With Transcontinental's help, San Francisco Chronicle goes glossy

The San Francisco Chronicle is the first major U.S. newspaper to print on glossy paper, starting on Monday. The magazine-style glossy paper will appear on the first page of most sections and show up on inside forms as well, according to a story in the Associated Press.

Besides making the Chronicle more pleasing to read, the magazine-style glossy paper could help the newspaper attract more advertisers looking to make their products shine.....

The Chronicle confirmed it has secured some advertising commitments for the new glossy format, but it would not provide details or discuss the paper's costs.

The switch also is another sign of how newspapers are targeting their print editions at niche markets as their circulation shrinks.

The Chronicle last July closed its own presses and contracted out production to a brand new $200 million printing plant (right) run by Transcontinental Inc. in Fremont, California. It prints 270,000 copies of the Chronicle, Monday to Saturday and 360,000 on Sunday.

Hmmmmm...

Graham Scott, the editor of This magazine, posted the following on the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers list:

Just wanted to share this article in the current issue of Wired on Demand Media. The company publishes obscure little web articles and videos on crazy niche topics (currently, 4,000 articles and videos *every day*), and makes all its money -- an estimated US$200 million this year -- on Google ads. The insane and terrifying thing is that the company has a small army of freelancers who write these articles for $15 a pop, or shoot videos for $20 each, and it has no editors: all the topics are assigned by a piece of software, which analyzes Google search trends and identifies combinations of words that are likely to garner high clickthrough rates. The more I read, the more creeped-out I got.

[Disclosure: Graham Scott is my son]

Halifax magazine editor and freelance writer compile Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books

The editor of Halifax magazine, Trevor Adams, and Halifax freelance writer Stephen Patrick Clare, have co-authored Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books. 

According to a story in Metro News, over 18 months the pair compiled the fat trade paperback with the help of hundreds of local experts who were asked to specify their top 10. From there, the top-100 was compiled.

“We are pretty passionate about Canadian literature and want to share that,” said Adams, the editor of Halifax Magazine.

“We wanted people to recognize the great things that are happening here. There is a really good representation from all four provinces. It’s a book for all of Atlantic Canada to be shared with the world.”

Clare said they were touched by how much people cared.

"One old lady sent us an email telling us that we had kept her up all night because she couldn’t decide what her favourite was. One guy sent in a top-60 because he refused to do a top-10 list.”...

One Dartmouth man submitted his self-published book from 30 different Hotmail accounts. But that couldn’t match Alistair MacLeod’s No Great Mischief for top spot. L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables came a close second.

Field & Stream editor talks about keeping service journalism fresh

"A service magazine is about teaching someone something and if it's hard, confusing or difficult to understand, you're done. The reader is not going to go back and re-read and try to understand what you were saying."

Magazines Canada has posted a 10-minute audio podcast with Anthony Licata, the editor-in-chief of Field and Stream magazine. In a conversation with Tina Pittaway recorded at last year's MagNet conference, Licata talks about keeping service articles fresh and surprising.

Since taking the helm at F&S in 2007, he undertook an ambitious redesign which landed that 114-year-old publication the general excellence award at the 2008 National Magazine Awards in the 2 - 3 million circ category, beating out favourites Vogue and The New Yorker. Newstand sales were up 8% in 2008, a solid accomplishment in any environment, let alone in the teeth of a recession.

Upstart service offers to sell magazine articles like iTunes sells music

A new web-based service modelled after iTunes is in beta testing to sell magazines piece-by-piece. Using Maggwire.com customers will be able to select a “channel” (like “politics” or “entertainment"), then get "premium" content from a series of "relevant" magazines, for, say, $1.99 a month, with an additional 99 cents per magazine that they want to add to the package. Maggwire would get 25% of the purchase price; the publishers would get the rest.

According to an article the New York Observer, Maggwire was started by three, former Wall Street investment analysts in their mid-20s, who left Deutsche Bank in July to start the company and raised initial working capital from family and friends. Right now, Maggwire is a free aggregator of articles from more than 650 publications, but says it will soon offer the premium service.

“We’re going to do for magazines what iTunes did for music,” [co-founder Ryan] Klenovich said.“The biggest threat to magazines is not competition from within the market, but with other forms of media....”

