Masthead magazine to close
October 23, 2008
- Posted by Regan Ray
The November/December 2008 issue of Masthead magazine will be the last, as the publisher has announced that both magazine and online editions are shutting down.
North Island president Alexander Donald said:
“We are very proud of the service Masthead has provided the
magazine industry over the years. But the magazine has not been financially viable for
several years now and structural changes in the market have created
even more challenges. We’ve taken a decision to focus our company’s
resources on other projects in our other markets.We’ve tried several publishing models over the years but none worked
well enough to keep the magazine going."
He added that attempts to find
new owners for the magazine were unsuccessful.
Two full-time positions will be lost, including that of current editor Marco Ursi.
Masthead has been the voice for the Canadian magazine industry since 1987.
What a shame that the Canadian magazine industry cannot support a magazine of its own. There seems to be a message here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.
The only issue of Masthead I ever read was the salary survey issue. It was nice to see how I was doing against my peers in the trade pub sector. In fact, that issue inspired the first annual salary survey for my magazine, as it made me realize how important an internal audit of salaries was for every industry.
The classifieds could have been useful, I guess, had I been looking for another job, but there are so many more ways to find job offerings that mastheadonline became just one more option—or worse, yet another website to have to visit—with no added value.
I think we guessed that it was done like a barbecued bun when it tried to go with a paid circ a couple of years back. That's always the double down that begins the end for a trade pub.