Transcon being pressed by industry reps to change proposed freelance contract

The contentious new "master" agreement that Transcontinental Media is attempting to force all freelance writers to sign has resulted in a meeting with Transcon senior executives. While the meeting itself did not resolve the issue, it may eventually lead to a reconsideration or renegotiation of the terms of the agreement.

Derek Finkle of the Canadian Writers Group, David Johnston, the executive director of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) and Derek's lawyer Iain McKinnon, met on July 16th with senior executives at Transcontinental Media to express the writing communities concerns and dismay regarding their new contract.

According to a bulletin sent to PWAC members:

The Transcontinental representatives asserted that the permanence of the agreement and the granting of copyright, albeit non-exclusive, would not have any impact on a writer's ability to earn a living. We, along with our legal representative, expressed strong disagreement. The Transcon VPs suggested this was an issue to be raised with their lawyers in Montreal. Derek and I, in consultation with Iain McKinnon and Michael Levine of Goodmans LP and Westwood Creative Artists will be attempting to renegotiate the terms of the agreement next week.

PWAC and Finkle's agency, the Canadian Writers Group, have gathered the support of the following agencies and organizations to encourage their writers not to sign Transcontinental's Master Agreement:

• Canadian Freelance Union (CFU)
• The Cooke Agency
• Federation of BC Writers
• Quebec Writers Federation
• Saskatchewan Writers Guild
• Westwood Creative Artists
• Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Writers Federation of New Brunswick
• Writers Federation of Nova Scotia
• Writers Union of Canada

Related posts:

• Freelancers dismayed by Transcon's new "take it or leave it" contract

Canadian Freelance Union to hold inaugural meeting October 3

The quiescent Canadian Freelance Union is apparently rumbling to life. In a bulletin to members, interim president Michael OReilly says that the inaugural meeting of members will be held October 3, with a number of physical sites and electronic links for other places. A draft set of bylaws have been put together by members of the interim executive and interested CFU members and will soon be available via the CFU's online web forum for a full discussion and editing.

OReilly says that the new union has a 3-year commitment of funding and support from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

He also announced that long-suffering charter members, some of whom signed up to show their interest as long as three years ago (the CFU was first announced in August 2005), will receive a discount on the first year of dues. Normal dues will be $125; charter members will pay $100 for the first year.

Among the member benefits detailed in the memo are:

• A contract advice service to help members interpret and understand what they are signing.
• A formal contract support to help members deal with disputes over payment, rights usage or other problems.
• A "Red Flag" service to warn members about unscrupulous engagers.
• A basic benefits plan (details to follow).
• Access to full benefits packages at rates far lower than would normally be possible (leveraging linkages to the CEP)
• A hiring hall which will link members to work, and work to members.
• Use of the CFU bug (following our inaugural meeting).
• The start of efforts to negotiate better freelance contracts from some of the country's largest publishers such as Quebecor, Transcontinental, Canwest, Rogers, etc.
• A web forum (which at the time of writing had not posted the member bulletin)

Related posts:

• Canadian Freelance Union: a lamentably long time coming
• Organizing notes from the CFU
• Freelance union getting organized
• Freelance union holds information meeting

J-Source is seeking a new editor-in-chief

[This post has been updated] J-Source, the website for The Canadian Journalism Project, is seeking a new editor-in-chief as Ivor Shapiro, an associate professor at Ryerson University's School of Journalism and J-Source's founding editor, steps down. The new EIC will start in January.

The part-time job is said to involve about 10 hours a week (an estimate that most of us bloggers will look on with scepticism) would pay a maximum honourarium of $7,500 a year (it is new -- Shapiro did not receive it), provided by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. In fact, the project has so far been subsidized by Ryerson kicking free Shapiro to do the work (what is called a 'funded teaching release').

The job description is here.

