United Kingdom Magzines

"I’ve used the example in the past, but look at what National Geographic did. They started out as a sleepy old magazine company owned by a not-for-profit organization. They are now a channel. You can go on trips with them around the world. They have stores. They have games for schools. They have educational materials. They have super-served their consumers in a way that their brand allows it to

Water Canada magazine built its reputation with its audience by creating an annual Waters Next awards and showcase for the water community -- people and companies working to expand and improve water and wastewater management. It's a good example of making your magazine indispensable to specialist readers who may also be entrants and expert judges. 

From some 90 submissions, 8 awards were made 

"Our business has always been a fickle one. New management comes in and often wants to bring in their own team members. It can be shocking, particularly if you are being let go just after having completed a successful and lucrative project, or at the end of a record-breaking year. The key is to leave with grace, to remember one's strengths, and to be honest in future interviews about what

There's always something new, or odd, or wonderful in the magazine business, never more so than Colour Calm, the bimonthly colouring magazine for grownups. Its intention, says British publisher Future plc, is to promote relaxation and creativity. The first issue of the magazine has 116 pages and 56 patterns of intricate designs that should satisfy even the most inveterate o-filler and doodler.

It was predicted -- and predictable* -- that the sale of Transcontinental Media's consumer magazines to the Quebecor Media's TVA Group would result in major organizational changes. A report in Mastheadonline says that some 25 layoffs were made late last week, many of them (paradoxically, it might seem) at the flagship brand Canadian Living. The layoffs included 


longtime executive editor Doug

Readers who are used to picking up their Metro freepaper in Toronto Transit Commission stations will be finding 24 Hrs in its place, starting next month.  According to a Globe and Mail story, Postmedia outbid Torstar for the three-year contract to stock 24 Hrs in Gateway Newsstands at more than 90 TTC and GO Transit stations. Metro, whose daily circulation has been about 500,000 copies  will

The announced sale of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for $353 million to a retail licensing company marks the dwindling end of a 25-year magazine publishing saga. Sequential Brands Group paid about 18% of what the company was worth when MSLO went public only 15 years ago. The transaction includes two magazines; the iconic flagship Martha Stewart Living, the foundation of the whole enterprise,

Canadian Art's Summer 2015 issue contains, for the first time, a 35-page Collecting Guide. The new issue, now on newsstands, was launched officially Thursday night at the Olga Korper Gallery. Editor Richard Rhodes and associate editor David Balzer reported on the Venice Biennale. The issue contains a feature story about Canadian Art Writing Prize winner Amy Luo’s interview with Vancouver artist

Better Homes And Gardens Bows Redesigned Site Optimized For Mobile  (MediaDailyNews)
Bonnier generates 25 per cent of its revenue from digital (FIPP)
Time Out Kuala Lumpur launches specialist magazine for families (FIPP)
Rodale Teams With Chef’d to Deliver Meals (Folio:)
Guardian Media Group appoints David Pemsel as chief executive (Guardian)
There’s Nothing “Old” About This Old House (Mr.

Spring 2015

Québec Franchise is celebrating 20 years of publication. The 3-times annual magazine has been a reference for those who wish to go into business (franchise) or be self-employed (microfranchise). Its magazine and web editions has adapted itself to not only the evolving franchise and business opportunities market but also to the changing needs of prospective entrepreneurs.

The board of the CMC, Circulation Marketing Association of Canada, recently elected for 2015-16 is

Neena SainiAhee – Circulation Analyst, Rogers Publishing
Kathryn Eves – Marketing Manager, Zoomer
Anita Baldwinson – Manager, Retail Services | Marketing; TNG
Garth Atkinson – Principal, Publication Partners Limited
Amanda Beattie – Circulation Manager, Rogers Publishing 
Ron Sellwood – Account

A major new study by Reuters (summarized by a story in the Columbia Journalism Review), on the state of digital news says that the growing use of ad blockers threatens not only legacy publications (in other words, print) but also the disruptors (in other words, things such as Buzzfeed and Huffington Post). Just 11% of US consumers are paying for online news and this hasn't increased since 2013.

Lianne George has been promoted to editor-in-chief of Chatelaine magazine. Since 2014, when The Grid closed, George has served as editorial director of Rogers Media's flagship women's title. She replaces Karine Ewart who had been in the chair about 17 months; Rogers's announcement made no mention of Ewart's departure.

