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Webinar: Editorial Packaging From A-Z

How does award-winning Today’s Parent magazine produce such consistently effective editorial packages? Find out in this webinar presented by editor-in-chief Kim Shiffman. She’ll explain the nuts and bolts of her team’s process, from brainstorming, to coordinating contributors, editors, layout and production, to budgeting both money and time. You’ll learn packaging ideas you can use right away and hear behind-the-scenes stories as Shiffman shares her top tips.

Kim Shiffman is the Editor-in-Chief of Today’s Parent (print and digital) where she’s held progressively senior roles since joining the team in 2015. Prior to Today’s Parent, Shiffman worked on custom content for Rogers Media and online travel-deal publisher Travelzoo, and held senior editorial roles at Profit, Allergic Living and Chatelaine. She also co-owned and edited City Dog, a free quarterly publication for urban dog owners. Shiffman’s byline has appeared in more than a dozen publications, including The Globe & Mail, MoneySense, Canadian Business and Flare.

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Webinar: How to Be a Better Writer

Want to learn the most common mistakes even professional writers miss in their own text? Seasoned editor Leslie Wu shares her top tips for catching errors every time. Whether you’re writing copy for magazine articles or grant applications, circulation efforts or sales kits, find out this pro’s secrets to effectively proofing your own work, avoiding commonly overused phrases, and streamlining wordy copy. This webinar is essential for anyone who wants to improve their professional writing.

Leslie Wu is a freelance food and travel writer with 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. A regular contributor to Forbes Life and Food Network Canada, she is also a part-time professor in Sheridan College’s Creative Writing & Publishing Program and holds a Master of Arts in Communications from McGill University.

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Webinar: How to Launch a Successful Podcast

Podcasts have gone mainstream, and more and more people are tuning in. For magazines, audio content provides unique connections with new audiences. In this webinar, Michelle Kelly, Vice President of Content at Cottage Life, describes how she and her team created an eight-episode series that ran during summer 2020. She’ll share the details of how they chose a format, length, and sponsor, the nuts and bolts of hosting, promoting, and tracking the series, plus the challenges of recording from home during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Michelle Kelly was named Editor of Cottage Life magazine in July 2015 and the brand’s Vice President, Content, in September 2019. She’s a member of the Professional Advisory Committee for Centennial College in Toronto, and is the recipient of numerous National Magazine Awards and Editors’ Choice Awards from the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors.

Free to attend!

Register today!

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Webinar: Become a YouTube Sensation (Without Breaking the Bank)

Dylan Dubeau, Creator of Animalogic and Digital Video Producer for Blue Ant Media, explains how publishers of all sizes can use YouTube to develop large audiences of engaged superfans. Find out how print and YouTube audiences differ, plus secrets to making great YouTube content. While big brands like Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Wired have access to celebrities and large budgets, this webinar will introduce you to individual creators who have succeeded with more limited resources.

Dylan Dubeau is the Creator of Animalogic (nearly 1 million subscribers) and Digital Video Producer for Blue Ant Media. He writes, edits, shoots, produces, animates, and occasionally hosts videos for the YouTube channels and Facebook pages of Animalogic, Cottage Life, A.Side, Love Nature, Cottage Life DIY, Gameza and Makeful. He also writes, shoots, edits, and produces a YouTube series called Not Exactly Normal, which is all about how history, video games, movies, television, and the internet all collide in this unusual world we live in.

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Webinar: How Do They Know That? Verifying Claims in the Age of Fake News

How Do They Know That? Verifying Claims in the Age of Fake News: You don’t need to be a scientist to take a scientific approach to identify misinformation and disinformation. Amid the flurry of press releases, pressure to publish and time crunch that publishers face daily, a healthy dose of skepticism can be a valuable tool for magazine media to tell the difference between the truth and fiction dressed as fact.

On Wednesday, September 18, at 2 pm (ET), join Jim Handman, Executive Director of the Science Media Centre of Canada, as he talks about the importance of skepticism and critical thinking as a strategy to assess information online. This webinar will highlight the most important questions you should ask. He will help you learn about tools and resources that can help as you navigate the online environment.