"We call it a 'job description,' but the word job both overstates and understates the case." says Shapiro in a note on the site. "The post of EIC is, and will remain, a labour of love, demanding about 10 hours a week on average. As with the other editors and contributing editors, the EIC's work is an expression of commitment to the vision of a Web space offering news, commentary and help for journalists, and for those studying, teaching or following journalism in this country."

Shapiro will continue at Ryerson and remain involved with the Canadian Journalism Project as well as being chair of the ethics committee of the Canadian Association of Journalists.

Faith Today launches digital edition

Faith Today, the magazine of the Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Canada, is going digital. Its latest issue is online for free to all, but the digital edition and a two-year archive will only be available to paying subscribers. (A one-year print subscription is $24.15 and a single copy is $4.50.)

Ad spenders showing more optimism in spending plans

Could this be the bottom?

Marketers are more optimistic than their agencies, as pessimism gives way to optimism in the world of advertising, according to the latest bi-monthly Advertiser Optimism Report released this week by Advertiser Perceptions Inc. According to a story in MediaDaily News, plans are improving for every medium in the U.S. except for local newspapers, and that digital media such as online and mobile advertising are indexing well on the optimistic side of advertising spending plans. Magazine advertising status is still "pessimistic" but the trend is improving. The report is based on a survey of more than 200 media decision makers.

Quote, unquote: the lure of substance

“I think our success is an indication that there’s a cultural shift toward substance that can benefit magazines that write substantively about the subjects shaping our lives and futures. Perhaps more importantly, it’s an indication that strong ideas can still find a market.”

-- Jay Lauf, publisher of The Atlantic, speculating about why the magazine's July-August "Ideas" issue increased revenue by 36% over last year, pullling in the most ad revenue of any issue in the magazine's history. Online, the associated special report boosted June ad sales by 8% and so far in July, by 50%.

"Work with me here" -- the real world of vendor-client relationships

For all of you who struggle with selling magazine ads, this will seem eerily familiar...
[hat tip to Ken McGoogan on the TFEW list]

Bonnie Fuller goes Hollywood, as EIC of celebrities website

Bonnie Fuller, the Canadian expat who made good in New York, has been quiet of late, after her ouster as queen of the tabloids.

When she was removed last May from her position as vice-president and chief editorial director of American Media Inc., which publishes Star, Shape, Men's Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health, and The National Enquirer, it seemed that her meteoric career trajectory was taking a nosedive. She was shunted into a consulting job and the occasional blogging on the Huffington Post and not much has been heard since. She had said she was looking for backing for Bonnie Fuller Media and was going to start her own independent site. Clearly the search for funds didn't go well.

Now Fuller, who got her start as a fashion reporter at the Toronto Star and became the editor of Flare magazine then shot to prominence in New York heading up Women's Wear Daily, Glamour and then US Weekly, has resurfaced as the website editor-in-chief and president of Hollywood Life, a Los Angeles-based celebrities site. According to a story in the New York Times,

The site is owned by Mail.com Media Corporation, which was founded by Jay Penske, the youngest son of famed auto racer and automotive executive Roger Penske. Mail.com also owns MovieLine.com and OnCars.com and made a splash last month when it announced it had purchased Deadline Hollywood Daily, the Los Angeles Web site run by Nikki Finke that covers the entertainment industry.

Not surprisingly, Fuller is going to shake things up and it looks like she'll spend most of her time in New York with occasional trips to Los Angeles. She told the Times that the site was going to be casting a wide net when it comes to celbrities:

“Celebrities come from such a much broader spectrum,” she said. “My audience is just as interested in Sarah Palin as they are in Miley Cyrus. We have a celebrity president and reality stars like Jon and Kate have been one of the most important stories of the year. It’s not just about movie stars anymore.”

[photo: Ruth Fremson, New York Times]

Paste readers care, they really care

The music magazine Paste was on its uppers two months ago and appealed to its readers for donations, lest it be necessary for it to close. Well, some 10,000 donations (!) later, it has raised $250,000. Editor-in-chief Josh Jackson says the campaign will wrap up this month. Donors receive exclusive tracks from artists including the Indigo Girls, Josh Rouse, Matthew Sweet and The Decemberists. Paste has a paid circulation of about 250,000.