“The pricing has to be inexpensive to get users to adopt this in mass numbers,” Klenovich said. “That’s how iTunes became so successful at first—because the pricing was simple,” at 99 cents apiece for most songs.

The comparison with iTunes may be apt in all but one way; purchasers of individual cuts or whole albums through the online music service usually intend more than one-time use; one wonders whether the same will hold true to individual magazine articles.  We also know how well iTunes turned out for the music business...

Indian magazine foreign investment limits may be raised to 49%

The Indian government is considering raising the limit on foreign investment in Indian magazine businesses. Information and broadcasting ministerAmbika Soni told the annual meeting of the Indian Magazine Congress that assessment was being made of requests from media houses to increase the foreign direct ownership limit to 49% (it is now 26%).

Alluding to the growing international interest in the Indian magazine business and the government’s nod to the publication of Indian edition of foreign magazines dealing with news and current affairs, Soni asked key media players to evolve a consensus on the issue within the industry.

It was noted in a government release that in the last 5 years, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has given approvals for publications of 351 magazines/journals in FDI sector in the various genres of Indian entities publishing newspapers and periodicals.

Lush magazine relaunched

A story on Mastheadonline says that quarterly fashion title Lush magazine has been relaunched with a fall 2009 issue after being on a 9-month hiatus. The story indicates the relaunch has been enabled by new ownership, the Toronto-based Bassett Media Group. 

But that ownership is not so new; Lush was actually purchased almost two years ago by Bassett, in December 2007, as part of a move to diversify its out-of-home digital advertising business and go into publishing. At the time, the company said it planned to launch a second title in spring 2008 called Argyle, aimed at "elite corporate executives". 

Argyle was indeed launched and Bassett Publishing says its objective is "to produce high quality, stylish, thought-provoking magazines for the Canadian and international marketplace that cater to a wealthy, educated and influential demographic". It has a controlled quarterly circulation of 75,000 and is principally distributed by mail to members of the Cambridge Group of Clubs in Toronto and Montreal as well as being distributed selectively in Toronto and Montreal through the Globe and Mail and as public place copies in hotel lobbies, waiting rooms, spas and the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounges.  A full-page ad in Argyle is $9,950.

Lush is mostly distributed through selective inclusion in the Globe and Mail. (In 2007 the total was 130,000 copies and Bassett said it planned to increase the number of copies to 150,000 in spring 2008 and apply for a circulation audit.) Editorial director Mark Keast (whose Pennant Media Group launched Lush in 2005 with partner Mahfud Ibrahim) told Masthead that the magazine's circulation now is 100,000, of which 80% is through the Globe, with the remainder distributed at fashion events like the recent LG Fashion Week, through the Cambridge Group of Clubs, in floor racks at HDS stores in airports and on newsstands. (It is not known if a circulation audit is pending.) “Our focus going forward is to grow the paid circulation model via newsstand and subscribers,” says Keast. A full page ad in Lush is $12,753.

According to a statement in its media kit, Bassett Media Group has an exclusive marketing relationship with the Cambridge Group of Clubs to both sell sponsorship to club events and create new events for members in tandem with ad clients. Cambridge Group owns the Cambridge Club and the Adelaide Club in Toronto and Club Sportif MAA in Montreal. Its digital signage is soon to be installed in the clubs.

As an earlier post on Canadian Magazines reported,  the parent company, the Bassett Media Group , specializes in out-of-home digital advertising and its group includes Impulse Media (now 120 screens in Rexall Pharama Plus stores) and Concourse Media (now 60 screens in the Toronto financial district). According to The Canadian Press, the company is headed by Matthew Bassett, a son of the late Baton Broadcasting media magnate John Bassett and former TV personality and Ontario cabinet minister Isabel Bassett. In a 2007 release, Basset Media Group said it also intended to move into the wireless market with a bid on available spectrum in the auction to be held by the federal government. In the end, BMG was not one of the successful bidders.

Readers Digests's religious magazine venture fizzles

Purpose Driven Connection, a partnership between Readers Digest Association (RDA) and Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren -- which last year was being promoted as one of RDA's "most important and far-reaching ventures ever" -- is being discontinued as a print publication.  

