Much has been made of the new Canada Periodical Fund, which Masthead calls the “biggest shake-up” to hit mag-funding in a long, long time.
We all had a fun time parsing the politics behind the changes the feds were making to magazine funding: Artsy, small circulation mags were upset to learn that they may get their funding cut off completely, since publications now have to meet a 5,000 minimum paid circulation to qualify for funding. Some larger magazines may actually get more money. Magazines aimed at minority groups will not have to meet a minimum circulation requirement, but, gay and lesbian-oriented titles will. No one will be able to receive more than $1.5 million in funding. Except farm publications. Hmm…what could it all mean?
Well, American mag-lovers should be doing some parsing of their own, according to David Westphal of the USC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism. In a just-released study, he writes that funding and postal subsidies are “a matter of life and death” for many publications and that they’ve been quietly shrinking for years—since 1792, in fact.
About the author
Matthew Halliday was the Senior Editor for the Spring 2010 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.