Chidley is special projects czar for Maclean's & Canadian Business

[This post has been updated]Canadian Business editor Joe Chidley (right) has been appointed to the position of editor and associate publisher, special projects unit, at Maclean's and Canadian Business magazines. The new position is effective immediately and Chidley will assume overall editorial responsibility for Maclean's university rankings and guide, as well as other important editorial projects at Maclean's and Canadian Business.

Steve Maich, the executive editor of Maclean's has been named editor and associate publisher of Canadian Business.

[Update: Not announced in the upbeat Rogers Publishing releases was the fact that at the same time the senior management changes were made, Canadian Business art director Tim Davin and Marc Reppin, the head of the CB website, were let go, [further update] as was Tony Keller, managing editor of special projects for Maclean's.]

Chidley, who pioneered the annual Canadian Business MBA guide and now will also oversee content for annual lists such as Canadian Business magazine's Investor 500 ranking and the Rich 100 ranking (colloquially called the "rich list" around CB).

Ken Whyte, the Vice-President and Publisher of Maclean's, Canadian Business, PROFIT, and MoneySense magazines, said in a release:

"I'm delighted Joe has accepted this promotion so that we can further employ his talents. In particular, his leadership will ensure the continued growth of Maclean's as the definitive Canadian voice on higher education."

"I'm looking forward to returning to Maclean's while still having the opportunity to continue working with my colleagues at Canadian Business," says Chidley. "Not only will I have the honour of shaping the voice of some of the most high-profile and respected education packages in the country, I'll be doing so at a publication where I spent the early years of my career in journalism."

In addition to publishing the very well-known and profitable university rankings and guidebook, Maclean's also unveiled its first-annual student survey issue in 2007 and the first professional schools issue last year. (The magazine also launched the OnCampus education channel at Macleans.ca.)

Chidley's appointment and that of Maich follow some major changes at Rogers consumer publishing, including the departure of longtime Canadian Business and Profit publisher Deborah Rosser in favour of Whyte's appointment last month to run not only Maclean's but also the company's three business magazines. Now he has put in place two senior editorial people to take some of the publishing load.

The wayback machine

It has been a while since we cranked up the wayback machine. Here's what was happening a year or two ago in Canadian Magazines.

This time a year ago...

• You guys are afraid to talk about abortion, Maclean's tells its readers
  
• Bayard Presse Canada buys out religious partner
• Maclean's reader says sex numbers don't add up
• Front Page newsstand, an Edmonton fixture, to close
• Will cultural mags be able to meet the CRA fundraising benchmarks?
• IABC claim about online ad sales questioned

This time two years ago...

• Quebecor withdraws bond issue it planned to use to buy Osprey
• Jane magazine RIP
• Gay magazine dispenses with "plain brown wrapper"
• British city government fed up with paying the cleanup cost of free newspapers
• Sara Angel out as editor of Chatelaine
• Comics publishers squeeze Canadian newsstand buyers

Sway launches paid national distribution on newsstands

Sway, a controlled quarterly magazine for the black community, is branching out from the greater Toronto area to be distributed nationally.

According to a story in Media in Canada, the magazine will now be available in all Chapters and Indigo stores. It will continue to be distributed free in most of the GTA, but a cover price of $4.95 will apply on the stands.

Quote, unquote: the changing subsidy model for journalism

Journalism written for that fraction of the population that follows the news closely has always been subsidized. For the last century, newspaper journalism had direct subsidy from advertisement and cross-subsidy from sports fans and coupon clippers who never really cared about the city council or the coup in Madagascar. The packages containing news have been so bundled and cross-funded that we’ve never really known precisely the size of the audience for actual civic-minded reporting, or how much direct fees from that audience would amount to. We do know, however, that the rough answers are “Small” and “Not much,” answers that suggest radical transformation, now that the media environment in which those subsidies flourished is gone.