Following its December issue, it will go online-only and be available free, according to a story in Folio:. Editor-in-chief Frank Lalli has already left the company, after closing the final issue. RDA is offering to refund unused print subscriptions and it is not clear what RDA's involvement will be in the online edition, if any.

“Our biggest discovery was learning that people prefer reading our content online rather than in print, because it is more convenient and accessible,” Warren said in a statement. “And, from our viewpoint, an online magazine allows us to minister to people internationally; provide more content and features than we could fit in a print magazine; create interaction and two-way dialogue; and offer it for free.”

Anatomy of a nosedive: analyst says U.S. audited circulation decline in 2009 highest in 40 years

Paid and audited circulation of consumer magazines in the U.S. in the first half of 2009 fell by 6.3% or about 17.3 million, the steepest decline in over 40 years, according to an article  by columnist Baird Davis in Audience Development magazine. In the previous 8 years (2000 - 2008) the annual average was only about 1.5%.

Davis said he included in his analysis ABC- and BPA-audited paid/verified consumer publication with more than 5,000 paid circulation. He did not include audited publications that are primarily association titles or  have "paid sponsored" circulation. His view is that combining paid circ magazines with so-called "association publications"  has made it more difficult to understand the circulation dynamics of a rapidly changing industry. Among the things his analysis revealed:

• Newsstand circulation -- which represents less than 15% of total circ -- fell 18.7% or 8.5 million, nearly as much as subscriptions. In the year 2000, newsstands represented 20.7% of circulation; in the first half of 2009, only 14.4%.
• In the first half of 2009, 23 new audited titles were added and 69 were discontinued or ceased being audited. The total number dropped from 545 in first half 2008 to 499 in the same period of 2009. 
• 183 publications decreased circulation by 5% or more; only 41 increased by 5% or more.

There is a growing use of questionable "partnership circulation",  he said, which has now overtaken verified as a circulation source.

"It took a major recession and a dramatic change in the media landscape, but it appears, based on the industry’s current circ decline, that publishers are finally loosening their grip on antiquated advertising-driven circulation philosophies and are being quicker to discontinue unprofitable publications. In the process, the universe of audited consumer paid circulation titles has become much more exclusive."

Bloomberg says it may charge $1,000 a year for some Business Week access

Bloomberg LP, the new owners of Business Week magazine, are apparently mulling over the possibility of charging $1,000 a year for access to stories about certain topics, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.

Boycott of Transcontinental Media titles now promoted by new website

The coalition of Canadian writers' organizations that are promoting a boycott of Transcontinental Media magazines, have launched a website called Bad Writing Contracts. The site is another tool in a kit that includes a blog, a Facebook group and posts on Twitter.

The boycott focuses on a proposed master agreement that Transcontinental is imposing on all freelance writers who work for any of its dozens of consumer or b2b magazines. Spokesmen for the coalition, Derek Finkle of the Canadian Writers Group (an agency) and David Johnston, then executive director of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) met with Transcontinental executives in July, but were rebuffed. On September 30, the coalition issued a press release calling for all writers to boycott all Transcontinental Media magazines.

The new site calls on writers and their supporters to get involved by (among other things) refusing to sign the contract and encouraging other writers to do the same, phoning Transon editors, urging their friends and families not to subscribe to Transcon titles and writing letters to local MPs saying that federal funding should not support magazines that refuse to treat writers fairly.

Little has been heard from either side since the press release was issued at the end of September, but the launch of the website is an indication that a settlement of this dispute is nowhere in sight.

Related posts:

• Derek Finkle of Canadian Writers Group responds to Marcoux statements
• Transcontinental contract is misunderstood, says senior executive
• Transcontinental Media said to be prepared to modify controversial freelance contract
• Transcon being pressed by industry reps to change proposed freelance contract
• Freelancers dismayed by Transcon’s new “take it or leave it” freelance contract

A fitting tribute

A death notice in the Globe and Mail on Tuesday was not particularly out of the ordinary, at least to start. It noted the passing on October 30 of "iconic" interior decorator John Manuel,   "one of the pillars of Hazelton Avenue" in Toronto's Yorkville. 
The notice praised his charm, his "flawless understated taste". As with most such notices it thanked friends, doctors and nurses at Toronto Grace Hospital and Mt Sinai Hospital who looked after him for the past year of his life. The out-of-the ordinary part was the spin on the usual "in memoriam" part of the notice:

A fitting tribute would be a donation to one of these institutions, Casey House, or a gift subscription to Canadian House and Home for a friend in decorating need.

