I have a confession to make...

by michele 18. March 2014 08:48

I am a terrible procrastinator!

It is over four months since our 40th anniversary and I still haven't written about it. Oh I have tweeted & facebook about it  but they seem like a something quick and without thought.

Oh what a party!! The sun was shining that day both inside and out. The shop was filled with balloons, streamers, bunting up outside, three large cakes and our window filled with 42 raffle prizes. We have wonderful long term realtionships with our suppliers and they were all extremely generous with gifts. We were literally giving away presents all day long. Our foriegn magazine supplier, LPMI, gave us over 100 large boxes of truffles and our main magazine suppliergave us BOXES of magazines to give away. We had chips, candy bars, T-shirts, pins, noise makers for kids, playing cards, umrellas, books, travel mugs, lunch bags, dvd's, stickers and on and on.

Live music always brings a fully charged energy to a gathering and thanks to Mixtape Magazine there were two different acoustic musicians and then a band, Liars on Fire that closed out the party although we didn't want them to stop playing. They obliged us as they were having such fun too!

The party was even outside where The Food Wolf food truck was serving up delicious fare. It was such a success that the Food Wolf will be back in our parking lot each week once the season is up and cooking!

The customers... oh our wonderful customers. We were packed in here, there was laughter, smiles, joy and to sound rather cliche there was a lot of love flyng around in the shop. It was so wonderful to give back to all the really loyal people who choose to come here.

I am also very apprectiative of the media that decided this was a story worth mentioning. CKDU took care of us, CBC has us on the radio, Halifax magazine had us featured in their shopping blog and CTV spent over an hour filming for their evening news.

We were certainly on a high for weeks afterwards from both a job well done and such fantastic energyon the day. My favourite comment summed it all up....."I always feel so welcome, when I left I was walking on air."

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Atlantic News | Magazines | Our Community

Growing Pains

by michele 13. June 2013 04:27

For the "reading industry"

I spent last week at MagNet, Canada's magazine conference which I always find engaging and inspiring. I often come back with lots of actionable tasks in my note book. This time I have come away from the conference with a better sense of what is ahead for us as an industry. Bo Sacks, Precision Media Group, talk was on modern media trends. He said the "pulishing industry is just experiencing growing pains not armageddon." There is a shift, no question and it is heading toward digital. The analogy was naturally the vinyl LP and it's previous domination of the music industry and now its much smaller market segment. I saw three record stores in Leslieville, TO, two on Queen St W, TO and now Taz here in Halifax is opening a second location, which shows that good quality/content does have lasting appeal. Another speaker made reference to boomers and millenials being very different and yet very similar. The boomers joy of discovery was computers, for millenials the joy of discovery is analog. His sons use straight razors to shave and wear fedoras!

One of the growing pains for the industry is the multitude of devices that people use. Bo Sacks held up a newspaper and a phone and asked which one was the primitive device. Answer: the phone. The printed newspaper is perfect after 600 years but the phone will be different yet again in 5 years. With mobile, desktop, laptop and tablet platforms there is the need to publish for each. According to David Carey Hearst Corps Magazine CEO "While we love the different screen sizes for consumers , as publisher, there is enormous complexity in terms of adapting our product." With devices changing so rapidly and the life cycles unsure it makes it very expensive for publishers.

Bo Sacks predicts by 2020 digital will be king. As the industry evolves there are a number of relatively new publishers that are making their mark delivering great content, great design and the experience that people will continue to desire. Printed magazines are here to stay and will enjoy a place in the industry that is satisfies the need for a crafted product and a different reading experience.

 

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What makes a great cover?

by michele 4. May 2012 11:32

Well, in my opinion anyway: 

Buddhadharma is on my path to the front cash and I would often be arrested by it's cover.  The simplicity of it is beautiful. The closeup and sharpness of the photograph is enhanced by the golden glow. The text on the cover completely encapsulates the image. We certainly know that it is an anniversary that Maisonneuve is celebrating!! The 10 is wonderfully bold with a clever use of their logo. I have always wondered who the character is that they use. I turned to the masthead and there it is: They refer to him as the "Maisy guy" though he symbolizes Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal. A big congratulations to you Maisonneuve, a feisty, independent magazine. Last Tues Foreign Policy arrived. Again the simplicity grabs you as it is so startling both in the strongly worded text and the striking image of the eyes staring at you. Garden design has lot more text on its cover but the main "Perfect Courtyard supports the photo. The flames jump off the page as though they are alive and dancing in front of you. 