Ewart moved over from Today's Parent in January 2014 to replace Jane Francisco

A Toronto branding agency called Goods & Services has launched a magazine called Sway: A Journal of Branding. It says it is designed for “people who build and guide companies, collaborate
on marketing teams, manage brands at agencies, or who just want to find out more about branding.” It makes no secret of its promotional nature.

"Like Goods & Services itself, Sway explores all facets of brand

TC Media has entered into a partnership to be the exclusive reseller of StrongView, a platform that can be used by digital clients such as Sunwing Vacations and The Blue Hive (Ford Motor company agency) in their "contextual messaging" campaigns. TC Media sends more than 2 billion personalized emails and 100 million SMS messages a year on behalf of Canadian retailers and advertisers. StrongView is

In the digital age, the magazine cover has become a separate entity, no longer necessarily attached to the rest of the magazine. Digital did for the magazine cover what it did for articles -- it gave them a life of their own. Many readers, for instance, will encounter a cover on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter long before they see it in print, extending its reach with every “like” and share.

USPS's Court Victory Could Cost Mailers Billions (Dead Tree Edition)
BNP Media Buys Architectural Record  (Folio:)
Consumer Reports Shuts Down ShopSmart and MoneyAdvisor (Folio:)
800 years after the Magna Carta, does Britain have a free press? (Guardian)
Print advertising tipped to make up just 5% of total spend by 2019 (Guardian)
Bestowing everything her subjects need for a good life, the

PUT YOUR SHORT-STORY WRITING SKILLS TO USE FOR AN EXCELLENT CAUSE!

Call to writers anywhere -- here's your chance to make a difference in the world and be published in a high-quality anthology.

Update, Jan. 8, 2016: We now have enough high-quality stories for this anthology, so the call for submissions is now closed. Thanks for your interest!

Please consider joining us to help reduce child labor in Asia.

Could you write a compelling short story with a third-world child as protagonist if you were provided plenty of background information?

Would you be willing to donate your story to be included in an anthology for sale, the proceeds of which would go to help rescue kids enslaved as factory, mine, or industrial workers, working long hours in poor conditions, often without pay?

If so, join us in producing

Editor and award-winning author, Jodie Renner, and publisher Cobalt Books are organizing a high-quality anthology of well-written short stories very loosely based on actual stories of young children freed from forced labor in Asia. All the authors and the editor are donating their time, talents, and efforts to the production of this anthology, and 100% of the royalties will go to Save the Children, a highly respected charitable organization dedicated to helping needy children around the world.


For this first anthology in a series to help third-world children regain their childhood, an education, and a future, we'll concentrate on children under 14 employed in factories and mines in South Asia: Nepal, Pakistan, and India. Resource materials will be provided to the writers to read the stories of real South Asian children working in difficult situations, to use for background information.

Future projects will hopefully expand to situations in China, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

*Please scroll down to see the guidelines for stories for this anthology.*

How long should the stories be, and who is the target audience?

At this point, we're aiming for about 14 to 18 short stories total, average length 1,500 to 5,000 words each, so the anthology would be roughly 50,000 to 70,000 words long.

The target readership is young people to adults, aged 11 and up, North Americans, Brits, Australians, and other people in developed countries who can make a difference in the lives of Asian children who have been denied their childhood. School librarians will love it.


Deadline and expectations:

Deadline is January 31, 2016. Promising stories will receive editing assistance, if needed, to bring the story up to the high standards we have set for this anthology. Stories received so far have been excellent, so this will be an anthology to be proud of!

As we expect to receive many stories for possible inclusion in this anthology, some submissions may not be accepted, similar to the process for any other reputable short story anthology. Your story will need to be compelling and written in the point of view of a fictional Asian child.

You will need to go over your story several times to make sure it's of a high quality, with no typos, spelling errors, or grammatical errors (except of course in dialogue!). If the story is strong but just needs minor suggestions or a final polish to clean it up, our editorial committee will do that, and send it back to you, the author, with the changes visible in Track Changes, and comments and suggestions in the margin. You will have lots of input into the final version published. (See down for comments by authors about Jodie's editing of short stories.)