Jim Handman is Executive Director of the Science Media Centre of Canada. Before joining the SMCC in 2017, he spent 17 years as Executive Producer of the award-winning CBC Radio science program, Quirks & Quarks. During that time, Jim won numerous prizes for science journalism, including the prestigious Walter Sullivan Award from the AGU. He has also taught broadcast journalism at Ryerson University, was Science-Writer-in-Residence at the Journalism School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was the CanWest-Global Fellow in Media at Western University, where he taught a graduate seminar in science journalism.

Jim is a frequent speaker on the topic of science and the media and also conducts training workshops in communications for scientists in Canada and the US. He most recently gave his SciComm presentation to science graduate students at McGill, Western, and McMaster Universities.

This webinar is presented as part of the Age of Disinformation project.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada.

Free!

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The Quick and Dirty on Demystifying the Slush Pile by Chelene Knight

Posted on March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 by Brianne DiAngelo

By Chelene Knight, managing editor at Room magazine, CEO of #LearnWritingEssentials, author of Dear Current Occupant

The Mystery of the Slush Pile

Photograph of Chelene Knight — Chelene Knight

What is a slush pile? The definition changes from person to person, from magazine to magazine, and from publisher to publisher. To most, the slush pile is the towering stack of submissions that were not selected to be published at first read-through. The emergence of online submission managers such as Submittable, has turned this tangible tower into an out of sight, out of mind virtual filing cabinet.

To others, slush can mean “any unsolicited submission,” but for literary magazines, (aside from the commissioned pieces) wouldn’t that mean that all submissions are unsolicited? Now that so many literary magazines have shifted to online submission managers, there is no real slush pile; instead there are a series of processes in place to sort where a submission “lives” while it’s not currently being read, edited or considered. Although having the option to submit your work online has it conveniences, the influx of submissions has increased substantially.

The practices and procedures for reading submissions will differ depending on the magazine, their staffing and volunteer levels and a few other key factors, but the idea is the same: to log and track all incoming submissions and to have readers read and rank EVERYTHING (this is what takes so long).

So then…your gorgeous short story, essay or poem is already labelled slush, before you even hit send. So yes, let’s demystify the slush pile because slush piles can harbour gold, too.

Timing & Submission Deadlines

If a call opens on November 1 and closes on January 31, is there a best time to submit? The truth is, it does not matter. As long as your submission falls within those deadlines, you are fine. What so many folks do not know (and this is especially true for quarterly magazines) is that when the call is open, the submissions generally aren’t read until the call closes. What does this mean? If you submit your piece on November 1, chances are it will not be looked at until at least the end of January. The reason for this is that with quarterly magazines, editors and editorial teams are working on four issues at once, with all of them at different stages of production.

Production

Second editor forwards:
If your piece makes it to the editor and that editor likes your piece but cannot use it, they will usually forward it to another editor for a subsequent issue (it’s nice when magazines send you an email letting you know, because this basically means your wait time doubles, and it’s important to keep writers updated). Note: this is a process some magazines use, not all.

What you need to remember:

Most magazines will have first readers and your submission needs to make it past the reader before it gets to the editor. This is the tricky part because even though you may have researched the editor and have a good understanding in terms of what they like and what they usually publish, your submission might not even make it to them. I know that sounds disheartening, but rest assured, if your work shines, it will get published one way or another.
Production time is long. There’s no way around this. A lot goes into putting the issue together and a lot of this work goes above and beyond just reading and selecting pieces. Most issues take one full year with four issues in production at once but all at different stages (this is true for quarterly mags). If anyone has questions about production, please post in slack and I will do my best to include simplified answers.

To Check In or Not to Check In

I think it’s totally acceptable to reach out to a magazine about your submission if you haven’t heard back in six months or longer. But in doing this, be careful with what you are asking for.

