After 21 years of covering the Canadian magazine industry, Masthead magazine will publish its final issue in December.
Staff at North Island Publishing, which owns the title, were told today of the decision to cease publication of both the print and online versions by the end of the year.
Masthead had been losing money “for several years,” said North Island president Alexander Donald, in a statement. The company had been trying for months to find a buyer for the national magazine among various trade magazine publishers.
While a deal with one unnamed company seemed close to completion, it ultimately fell through.
“The magazine market is a small market to begin with,” said Doug Bennet, publisher. “It’s always been tough from a traditional magazine standpoint to make money in a small market with a limited number of advertisers. There are a lot of suppliers in the magazine industry that have been tough to crack.”
Bennet cites several reasons for the magazine’s closure, including recent competition with Magazines Canada’s trade conferences.
Magazines Canada, the association that mainly represents the consumer magazine industry, was originally an organizational partner in Masthead’s annual conference, Mags U. However, it created its own conference, MagNet, in 2006, which now runs the same week as the Masthead event and effectively splits the potential audience of attendees.
Mark Jamison, CEO of Magazines Canada, said “it’s a little unfair” to lay part of the blame at his organization’s feet. “MagNet is a partnership of several associations that was formed some years ago to offset some of the financial and organizational challenges in the original partnership. Certainly, Masthead was invited to participate.”
Mags U is set to take place in June next year even without Masthead’s involvement. Longtime Mags U production partner Canadian Business Press will assume full production responsibilities.
Conference competition aside, the changing nature of the Canadian magazine industry has made it tough for the Masthead to find advertisers in recent years.
“To some extent, the magazine industry is now a division of other industries, such as the telecommunication industry and the printing industry,” said Bennet. “That was a bad trend for Masthead because it meant print contracts are taken out of the free market. Printers are our biggest advertising category. When those contracts disappear, there’s less work to go after.”
North Island will continue producing its two other trade magazines, print industry book Graphic Monthly Canada and graphic design industry title Design Edge Canada.
