One of the few paid magazine internships available in Canada has been cancelled, at least for the time being. Since 1995, Canadian Business, now owned by Rogers Publishing Inc., has hired two paid interns for four- and six-month terms in the summer and fall. This summer, however, due to “business conditions,” CB will not be filling those positions, according to publisher Deborah Rosser.

“We pay interns,” Rosser said. “We don’t hire them for free. And in the current economic climate, unfortunately, we just can’t do it this year.” Past interns have received about $2,000 a month in compensation for their writing, research and fact-checking efforts. The money came out of the the magazine's editorial budget. CB will not be offering unpaid internships this summer, Rosser added.

Should market conditions improve, the internship program could be revived in the fall (September), Rosser said.

Run-of-press ad pages for Canadian Business were actually up 6% in 2008, according to statistics from Leading National Advertisers, but dropped by 28.3% in the fourth c. CB’s paid subscriptions also dropped by 20.3% and single copy sales declined by 47.6% in the June-December period, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax report.