-- Clay Shirky, in a lead essay in the Cato Unbound blog, writing about how the future of journalism is bound up in the way journalism is subsidized.

Because they could...Wallpaper* prints white-on-white cover

Wallpaper magazine has produced a subscribers-only version of its current issue that has a white-on-white logo and a pictograph cover image or 'rebus' which paradoxically spells out "I hate design". According to a story in the Guardian, the only thing that distinguishes the type from the page is that the lettering has a lacquer finish, which makes them seem dove-grey when held in a certain light.

The cover is the work, or the inspiration, of design iconoclast Neville Brody and is one of a series of llimited-edition offerings the magazine makes to its subscribers. Brody explains his decision as follows:

"Firstly, as this is the subscription version, I thought that to re/overstate the name of the magazine was not necessary – the subscriber knows exactly what it is, and certainly shouldn't need to know any of the other details such as prices in other countries, or even in the UK as it is paid for under a different subscription price structure.

"The name already appears on the spine if anyone is still confused. We do tend to inform these days to the point of overkill. Pure marketing paranoia.

"Secondly, as an invited 'artist' I felt that the basis should be a blank canvas. The inside already states Wallpaper, so there shouldn't be a further need to respond to the masthead on the front cover.

"The third reason was one of attempting to match the message within the artwork I was working on by reducing clutter, making the point about the need for a quieter and less visually/textually polluted experience in our approach to communications."

Zoomer publishers to channel content to TMXmoney.com

Zoomer Media Limited, the publishers of Zoomer magazine have announced they are providing online content to the website TMXmoney.com, which has more than one million unique visitors and 30 million pages views a month across North America.

Zoomer's website 50plus.com will provide health, personal finance and lifestyle content to TMX, which operate various stock and bond markets, including the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, Montreal Exchange. TMXmoney.com, carries North American quotes, charts and news, plus current information on Canadian and US market indices and movers as well as various financial tools.

Waddya want? Subway fare?

• Rogers Communications owns the Blue Jays baseball club as well as the majority of the magazines in Canada (counting consumer and trade titles).
• The Blue Jays are the featured guests at a reunion of the 92/93 World Series-winning team as part of the Back2Back Weekend.
  
• Presumably, as the owners, Rogers gets a bunch of tickets for the gala dinner at the Carlu for free.
• It is offering two seats at its "premium table" to readers of its EverBetter website, aimed at people old enough to remember how long ago it was that the Jays were champs.
• Hopefuls have to provide a "favourite Blue Jays memory", which becomes the property of Rogers.
• The quality of the memory matters not; the two tickets are decided by a random draw.
  
• And Rogers makes clear that the tickets are all the winners get: Rogers Publishing is only offering the tickets to the event. Travel and expenses to and from the event are not provided, and are the responsibility of the winner (boldface theirs)

Bridal blogger hopefuls compete for Weddingbells honeymoon trip

Weddingbells magazine (St. Joseph Media) is offering it readers who are in various stages of planning a 2010 wedding to compete for the right to blog for the magazine's website Weddingbells.ca

Until September 4, contenders can enter in one of seven categories -- some of which are obvious (Traditional -- the traditional bells and whistles of a church ceremony, big party, sit-down dinner, toasts, dancing…the works) and others, not so much (Eco -- bringing environmental awareness to a wedding, a green bride will ensure the care of the planet is paramount).

Entrants submit a photo and a 250-word blog entry saying why they are a perfect Weddingbells blogger. The prize is, for the seven finalists, having their weddings featured on the website and becoming a blogger for 6 months. Then readers will vote for their favourite blogger. The winner will have her wedding featured in Weddingbells magazine and get a $5,000 week-long trip for two to the Mayan Riviera.