[Thanks, Eithne]

Freelancers will be eligible for EI benefits under new bill

Magazine freelancers will now be able to enrol in the employment insurance (EI) system and collect benefits, starting in 2011, if a new federal bill is passed. According to a Canadian Press story, the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act essentially extends the special provision of the EI system to the self-employed for the first time, including maternity, parental, adoption, medical and compassionate-care benefits. 

The bill is designed to fulfill a Stephen Harper promise during the last election and it's clearly intended to appeal to the majority of self-employed who are women.

The number of self-employed women grew 234% between 1981 and 2006. People who participate in the program will pay the same premiums as salaried employees and will be expected to pay those premiums thereafter as long as they are self-employed. And no benefits can be claimed for the first year. Freelancers would have to earn at least $6,000 through self-employment in the year before claiming.

For freelancers, the most attractive aspects are probably the maternity benefits, which give up to 15 weeks for mothers, beginning 8 weeks before birth, sickness benefits, which provide for up to 15 weeks coverage for those unable to work and compassionate care benefits of up to 6 weeks for those who have to nurse a family member who is gravely ill. Parental benefits would also be available for up to 35 weeks, taken by either parent or shared between them while looking after newborns or newly-adopted children.

Magazine world view: Bulking up BW; beefing up WSJ; one-night stands?; digital mags' e-future?

• Business Week under Bloomberg: May charge for some online, bulk up mag (paidContent)
•  Apparel manufacturer to launch lifestyle magazine for nurses (Audience Development)
• Taking aim a the NYT, the WSJ beefs up New York coverage (paidContent) 
• Social media IS media (Dan McCarthy's ViralHousingFix)
•  Are magazine launches turning to $9.00 a pop “one-night stands?” (Mr. Magazine)
•  New York magazine sees 287 percent ROI boost from video platform (Audience Development) 
• What E-Readers mean for digital magazines ( Audience Development)
• What The Hell Does "Well Written" Mean? (Publetariat)

Design firm offers one lucky magazine a makeover

A Toronto graphics design firm, K9 Design Co., and a number of print-sector partners are offering one magazine the opportunity to win a makeover worth almost $20,000.

• a full magazine redesign by K9 Design Co.
• a cover consultation by circuation firm Circ 3
• a $5,000 credit towards digital processing with Dawson Communications - NXTBook Media
• A minium of 10% off invoices to a maximum of $5,000 from Ironstone Media (provided you spend a minimum of $7,000 an issue)
• $1,000 worth of printed promotional material for the new launch from Annex Printing 
• and 300 credits towards stock photography, worth a total of $450 from iStock
  

The deadline for entry is January 31 and the winner will be announced April 30. For more information, go to the Magazine Makeover website.

Readers choose late wolf pack leader as cover for Canadian Geographic

Readers of Canadian Geographic magazine have chosen as the cover subject for next month's wildlife issue, a photo of a famed, black wolf called Delinda, the late leader of the Banff pack . Online voters had a choice of three possible covers, two of which featured Delinda.

Delinda's death on the Trans-Canada Highway in September 2008 adds poignancy to the story; the editors of Canadian Geographic were unaware when the choice was made and they were told the story.

According to a story in Banff Crag & Canyon online, the wolf is well known to visitors and Bow Valleys residents since its image adorns one of Banff's hybrid buses. Canmore nature photographer John E. Marriott took the picture in January 2008 along the Canmore Parkway, one of many that he has taken of Delinda.

"Over the course of a couple years there — 2007, 2008 — I probably had 10 really good encounters with her," he said. "I didn't necessarily get photos every time, but 10 really good (encounters) — over a long period, or where she came really close, where I got to watch her across a river for a couple hours, that kind of thing . . . ."