Unpaid labour is real. Most literary magazine editorial teams are volunteers or paid small honorariums and do this work before and after their day jobs. Asking a magazine editor to provide you with substantive feedback is not something you should consider doing. You can, however, ask if the rejection was an issue of not having enough space in that specific issue (which is a real thing). Another acceptable ask is if you get an email directly from the editor, you can ask if there were any notes left on your piece that can be passed on. But note, this is rare. Just be polite in your ask and realistic with your expectations and acknowledge the added labour you are asking for.

Summary of Best Practices and Key Takeaways

Nowadays the slush pile is a virtual filing cabinet of submissions marked “to be read.”
Due to the shift to online submissions, the number of submissions magazines receive has increased substantially.
Editorial teams are usually working on more than one issue at once in various phases of production.
If one editor does not have space for your piece for whatever reason, they might forward it to the editor of the next issue (or if there’s only one editor, they may hold it for the next issue).
There are usually readers who take a first read before deciding to pass it on to the editor.
Production can be a long process. There are a lot of steps involved in putting the magazine together:
- Interviews
- Organizing art
- Reading submissions
- Formatting and graphic design
- Soliciting ads
- Backend admin
- Copyediting
- Proofreading
- Theme tie-ins
You can check in on your submission, but be sure not to ask for substantive feedback as most editors are volunteers and unpaid labour is always something they are battling.
Always send your best. Chances are, if it sings, it will find a home.

Magazines Canada Hotsheets deliver current information on a single topic, each written by an expert in the field. Return to Magazines Canada Hotsheets.

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5 Steps to Launching a Podcast by Matthew Blackett

Posted on September 19, 2018September 24, 2018 by Brianne DiAngelo

By Matthew Blackett, Publisher, Spacing

Podcasts have become a vital component in engaging with your magazine’s readers. Adding a podcast to your publication’s repertoire is no easy task; it should be approached in the same way that your staff would go through when developing a commemorative issue or special insert. Below are five steps for you to consider before uploading your first episode.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY GOALS OF PODCAST

It’s important to identify all of the reasons why your magazine needs to launch a podcast. Here are some of the most common goals.

Increase awareness of the magazine: A podcast is the classic “brand extension” and opens you up to attracting new readers who may only have been exposed to your podcast;
Provides new avenue for you to share editorial and complement magazine content: As every writer has told one of your editors, “there was a lot of content that didn’t make it into the article.” Podcasts offer you the opportunity to expand on quotes and ideas presented in your articles and features.
Share info about your magazine and other business needs: Podcasts offer the opportunity to promote your own events, market special offers on magazine subscriptions, etc.
Monetize the podcast: Depending on the size of your audience, you can sell sponsorship or advertising on your podcast.*

* A cautionary note about advertising and sponsorship—very few, if any, magazines that launch a podcast will make significant revenue from ads or sponsorships. Unless you’re attracting tens of thousands of listeners to a podcast, the numbers just don’t add up. One solution is to add the sponsorship of a podcast as part of an ad sales package (i.e., “for $500 more an issue you can be the sole advertiser on our podcast” or “if you buy the outside back cover for the year, we’ll make you the only sponsor of our podcast for the year, too”).

Another solution to the ad/sponsor challenge is to make the podcast a value-added benefit for subscribing to the magazine. That means making the podcast exclusive only to your subscribers. Reducing the number of people you can reach by essentially putting the podcast behind a paywall may not make your ad sales reps happy, but it might be good news for your circulation department who are looking for any way to attract new readers and retain existing subscribers.

STEP 2: TRANSLATE THE VOICE & TONE OF YOUR MAGAZINE INTO THE PODCAST

Your magazine has a unique voice; it might be serious and informed or it could be accessible and light. Whatever tone you try to project within the pages of your magazine should be reflected in your podcast.

Identifying the voice will allow you to envision the format and the type of guests you want to invite onto the show. By using a similar tone/voice from your magazine, your magazine readers will feel more at ease with your new product.