Amex's Travel + Leisure partners with Hudson News for Vancouver airport store

Magazine-branded stores are not exactly a new thing at airports (viz Maclean's at Toronto's Terminal 3), but the fit seems quite good for a partnership between American Express Publishing's Travel + Leisure magazine and Hudson News, which have jointly opened a new store at Vancouver International airport.

A release says it's the first of what are expected to be several similar stores at Halifax International and at New York's Kennedy airport, plus mini-stores with the Travel + Leisure brand will be located in Hudson's airport retail Galleries in places like Orlando, Florida and San Francisco. The goods will include luggage and travel accessories, maps and travel guids and, of course, current editions of Travel + Leisure and its sister publication Food & Wine.

The Hudson Group operates more than 550 newsstands, bookstores and specialty retail stores in 69 airports across North America. The retail concept is the first partnership that Hudson has struck with a magazine.

"As the first magazine brand to have its own signature retail space with Hudson Group, Travel + Leisure now has another touchpoint to engage and service our readers. It also provides us with unique marketing opportunities that we can share with our advertising partners," said J.P. Kyrillos, vp/publisher.

Maisonneuve publisher Derek Webster moves to be ME at Reader's Digest

[This post has been updated]Derek Webster, the founder and publisher of the highly respected and award-winning Maisonneuve magazine, has joined Reader's Digest as its managing editor. A release from the company today said that Webster will be in charge of daily operations of the magazine and will work with Robert Goyette, editor-in-chief, magazines and vice-president.

It's not known who will replace Websterat Maisonneuve or what the long-term implications are for the quarterly; there is no question that it is a major leap from running a smallish literary quarterly to managing the content of Canada's largest circulation magazine.

[Update: Derek Webster tells us:

Maisy stopping? Rumours of the old girls' demise are greatly exaggerated! Or more accurately, no more or less exaggerated than usual for a small Canadian arts magazine. My co-editor and colleague of seven years Carmine Starnino is going to continue to produce the magazine, with young talent Drew Nelles as associate editor. Same award-winning time, same award-winning channel.]

RD publishes 5 magazines, including Reader’s Digest and Sélection, Canada's most read magazines with 7.6 million readers a month. It has recently launched Best Health, a healthy lifestyle magazine for Canadian women and More of Our Canada, a companion magazine to Our Canada magazine, one of the most robust launches in recent years. It operates 4 branded web sites and publishes books, music and video products.

Webster founded Maisonneuve seven years ago and under his leadership it won numerous awards, including, magazine of the year (2005) at the National Magazine Awards. It was also named magazine of the year in 2006 by the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors, and newsstand magazine of the year in 2007 at the Canadian Newsstand Awards.

[Maisonneuve press release re Webster's departure.]

BCAMP board election announced

The BC Association of Magazine Publishers 2009/10 board of directors, elected at its annual general meeting June 27 include directors-at-large Dave Allen (CEO, Just Business People Magazine), Patrick Mackenzie (managing editor, subTerrain), Alex Moreau (publisher, Between The Cracks), Alexandra Samur (managing editor, Ricepaper) and Janine Verreault (editor, Youthink). They join newly appointed president Elizabeth Rains (publisher, Pacific Rim Magazine), vice-president Kim Mah, (managing editor, TVWeek), treasurer Jennifer MacLeod (circulation manager, Color), secretary Melissa Revington (circulation development manager, NUVO) and director-at-large Allison Bauman (advertising director, The Tyee). BCAMP represents 82 publications in British Columbia.

McGraw Hill puts BusinessWeek magazine up for sale

BusinessWeek magazine is apparently being sold. According to a report by Bloomberg News, the parent company the McGraw-Hill has hired an investment bank Evercore Partners Inc. to handle the sale, which was apparently prompted by continued erosion of advertising. The magazine had $43.9 million in ad revenue in the 2nd quarter, down 30 percent from the same period a year ago; ad pages were down 34%.

BusinessWeek was founded in 1929 and has about 4.8 million readers weekly in 140 countries.