We'll also be including some line drawings, so if you know of any good artists, please ask them to contact Jodie at info@JodieRenner.com.

See an author CHECKLIST below.

How will the anthology be sold, and how will it benefit the children working in arduous conditions in factories in Asia?
 
We will sell the anthology in both e-book and trade paperback form, initially through Amazon and expand from there. It is expected that all contributors will promote the anthology on social media and in their communities and also hand-sell some copies locally.

All the writers and editor Jodie Renner (and possibly other editors, if needed) will donate our time and skills for free, so after paying the cover designer, printer, and distributor, 100% of the book royalties will go to a respected charitable organization. Specific details to be shared when you contact me.

For accountability, Jodie will regularly forward to all contributors the book sales stats and the receipts from charities for our donations from book sales.

If you are interested in helping this worthy cause by putting your skills at writing fiction or creative nonfiction to good use, or have further questions or suggestions, please contact Jodie at info@JodieRenner.com. Use "Anthology for Kids" in your subject line.

How will it work for the writers?

For those interested, please contact Jodie Renner with your idea before starting your story, as she needs to coordinate all stories. At that time, she will send you a package for resource materials. The idea is to read through the background information, then make up your own story, possibly using bits and pieces of info from the various stories.

If your story is accepted for publication in the anthology, you will of course have your name included as author of your story. You will retain all rights to your story.

You'll also have your photo and a short bio with links on our "About the Authors" page. This is a great way to get a story of yours in print to add to your bio.

You will also receive a free print copy of the anthology.

And of course we will all have the satisfaction of making a difference for children in dire, inhumane situations.

Thank you for considering helping with this very worthy cause.

If this project works, we can consider other similar projects to help underprivileged children or to help end human trafficking and slavery. Please contact me with any ideas you may have for other projects like this.

Please share this with writers you know. Also, please leave any comments, questions, or suggestions you may have in the comment boxes below. Thanks!

CHECKLIST for Authors Submitting a Short Story for CHILDREN BEHIND TURNED BACKS - Exposing the Plight of Asian Children

_ Is my story realistic, rather than cartoon-like or with obviously make-believe characters and elements?

_ Is my story written from the point of view of an Asian child living in difficult circumstances?
   Can be in first-person ("I") or third-person ("he" or "she"). Try to capture that child's "voice."

_ Is my protagonist’s life handled in a sensitive manner, respecting the child’s resilience, strength, and determination?

_ Does my story have the potential to expand a North American child’s knowledge, vision, and understanding of conditions for children in underprivileged countries?

_ Will my story engage the interest and emotions of young readers and adults and hopefully encourage them to try to do something to help others who are less fortunate?

_ Will my story interest and appeal to young people aged 11 and up, and hopefully to adults as well? 

_ Does it contain an opening “hook” to incite reader curiosity? 

_ Will it hold readers' attention to the end?

_ Does my story have enough tension and conflict to make readers worry about and care about the young people depicted?

_ Does my story end well for the young protagonist?

_ Do the narration and dialogue reflect the ages and situation of the children in the story?

_ Is my story between 1,500 and 5,000 words long?

_ Have others checked my story to make sure there are no:

  - Overly long sentences

  - Words young people may not be familiar with

  - Unnecessary or meaningless words

  - Spelling and grammatical errors

_ Submission requirements – Please send it in a Microsoft Word document, not a PDF.

   Formatting: Times New Roman font, 12-point, double-spaced, paragraphs indented, no extra space between paragraphs.

*Don't double-space by clicking "enter" or "return" at the ends of the lines! That causes all kinds of problems! Here's how to double-space your story: Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+2.
Or leave it single-spaced and we'll double-space it.

Who is Jodie Renner and how is she qualified to edit and publish this book?

A former middle-school teacher and school librarian with a master's degree, I'm now a respected editor, publisher, and award-winning author, with two websites, a blog, and a strong social media presence, including over 4,500 Facebook friends. As such, I'm in an excellent position to organize and provide editorial guidance for a professional-looking, high-quality anthology of short stories based on the lives of these unfortunate children. I will of course promote it to all my contacts on social media, locally, and in my email newsletter.

I have edited a lot of short stories and judged short stories for many contests and anthologies, including Writer's Digest several times, so I will lead the editorial committee, who will make the final choice on which stories will be accepted.