STEP 3: IDENTIFY FORMAT FOR PODCAST

The format of your podcast will help give it a shape and flow. Much like your magazine, the podcast should be split into digestible sections. It’s absolutely fine to even mimic the format of your magazine: start with a few short bits (front of book), a main topic or theme (cover section), and finish it off with some short and light content (back of mag).

A successful format for a podcast is to theme the episode. From a bird’s eye view, this allows the podcast to feel like all of its components are related and intertwined. It allows your marketing and circulation teams to target groups of listeners and gives you the potential to attract new listeners that are interested in the theme.

STEP 4: COMBINING PODCAST MAGAZINE PRODUCTION TIMELINE

Depending on your magazine’s frequency, you should work the podcast producer and the podcast’s production timeline into your production schedule. Below is a rough template for how/when to include your podcast team into the magazine’s workflow.

Editorial team discusses next issue articles, themes, etc.

Podcast producer attends meeting and participates in editorial decisions;
Potential to suggest which articles are podcast-friendly

Articles submitted, edited

Podcast producer reviews final articles, picks best fit for podcast;
Podcast producer approaches writer for contact info of experts quoted

Articles go into layout

Podcast goes into production: interviews recorded

Magazine goes to printer

Podcast enters post-production stage

Magazine distributed to store

Podcast uploaded, post made to website, promotion begins

Release party/related event

Podcast promoted at event

STEP 5: LAUNCHING YOUR PODCAST

Your podcast should come with a lot of fanfare. You need to take every opportunity to promote it: in the magazine with ads, easy-to-find links and house ads on your website, posts in your social media channels, in your monthly newsletter, a mention from our editor in their opening column—draw attention to it with prizes and cross-promotions with advertisers. Include a blow-out card to subscribers. Take every opportunity to promote this free product you’re offering to readers.

Magazines Canada Hotsheets deliver current information on a single topic, each written by an expert in the field. Return to Magazines Canada Hotsheets.

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Canadian Forest Industries: Surveys the Nation

Posted on May 15, 2018January 17, 2019 by Brianne DiAngelo

Canadian Forest Industries had known for several years that Canadian logging contractors were struggling financially. What they could not pinpoint—and no one else in the industry could either—was exactly how much they were struggling. It was common knowledge that most contractors had taken rate cuts to help the forestry industry through the 2007–2011 recession in U.S. housing. When the industry finally recovered from 2012 onwards, it seemed that contractors were being left behind but there was no hard data.

Canadian Forest Industries‘ audience is comprised of independent small- to medium-sized businesses, who simply didn’t have the resources or associations to collect the comprehensive data required. So the magazine decided to tackle the project themselves: they thought it would provide several months’ worth of exclusive online content to drive traffic, followed by a formal report. In a best case scenario, the CFI team hoped their findings would make an impact on the debate about the profitability crisis happening between the industry, the government and the contractors.

WHAT THEY DID

Group Publisher and Editorial Director Scott Jamieson and Canadian Forest Industries Editor Maria Church led the charge in launching the exhaustive readership survey to get feedback on the current state of the forestry industry in Canada.

After receiving the final data, the CFI editorial team combed through it for themes and angles, ready to analyze the results and turn the data into multiple forms of content. When they started reviewing the data and brainstorming how to share it, it became clear that a multi-media, multi-step approach was best.

The team did a gradual content rollout from June to October 2016. This slow trickle helped build momentum around the survey results and garner feedback, and allowed staff to manage the survey workload around their regular duties by staggering the work.

They began by launching a weekly 15-part web series with each short piece focused on a key finding from the survey, such as “Real world logging profits,” “Machine operator earnings,” “Operating cost trends,” and “Fleet replacement plans.” Each installment was promoted to CFI‘s 16,000 e-news subscribers and on their Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Canadian Forest Industries also ran a longer regional report every few weeks on Canada’s main forest areas to show their audience how their region was doing relative to prior years and other regions. After releasing the 15 themed reports and regional reports digitally from late June to late September, the team created a three-page summary article for the magazine’s October 2016 issue. Additionally, they produced a video segment that featured CFI editor Maria Church and anchor Tamar Atik sharing key findings from the survey data.

