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Some magazine
publishers are making moves that seem like pre-emptive strikes aimed at
second-guessing the fast-changing rules governing their business in Canada.
Escalating changes
in communications technology, combined with liberalizing international
trade, may mean that current Canadian-content rules on magazines will have
to be altered or demolished. Even if they’re not, there is already a
preponderance of American magazines on Canadian newsstands. In that climate,
licensed Canadian editions of established U.S. titles may turn out to have
the advantage in a changed magazine business: they get the rights to an
established
U.S. title
and brand, while offering Canadians some glimpse of what’s happening in
their own country through homegrown editorial. At the very least, they’re
already counting on name recognition and brand identity as a means for
boosting circulation and attracting advertisers.
Last month,
International Trade Minister Art Eggleton was making noises about the
possibility that Canada’s long-standing measures to protect its cultural
industries might not survive in their current guises much longer. He even
suggested that such protectionism is outmoded and no longer defensible.
Catherine Keachie,
president of the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association, contends that the
protection has to remain in place. She says that without those measures, the
few Canadian titles will cease to exist. “Protesting existing Canadian
magazine regulations is like getting a free lunch, and then complaining
there’s no dessert,” she says.
Yet even as she’s
making that point, Canadian dailies rely on U.S. syndicators and wire
services for pictures, copy and connections. Canadian TV newscasts would be
little more than talking heads were it not for pictures from NBC, ABC, CBS,
CNN and a slew of foreign satellite video-feed services. Canadian radio
stations run call-in shows from U.S.
syndicators. The state of the world — even without taking into account the
World Trade Organization’s preliminary ruling that Canada’s 80 percent tax
on split-run magazine editions violates international trade deals — makes
definitions of what constitutes Canadian culture or product indistinct.
The line between
Canadian and “foreign” — just like the imaginary line along the 49th
parallel dividing the True North Strong and Free and The Land of the Free —
is getting blurrier.
Politicians and
lobbyists can debate the fine points of policy. But magazine publishers are
realizing that hitching your content to a brand from south of the border
offers leverage and adaptability. If the magazine protections stand, great.
If split runs — with Canadian ads surrounding editorial largely supplied by
a U.S. parent — are allowed, licensees can argue that they already have a
Canadian bureau in place, which probably looks like a better idea than
waiting for the U.S. head office to set one up.
Cross-border hybrids
in the magazine business aren’t new. Reader’s Digest has had a
Canadian edition since the institution of the current Canadian laws on
magazine content in 1976. The magazine is owned by a U.S. parent, with a
Westmount, Que. office combining U.S. content with Canadian features and
condensed articles.
In 1989, Hachette of
Paris set up a French-language edition of its women’s title Elle in Quebec
in a joint venture with Télémédia Inc. of Montreal. The
content is largely domestic, and Elle Québec is counted as a Canadian
magazine. The language difference helps make the situation clearer — Time
Warner doesn’t have a raft of French-language titles it’s eager to duplicate
in Canada.
Another new
magazine is now launching in Quebec; it also has a foreign partner. But this
magazine is a franchise, paying for the rights to a name and trying to match
the tone and style of its U.S. predecessor. Ocean Drive Montreal — the
franchisee of a Miami monthly of the same name — is aiming itself at an
affluent readership. Its editorial mix, mostly in English but some in
French, is rich in restaurant reviews, gossip, fashion spreads and short,
chatty profiles of people who are famous for acting as though they’re
famous.
Ocean Drive Montreal
debuted with its January, 1997 issue. Thirty thousand copies are distributed
free through restaurants, bars, health clubs, hair salons, retail boutiques
and hotels. The publisher, Stephan Fortier, continues in the restaurant
business (his restaurant is called — not surprisingly — Ocean Drive),
launching the magazine as a sideline and brand extension.
“We have the rights
to the name Ocean Drive for Canada, including Montreal, Toronto and
Vancouver,” says Laurie Zakreski, Ocean Drive Montreal’s
marketing vice-president. Under the licensing deals, Ocean Drive Montreal
gets the rights to the name and to some editorial, including columns by
Manhattan-based gossipmonger George Wayne and Hollywood columnist Jeanne
Wolf.
Canadian-content
rules dictate that no more than 20% of a magazine’s editorial content is
from outside
Canada. “I
don’t know what the limit is,” Zakreski says. “But we’re well under it; 90
percent of the editorial is generated by Montreal writers and
photographers.”
Advertising is a
separate issue, too. All the advertising in Ocean Drive Montreal is
sold by the magazine’s own salespeople.
So what exactly is
it getting for its licensing fee, besides the rights to a name and
second-window gossip? “Their know-how,” Zakreski says. “They know how to
develop a relationship with advertisers as potential distributors of the
magazine; it’s like a win-win-win situation. The magazine is a success in
Miami; there’s no reason we can’t duplicate that success here.” If your
magazine is distributed through retail outlets you also hope to sign up as
advertisers, friendly editorial can help cement all aspects of the
relationship.
Fortier and Zakreski
plan to replicate this formula with editions in Toronto and Vancouver. “I’ve
been saying we’ll have those in six months, but people keep telling me to
stop saying that,” Zakreski says. “Within a year, anyway.”
While people in
government and the magazine business may detect subtle differences in
nationality and content between publications, things are simpler for media
directors: is buying space in a particular magazine worth the money? “It
depends on the ability to reach a particular audience and the cost of doing
business,” says Hugh Dow, president of Toronto’s Initiative Media. “We’ve
never had any of our clients ask us to preclude any publications because of
their nation of origin or any other factor.”
While Ocean Drive
seems to be a vanity project that’s turning a profit, Computer
Reseller News Canada is an altogether more hard-nosed initiative. The
Publishing House in Toronto concentrates on newspaper supplements and
advertorial inserts — most recently for AT&T’s Lucent Technologies and Sun
Microsystems.
The company was
looking for a magazine that would fill a niche and turn a profit. “We
decided to go with Computer Reseller News because the name has
tremendous brand recognition throughout North America,”
says Stephen Wexler, editor-in-chief of Computer Reseller News Canada.
The Publishing House struck a licensing agreement with CMP Media Inc. of
Manhasset, N.Y., which runs the U.S. weekly Computer Reseller News.
Like its American counterpart, the Canadian CRN is aimed primarily at
dealers. Both are controlled-circulation books; CRN Canada is biweekly.
“Through our
agreement with CMP Media, we have access to their information and their
information network; their news gathering across the U.S. and around the
world,” Wexler says. “Of course, we’re always cognizant of the fact that no
more than 20% of our editorial content can be from non-Canadian sources.”
CRN Canada also has ad reps working on its behalf through M&T Inc. of San
Mateo, Calif., which CMP Media bought last year.
Both Ocean Drive
and CRN Canada are finding that ad sales one of the easier aspects of
running a magazine, confounding contentions that more magazines will mean
fewer ad dollars to go around. Wexler says: “It looks to us like the market
is spending money to support more publications, more choices.”
But with the fluid,
uncertain future for Canada’s current regulatory and trade climates, how are
media directors and advertisers supposed to know what to do next? They
can’t, Hugh Dow says. Instead, they’re monitoring the situation on a daily
basis and trying to keep up with the latest.
Finally, the two
poles of nationalist pride and the dictates of business mean the the
situation is blurry for people who buy advertising too.
“It’s almost
impossible to resolve,” Dow says. “Everybody’s torn between the cultural and
emotional aspects of the Canadian perspective versus the business decision
of buying efficient media space and advertising time. I wish I knew what the
solution was. I’d have tabled it if I thought there was one that
successfully addressed this scenario.” |