Since I have published five books to date through my publishing company, Cobalt Books, the plan is to hire a professional cover designer to create a high-quality cover, then edit, format, and publish this anthology through Cobalt Books.

Six of the many reviews/testimonials for Jodie's editing of short stories. For more, see www.JodieRenner.com/Testimonials.

“I had the honor of working with Jodie Renner on two short stories for her anthology, Childhood Regained - Stories of Hope for Asian Child Workers. Wow! I was amazed at how thoroughly she edited. In repeated passes she helped me fix and polish until, each time, we had a story I was proud of. I'm already asking her to edit my future projects.”
   ~ Steve Hooley, author

“I knew that Jodie Renner was highly respected for her editing of novels, and I was pleased to discover, several years ago, that she also edits short stories. Jodie has assisted me, through  interactive online editing, in getting four of my short stories and numerous poems published. One of my short stories was published in an anthology out of Berkeley, California, while two others were awarded second prize and honourable mention in Canadian Anthologies. Thanks to Jodie’s editing skills, I am now proud to call myself a published author.”
    ~ D.F. Barrett

“Jodie edited my novel Daughter of No One and she also edited the two short stories I submitted for her anthology, Childhood Regained. Jodie is a pleasure to work with and she’s a true professional. Her suggestions, on both choice of word and content, were invariably spot-on and helped to make the stories so much better. I couldn’t ask for anything better and so I highly recommend her.”
    ~ Caroline Sciriha

“My first experience with a professional editor turned out to be a rewarding experience. Jodie Renner edited my short story ‘Firestorm’ for the anthology, Voices from the Valleys. From start to finish it was a positive, learning experience. I figured after editing, the story might not reflect my writing voice, but to my amazement the editing made ‘Firestorm’ a much more powerful story. Thanks, Jodie.”       
  ~ William S. Peckham


Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Captivate Your Readers, Fire up Your Fiction, and Writing a Killer Thriller. She has also published two clickable time-saving e-resources to date: Quick Clicks: Spelling List and Quick Clicks: Word Usage. Jodie is a well-known blogger and has been active on two group blogs: Crime Fiction Collective, and after several years, she just stepped down from the award-winning blog, The Kill Zone. You can find Jodie at www.JodieRenner.com, www.JodieRennerEditing.com, her blog, http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.com/,and on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

[This post has been updated] A lot of Canadian magazine people find themselves bereft with news of the death of Jocelyn Laurence at the age of 63. She was well-known as a magazine writer and editor -- for instance as a senior editor of Toronto Life and editor of Canadian Art magazine. She wrote a column about relationships in Toronto Life from 1985 to 1989 which many people admired. 

Laurence 

Is the publishing industry undervaluing its digital content? The accounting and consulting firm PwC says that there is a £4.8bn gap between what UK consumers pay for digital reading products and the value they place on them (or might be prepared to pay if pushed.) This, according to an opinion piece by marketer Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing, published by international media association FIPP.

"The familiar options for magazine publishers involve what one media buyer described as “trying to change the tyres while they’re doing 100mph”. They include the simple question of whether or not to use print as a content marketing ancillary for what becomes primarily a digital business. New York shows that – for some distinctive, high-value magazines which can keep their nerve – there really is

Douglas Knight, the president of St. Joseph Media and publisher of Toronto Life and Fashion magazines has been elected chair of Magazines Canada for the next two years. He succeeds Michael Fox, publisher and CEO of Garden Making. 

The board of directors for 2015-2016:



Douglas Knight, Toronto Life, Chair
Patty Baxter, East Coast Living
Lucie Dumas, Clin d’oeil
Michael Fox, Garden Making, Past

Magazines Canada has unveiled an online marketing guide for magazine media brands. Online Marketing Guide for Canadian Magazine Media Brands is available as a member-exclusive resource, concentrating on practicable digital marketing strategies, including search and email marketing, growing and mining subscriber lists and trends in digital marketing.
Contributors to the guide are digital strategy

Armstrong

Appointed just nine months ago as editor-in-chief of the online magazine The Tyee, which she described as having "the best newsroom in British Columbia", Jane Armstrong was fired May 28 and is now suing the publication's owner, Countercurrent Media Ltd., for wrongful dismissal. She has been replaced by longtime managing editor Robyn Smith. 