The CFI survey results were also shared in industry presentations at OptiSaw 2016 in Vancouver, and another at the Truck Loggers Association AGM in 2017.

Finally, the CFI team produced a 56-page final report. This combined all 15 thematic reports, the five regional reports and an executive summary in a single volume, along with quotes from loggers across Canada. It was released in October 2016, in conjunction with the October 2016 summary article.

HOW THEY DID IT

Scott Jamieson and Maria Church worked together to create the survey, and then solicited feedback from a few logging associations, with the Truck Loggers Association in BC acting as a main partner. The CFI team threw everything they could think of into the survey questions and then used timers to whittle it down to a 15-minute survey. They also worked with third-party research firm Bramm & Associates to vet the survey, to ensure that their questions would produce usable data. All told, it took CFI under two weeks to produce the entire survey in English and French.

After launching the bilingual survey in early April 2016 (typically a slow time for loggers as they are not running their operations), the CFI team reached out to potential participants through email; online links on the magazine’s English and French sites; and LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook in both English and French. It was in the market for six weeks, resulting in over 230 complete replies to the detailed survey questions. As noted in the 15-part web series, survey respondents “were distributed according to the geographic breakdown of the forest industry, with 50% in Western Canada, 25% in Quebec, and the rest found in Ontario, Atlantic Canada, and central Canada. Within BC responses were almost evenly split between the BC coast and Interior.”

The research firm had a final report to CFI by mid-June. The editorial team then spent a week reviewing the results and planning how they’d roll them out to their audience.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Initially, the magazine was worried that the length of the survey would limit the number of complete replies. They decided to reach out to their target group directly through CASL-compliant emails, social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram), and popular industry websites.

Fortunately, the group of logging contractors that CFI was reaching out to were highly motivated. The contractors genuinely wanted to know the state of the industry. The survey also received a vote of support from the largest logging association, Truck Loggers in BC, who encouraged members to take the time to complete it.

Time management was a major challenge for the CFI team on this project as they were adding a large assignment to an already busy editorial staff. Using a third-party research firm to vet the survey and create the initial report was crucial, both for credibility and workload.

Jamieson also notes that executing a successful survey requires a skilled editor who is comfortable manipulating data and finding the story in the numbers.

KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Research is one area where magazines can make a meaningful impact on their market, especially for business media markets and brands. Industry magazines are one of the few organizations within a sector that can provide an unbiased perspective on pressing industry issues. To help finance these projects, Jamieson recommends finding sponsors to pay for the research. For CFI‘s survey, Hultdins, Stihl, Tigercat and Ponsse were sponsors and the work was supported by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC).

Jamieson also recommends talking to stakeholders in your community to see what information would be most useful, testing the surveys with them, and giving a lot of thought to how the information will be used. For example, in the CFI survey the print magazine was a relatively minor player, with the majority of content produced for online, digital and social channels. He also recommends using free charting software online that can turn numbers into graphs and charts in a few minutes to avoid getting bogged down in the graphics process. The production department can then create high-end versions of the graphics chosen for print.

CFI released a follow-up survey in April 2018, which they hope will allow them to start analysing industry trends in the data. Using a similar content marketing strategy as for the 2017 survey, CFI plans to increase their use of social media for the 2018 survey outreach and eventual results sharing. The magazine’s ultimate goal is to produce a similar survey every two years.

See the full report here.

This Showcasing Success case study was made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

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Fashion Magazine: In Motion

Posted on April 10, 2018June 4, 2018 by Brianne DiAngelo

With a young, ambitious, agile and innovative team, Fashion magazine prides itself on testing out ideas and content plans based on the most immediate information and data available.

