Magazine Information Overload
Magazine Information Overload
It’s Magazine Project time again, as CreComm students are well aware. I’m not a CreComm grad, but I did do a very similar magazine project myself over at the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing. It’s mostly a blur, but I do remember our magazine was called Travel Canada. I’m fuzzy on the details. In fact, I have a feeling it was pretty fuzzy altogether—the kind of topic I would now tell students to stay away from.
I’ve already forced students to go visit the periodical collection at the main branch of the Winnipeg Public Library. Red River College does have a large collection too, but the bulk of it is over at Notre Dame Campus. Do check out the new periodicals room at Princess Street, er, I mean the Roblin Centre, not only because there are great magazines there, but because it’s a beautiful room.
A good place to get a feel for trade magazines is the library at the Canada/Manitoba Business Service Centre at 250–240 Graham Ave. They’ve got a wall full of nothing but magazines like Red Tractor Monthly and Ring Resizing.
And over in the Artspace building, the Manitoba Magazine Publishers’ Association (sponsor of our Magazine Award) has an ever-changing library of recent issues of Manitoba magazines, plus a small library of other resources. You need to make an appointment to check out their collection: mpa@mts.net.
On-line, here are three good links for keeping up with what’s what in Canadian magazines:
- The site of the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association, magazinescanada.ca has both an industry side and a consumer side, the latter with an on-line catalogue of all member magazines by category (but remember, not every Canadian magazine is necessarily a member), and the former with all sorts of useful stuff like research papers and fact sheets on the effectiveness of magazine advertising, Canadian magazine statistics, and links to government resources for magazines.
- The Canadian Magazines blog offers “News, Views and Reviews of the Canadian Magazine Industry.” As I write this, its most recent post is on the launch of the new online literary mag The Winnipeg Review. Good magazine-y blogroll too.
- Masthead is the Canadian magazine for Canadian magazines, and its online presence, mastheadonline.com, feature several different magazine-themed blogs, including one just about magazine covers. (Below, the cover most recently featured on said blog.)