Armstrong's suit described the company's

Magazine publishers have pretty consistently been wary of, or disappointed by, the Apple Newsstand. It was created -- and sold to the industry -- as a place where readers could search out and purchase digital versions of their favourite titles. Or, their favourite digital titles. 

Sometimes the Newsstand worked and sold some subs, but more often publishers complained that, lost in the jungle of

Sarah Watt, lifetime achiever

Here are last week's winners of the CMC Awards for circulation and audience development, presented by the Circulation Management Association of Canada.
The 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award went to Sarah Watt, Abacus Circulation. The award honours an individual in the Canadian publishing industry for a body of work that represents an extraordinary legacy of

Nouveau
Projet, a French-language literary and arts magazine published by Atelier 10 in Montreal was named Magazine of the Year tonight at the National Magazine Awards in Toronto. It also won gold for art direction of a single issue (“Automne/Hiver 2014”) and the words and pictures category (“La
pointe des utopies”) as well a silver for editorial package (“Régénérescences”). The jury which made

Today's Parent magazine was the big winner in the Editors' Choice awards of  the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME), presented on Wednesday evening in Toronto.


Emmons


Sasha Emmons, the editor-in-chief of the magazine was named editor of the year. Today's Parent was designated best large magazine of the year (150,000 circ and over) as well as for having the best web editorial of the

In the face of slumping oil prices and astounding political change in the oil patch, Alberta Oil magazine, published by Venture Publishing, decided to up the ante by expanding its annual review from 150 to 200 companies reflecting the entire sector. The list was unveiled today at a luncheon in Calgary.

The list is of  the biggest producers, midstream and service companies by revenue. The

The editor of BCBusiness magazine, Matt O'Grady, last week spoke with the president and CEO of Yellow Pages about the company's recent acquisition of  Vancouver magazine and Western Living. Here is an excerpt of Julien Billot's comments about why the titles were purchased and his expectations of what happens now.

Yellow Pages has been rather rapidly getting out of the print business—or

The Canada Council for the Arts today unveiled more of the framework of its new funding model, which will be rolled out in 2017. Details of such things as the application process will be released this fall. It is, if anything, more dramatically restructured than had been suggested, reducing the current 147 to just 6 national, non-disciplinary programs, at least some of which will bear directly

The 61st annual Kenneth R. Wilson awards for Canadian business to business publishing were presented on Tuesday night in Toronto by Canadian Business Media,

University Affairs magazine was named magazine of the year -- professional. The magazine also won gold for best professional article and art direction of an opening spread or complete feature and a silver award for best issue. Published by

Rogers Media Publishing has decided to include the names of advertisers on the covers and in the table of contents of its magazines, areas which have traditionally been off-limits. 


According to a story in the June 1 Marketing magazine (a Rogers title), Unilever Canada and Lexus/Toyota will be partnering with Maclean's, L’actualité, Sportsnet Magazine and Canadian Business as a part of an

The Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) will unveil the winners of its editors' choice awards on Wednesday, June 3 at the Pilot in Yorkville, Toronto. In addition to category winners, there will also be awards for Best Front of Book, the Jim Cormier Award for Best Display Writing and Best Art Integration. As well as  CSME’s highest honour, the Editor of the Year Award.

The finalists in

Type Books, the boutique store on Queen Street West in Toronto, has been named Magazines Canada Retailer of the Year for 2014. The award is made annually to recognize the importance of good, often independent, stores in building and maintaining the magazine landscape. 

"A neighbourhood bookstore on bustling Queen West across from Trinity Bellwoods Park, Type opened heroically in April, 2006, at

Because of the considerable overlap and complementarity between magazine freelancers and book writers, research on pay and work experience is always of interest. So with this week's release of a study by The Writers Union of Canada about the incomes of Canadian writers Devaluing Creators, Endangering Creativity. It contains the lamentable news that many writers are working harder to make less

Anne Kingston and Brian Bethune, co-hosts

Maclean's magazine has launched a podcast about books that joins those it offers about politics and pop culture. The Bibliopod is hosted by Anne Kingston and Brian Bethune and the podcast is available on iTunes and other podding platforms. 
https://soundcloud.com/macleans-magazine/the-bibliopod-macleans-books-podcast-episode-3