“Our chief strategy is to be adaptive!” says Noreen Flanagan, Editor-in-Chief of the St. Joseph Media title. “As everyone knows, print magazines and publishing as an industry are radically different than they were a few years ago and it remains persistently unpredictable. That means we constantly have to be both proactive and reactive; we’re constantly refining our goals and tactics.”

So, part of Fashion‘s strategic plans include video, an unique opportunity for the mag to create original, stylish, visually arresting and entertaining content that can be both separate from the magazine and/or a complement to it.

WHAT THEY DO

As a brand, Fashion is all about high-quality content—whether that’s a fabulous photo shoot or an interview with an A-list celebrity—and Flanagan believes video is one of the best methods to tell these stories.

It’s the right format for these types of content, she says, because it allows for shareable and snackable cross-platform marketing, which connects well with the magazine’s audience who tend to be younger, mobile and more social.

It’s the front-row seat to all the things the Fashion girl (or guy—30% of their online audience is male) already loves—fashion, beauty, celebrity, lifestyle. It’s the equivalent of an all-access pass and leads to intimate connection with the audience that might be impossible with static pages and online copy.

To make those connections, Fashion uses video wherever they think it makes sense.

“We are meeting our audience wherever they are. We post videos on all our platforms—YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.” In addition, they add video to their hub property, fashionmagazine.com, completing the loop.

HOW THEY DO IT

Flanagan says the title is always looking to diversify and innovate with their digital ecosystem. They were one of the first publications to leverage guerilla-style Facebook Live videos which grew quickly in popularity. It gained enough traction that Fashion was able to monetize them.

“More recently we’ve been experimenting with live cover video shoots, 360० video, as well as video push via Instagram Stories and Instagram Live.”

With this agile approach, Fashion has reaped the benefits:

Year over year, they saw a 42% increase in video views on fashionmagazine.com
On Facebook in 2016, they had 1.4 million video views. The following year, that number increased to 2 million, a 70% increase.
On YouTube, “likes” have increased by 81% year over year; shares increased more than 500%; subscriber numbers rose by 40%; and comments increased by more than 260%.
On Instagram, original produced videos generated on average 70 thousand views.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The challenge with producing video is being able to keep up to the constantly shifting social landscape. The key to Fashion‘s success, says Flanagan, is the team’s ability to pivot their video strategy to match what they see in the wild. For example, when Facebook recently changed its algorithm to prioritize live video and interactive engagement, Fashion made it their focus.

“We have big ambitions in the digital video space and are making significant investments, including hiring a full-time, in-house video editor to help us continue to produce rich, high-quality content. In future, we would love to develop different channels and franchises and we’re interested in experimenting with long-form, scripted or even an original series.”

ADVICE TO OTHERS

Flanagan’s advice for other magazines who are thinking of trying video? “Just do it!”

She says it’s ideal if you’re able to bring on a dedicated staff member with expertise in video production. For magazines who don’t have the ability to do so, then leveling up skills for all staff members is the next best option. Even learning a simple program like Videoshop can be the difference between producing cool video clips or mediocre content.

This Showcasing Success case study was made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

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Canadian Geographic: Mapping a Historical Tragedy

Posted on April 10, 2018June 4, 2018 by Brianne DiAngelo

In April 2017, as part of a massive Google Earth redesign, tech giant Google announced Voyager, a tool that would allow content producers to tell rich textual and visual stories using text, photos, videos and navigable waypoints. The new tool built on Google Earth’s existing 360-degree content and spectacular satellite imagery and featured content from partners including BBC Earth, NASA and the Jane Goodall Institute.

This major update caught the attention of Canadian Geographic.

“We knew immediately that we wanted to produce Canadian content,” said Ellen Curtis, the Director for Canadian Geographic Education. “Because we were already working on our Indigenous Peoples’ Atlas of Canada project, it seems like a natural fit to do our first Voyager story focusing on residential schools.”

In launching their endeavour, called “Canada’s Residential Schools,” Canadian Geographic became the first Canadian content producer for Google Earth Voyager. (Google produced all other Canadian content on Voyager prior to CG’s work.)