Canada Council Benchmarks Study Released

Oct 10, 2012

Canada's cultural magazines: Building community and a cohesiveness amidst social diversity

Building community and a cohesiveness amidst social diversity is why Canada's cultural magazines deserve the place they have found. This has been documented in the latest Canada Council Benchmarks study commissioned by Magazines Canada and prepared by Rowland Lorimer and Associates and the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing, Simon Fraser University.

Without naming individual titles, the Benchmarks Study collects and analyzes income, costs, circulation and other data from Canada Council-funded literary magazines in 2010 to create a portrait of the cultural magazine industry. Publishers can use the study to compare their own titles' situation with similar magazines in Canada, potentially suggesting new avenues for change.

"Hard data like this is always useful," said Alastair Cheng, co-publisher of the Literary Review of Canada and chair of Magazines Canada's Cultural Magazines Committee. "The Benchmarks study gives the LRC measures that we can gauge ourselves against. Seeing what other titles at our circulation level are doing helps us think through how to do our own work better."

The new study is an update to last year's Canada Council benchmark examination, allowing for comparison between 2009 and 2010 data. Both studies are available for download at magazinescanada.ca/cultural/canada-council-benchmarks-study.

For more information:

Evan Dickson
Manager, Member Services
Magazines Canada
edickson@magazinescanada.ca
416.504.0274 x238

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