A Shame Not To
Two young, Toronto women have created a thoughtful, brassy feminist magazine called Shameless. Now they're discovering how hard it is to get it published
Nicole Cohen and Melinda Mattos were told from the beginning that publishing a feminist magazine for teenaged girls would be a challenge. Although creating an alternative for Canadian girls is a noble venture, a magazine critical of its usual bread-and-butter would have to be creative in terms of funding. Mattos says they had some idea […]
Capital Gains
How the free, ad-dependent Capital magazine survived Canada's harsh magazine marketplace by finding its niche
So what the fuck do you do with a cultural studies degree anyway? Get into social work? Bartend? Start another degree? Design or advertise? Firing up a magazine isn’t normally at the top of any broke grad’s list of options, but in the spring of 1999 it’s what McGill University students Malcolm Levy and Jarrett […]
Internships: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
We all know what to expect from interning at the Oval Office, but what about interning at magazines - is it beneficial, or just a dead end?
I loved my magazine internship. I worked full-time: fact checking, occasionally copy editing and writing a monthly column with another intern. I was never paid, but I didn’t care. I learned how a magazine is produced and I got experience I could put on my resume. I suppose this was payment enough. Did I expect […]
2 is Better Than None
A new magazine for coupledom
Diane Hall and her husband Gerry Brown had a busy February. So busy in fact, they could only spare a few minutes for an interview about their new project. As the publisher and founder of one of Canada’s newest magazines, they’ve spent countless hours at the office getting the publication ready for its March launch. […]
Radio Francais
Filling the Franco-Canadian news radio gap in the GTA
Valery Vlad is optimistic. He also looks decidedly out of place. Sitting outside a small café at the corner of Queen Street and Spadina Avenue, wearing a rough green sweater, jeans, work boots, his big hands engulfing a tiny white mug of expresso, Vlad can’t stop smiling. He’s president of the board of directors for […]
Download This!
Many Canadian music websites are barely staying afloat, much less thriving but their creators certainly aren't doing it for the money
Casually dressed employees type away at their cubicles. The phone rings continuously over top droning, anxious coworkers. Posters of prominent Canadian artists like The Tragically Hip and Sam Roberts decorate the walls of the spacious studio loft. At first glance the UmbrellaMusic.com offices at 30 St. Clair West in midtown Toronto resemble its print magazine […]
Measuring Readership
The shift from "through-the-book" to "recent reading" methodologies has help achieved a more sophisticated measuring system for Canadian magazine readership
In 2001, the international publishing world welcomed a new competitor. Canada’s Print Measurement Bureau switched from its old method of gauging magazine readership of “through-the-book” to the worldwide standard of “recent reading.” This change in methodology altered the landscape of Canada’s publishing industry and how its magazines are perceived in the international playing field. The […]
He Said/She Said
A look at Trevor Cole's contentious profile of Leah McLaren and bickering that followed
There’s nothing like a little bad blood among journalists to get them scribbling. A little name-calling, a little catty profiling, a teensy bit of shameless colleague-trashing are sure to get journalists salivating. One writes something in varying degrees of nasty about another, and suddenly we’re following the spectacle with sadistic fascination. The media spotlight shone […]
All About the Bling Bling!
How the hip-hop vocabulary is working its way into everyday use
Bling is everywhere. Its omnipresent fabulousness has consumed me. I work with bling. I wear bling. I’ve visited Swarovski Kristallweltn Gallery in Austria, the place where bling could have been born. I have a fish named Bling. I have already used bling far too many times in this paragraph. I thought Journalism would be a […]
The Bible of Rave
How a middle-aged man created Toronto's infamous rave magazine
Having just downed a Diet Coke and with Nikon camera in tow, Alex strolls along Queen Street West in downtown Toronto. With every step, the pulsating beat of hypnotic house music intensifies. As he reaches the apex – the door of Element Bar – the bouncer shakes his hand and waives him inside. Weaving through […]
