweekly quarterly Simcoe Life magazine. Osprey also has plans to relaunch Simcoe Business as a quarterly tabloid newspaper in 2009.

Custom

Name: Newpharmacist/Pharmacien Le Jour
Publisher: Apotex Inc.
Located: Toronto
Founded: 2004
Final issue: January 2009
Category: Drug and pharmacy
Notes on closure: Apotex, Canada’s largest pharmaceutical company, is re-investing the dollars put into these quarterly custom publications into other support programs for pharmacists, according to marketing co-ordinator Struan Keir.