Post by IAMCAPER on Oct 24, 2005 12:04:45 GMT -4
Despite having a circulation higher than it has ever been, the Cape Bretoner is folding after a 13-year run.
The lifestyle magazine dedicated to the people and culture of the island struggled to pull in much-needed advertising dollars to keep the publication afloat.
“There will be a lot of regrets to see it go because it’s been a labour of love for us,” said Blair Oake, operator of City Printers Ltd., which bought the Cape Bretoner in 1997.
Its fall edition will be on newsstands Tuesday, and the final run of the bi-monthly magazine will appear just prior to Christmas.
The magazine was on life support in the late 1990s with a circulation just under 1,000. Since then, the magazine, under the ownership of City Printers, built its readership up to about 4,500 subscribers, with another 1,500 retail counter sales.
However, those numbers aren’t good enough to make running the magazine a worthwhile expense.
Oake noted that “twice as many subscribers and a larger advertising base would have certainly made it successful.”
The Cape Bretoner was launched in 1992 as a tabloid newspaper by editors John Hanratty and Kenzie MacNeil. Its focus was on news that Cape Bretoners living away would enjoy.
It faltered six years later and was sold to City Printers where Oake revamped the content and included a glossy front cover.
Former editor Pat O’Neil said she tried hard to do the story behind the hard news story and focus on topics that would grab the reader’s attention.
She referred to the magazine as a sort of diary of Cape Breton history and culture.
“It just chronicled everything that went on,” O’Neil said from her home in River John, Pictou Co.
“We sort of analysed some of the issues that were going on and covered it from different angles.”
She left the magazine in May 2004 after seven years to retire to her home in Pictou County.
Her successor, Tom Ayers, had a tough challenge to reverse the fate of the Cape Bretoner.
“I knew when I was hired that there was a two-year window in which we had to turn this thing around and make it viable and the two years is up this Christmas,” said the Winnipeg native.
Ayers said he feels sad more for the readers than for himself. He’ll be unemployed as the magazine shuts down production.
“I get all kinds of phone calls and letters from readers and they just have a visceral connection with Cape Breton,” he said.
“They call up and say, ‘Thank you for producing this product. It really keeps us in touch with what’s happening back home.’
“And it’s just not going to be there for them next year.”
The lifestyle magazine dedicated to the people and culture of the island struggled to pull in much-needed advertising dollars to keep the publication afloat.
“There will be a lot of regrets to see it go because it’s been a labour of love for us,” said Blair Oake, operator of City Printers Ltd., which bought the Cape Bretoner in 1997.
Its fall edition will be on newsstands Tuesday, and the final run of the bi-monthly magazine will appear just prior to Christmas.
The magazine was on life support in the late 1990s with a circulation just under 1,000. Since then, the magazine, under the ownership of City Printers, built its readership up to about 4,500 subscribers, with another 1,500 retail counter sales.
However, those numbers aren’t good enough to make running the magazine a worthwhile expense.
Oake noted that “twice as many subscribers and a larger advertising base would have certainly made it successful.”
The Cape Bretoner was launched in 1992 as a tabloid newspaper by editors John Hanratty and Kenzie MacNeil. Its focus was on news that Cape Bretoners living away would enjoy.
It faltered six years later and was sold to City Printers where Oake revamped the content and included a glossy front cover.
Former editor Pat O’Neil said she tried hard to do the story behind the hard news story and focus on topics that would grab the reader’s attention.
She referred to the magazine as a sort of diary of Cape Breton history and culture.
“It just chronicled everything that went on,” O’Neil said from her home in River John, Pictou Co.
“We sort of analysed some of the issues that were going on and covered it from different angles.”
She left the magazine in May 2004 after seven years to retire to her home in Pictou County.
Her successor, Tom Ayers, had a tough challenge to reverse the fate of the Cape Bretoner.
“I knew when I was hired that there was a two-year window in which we had to turn this thing around and make it viable and the two years is up this Christmas,” said the Winnipeg native.
Ayers said he feels sad more for the readers than for himself. He’ll be unemployed as the magazine shuts down production.
“I get all kinds of phone calls and letters from readers and they just have a visceral connection with Cape Breton,” he said.
“They call up and say, ‘Thank you for producing this product. It really keeps us in touch with what’s happening back home.’
“And it’s just not going to be there for them next year.”