Marriott was one of those called in to identify the body when she was killed. And said it's natural to feel that you build some form of a relationship with the animals you photograph.

US magazines face erosion of lucrative pharma ads

Clouds really do have silver linings, sometimes. What you don't have, you can't lose. 

Canadian publishers have lamented for years that direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical magazine advertising has been denied to them while American magazine were spilling over the border, stuffed with them, without let or hindrance. 

But, according to a story in Mediaweek, magazines in the U.S. may come to rue the day of their dependence on these lavish accounts, as lawmakers consider curbs on pharma advertising. In particular, they are looking sceptically at tax deduction on ad expenses for prescription drugs and at the effect advertising has on driving up medical costs.

Even before President Obama took office, buyers and publishers noticed a tempering in pharma spending, which some interpreted as an anticipation of a less-friendly attitude toward the industry.

Drug and remedies advertising in the past five years has soared 58% to $2.2 billion. (Paradoxically, as pharma became more important to magazines, they also became one of the lowest-return categories in the business because of deals that publishers have agreed to. Often, those secondary pages of teeny-tiny print about drug interractions, complications and side effects are free or nearly so.)

Previously dependable magazine ad dollars from pharma have also been shifting to the web, like many other categories, largely in terms of accountability and measurability and the perception that it is easier to target behaviour online.

Time Inc. expected to cut another 400 jobs in face of declining revenues

Last fall, Time Inc. cut 600 jobs to save $150 million. This week, probably Wednesday, according to a story in MediaDailyNews, it is expected to eliminate up to 400 more jobs as the company plans to cut another $100 million in costs in the face of continuing decline in advertising and circulation revenue -- ad revenues down 26%, circ revenues 22.2% in the 2nd quarter of the year.

Another large publisher, Meredith Corporation, is expected to announce more revenue declines in its 3rd quarter, with total revenues down 9% and the national media group (including magazines) down 7.5%. Meredith has been saying the relatively small declines are good news, particularly the company's share of overall industry ad revenues, though this is apparent share increase is of a significantly diminished pie.

Magazine fact book brings good news in the face of hard times

Magazine's Canada today released its 2009 magazine fact book, which casts a distinctly positive light on magazine publishing in this country and provides lots of ammunition to push back when the next person tells you that magazines are doomed. While the purpose of the publication is unabashedly to spin a good story, it is hard not to come away from it without feeling that we're in a robust and resilient business.

The fact book data, published annually, is mostly about consumer titles. But with its move last year to welcome business titles into the association, Magazines Canada plans soon to release a similar b2b fact book  by the advertising. (The fact book is available now in English and a French version is due out soon.)

(The table above demonstrates how the strong  connection between magazines and their readers has resulted in magazine advertising revenue growing faster than all other major media combined.)

BC coalition writes 100 times to Premier Campbell about arts cuts

B.C. premier Gordon Campbell is or will be receiving a batch of 100 letters from The Coalition for the Defence of Writing & Publishing in B.C. in support of restoring funding to the province’s literary arts groups. The premier should expect another batch in November.

The B.C. Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP), the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. and B.C. BookWorld formed the coalition in response to the elimination of provincial funding to the organizations by the arts & culture sector of the ministry of tourism, culture & the arts (Hon. Kevin Krueger).

A press release notes that Campbell is Canada's most literate publisher, judging by the fact that he is the only provincial leader who maintains a website to talk about the books he reads. The purpose of the 100 letters is to ask him what has happened to his resolve to be a champion of literacy and reading and to see BC as the most literate place in North America.

"We are asking him to take a personal stand on this provincial issue -- not for us, but on behalf of all British Columbians who want to continue to read and write and publish books and magazines about this province," said Rhona MacInnes, executive director of BCAMP.

The coalition is promoting a new slogan, “KEEP B.C. READING,” which will also be used to promote the stabilization of funding for the B.C. Arts Council, whose client arts groups, including writers and publishers, face further provincial cuts.

Related posts:

• Western Magazine Awards sees modest grant eliminated
  
• B.C. culture ministry cuts 100% of BCAMP funds as part of "literary clearcut"
• Federal minister Moore acknowledges "devastating" nature of BC arts cuts
•  BC magazine community dealing with quadruple funding whammy