 

  

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A new trend of publishing

by michele 22. December 2011 04:21

or simply an emphasis on excellence?

What do the following four magazines have in common? These independently published magazines respect and know their readers. They manage to produce magazines without being based on an advertising model with the limited ads chosen to meet certain design guidelines. These publishers have all used heavy grade, non gloss paper which is perfect bound. They have the feel of a book, with three of them over 150 pages. The photography is excellent and they are full of content.

Published in Calgary, Uppercase has a wonderful description of what inspires them: "Enchanted by great ideas and strange inventions, by colours and patterns, things fancy and frugal; the charm of vintage in a modern life; the ridiculous and the sublime." This magazine is truly filled with design inspiration, and creativity. When I spoke with Celine the editor of Pure Green, a stylish green living magazine from Ontario, she let me know that they want a magazine of quality and substance. They want readers to refer back to it time and again, to treasure it. I think all of that is there in their premier issue. Hailing from Vancouver twice a year, Inventory is  "A Curation of Ideas in Product, Craft and Culture"  "We value products and clothing for more than just their appearance, admiring how they're made, by whom, and why." Like the well crafted products they write about, Inventory will take pages to give their readers indepth stories, such as the twelve pages on one of the finest knitwear brands in the world. Lastly direct from Denmark comes Jeanne D'arc Living. Another lifestyle magazine that draws you in to their warm pages. I feel comforted when I look at the photos of homes, gardens, and want to cook the carbonara recipe.  What makes all of these magazines such a great read is that they are not interuppted by ads and you feel like you are being welcomed into a unique experience.

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Musings

by michele 15. April 2011 09:30

Recently there have been several occurances that have lodged themselves in my mind:

Twice now this week our customers have warmed our hearts by coming back to the store to let us know we haven't charged them properly! After an engaging conversation at the cash, a lady got home and realized that one of her magazines wasn't rung in. Down her husband came to pay. Today a customer ate a chocolate bar in the store and then came to the counter with a second one. He paid for it, left and actually made it across the bridge when he realized that he hadn't paid for the one he consumed . Immediately back he came, all for $ 1.48

How fortunate we are in our customers, our gratitude for your kindness....

Just the other day a customer came to the counter carrying a Lapham's Quarterly. I thought I heard his companion ask what the magazine was about. It appeared to me that the customer was struggling to reply. It was great to be able to let him know how Lapham himself describes it.  At a conference I attended, his quip was " The council of the Dead." The magazine is like no other and is beautifully executed, from its single themed issues, unique simple covers, paper quality to the contributors of course. Abraham Lincoln, Charlotte Bronte, Virgil, Pliny the Elder, Karl Marx, Zhuangzi, Emile Zola are just a few.

 

Scotia Bank currently has online, the " Small Business Big Impact" challenge. I LOVE Local Halifax has signed up believing we are doing the right thing for our community, customers and businesses by collaborating on marketing initiatives and community projects.

Please take a minute to support I love Local HFX and add your vote.  

http://challenge.getgrowingforbusiness.scotiabank.com/entry/4188459

 

 

 

 

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The Promise of Spring

by michele 23. March 2011 14:48

Is in the air

We sure can see each season's pending arrival even before it is truly here. Our baseball & gardening sections are bursting with abundance. Magazines have fresh greens and bright colours. Our cooking magazines are heralding spring dishes and Bon Appetit proclaims "Spring Finally! 33 Market Fresh Ideas" Of course with Spring comes cleaning but I think most people really like the act of airing out their homes and the work that accompanies that. I certainly do. Real Simple would like to help us make the job easier with their "Spring Cleaning Shortcuts." V magazine arrived with covers that really remind me of Easter colours ( even though the subject isn't exactly sweetness and innocence!)

Bring on Spring.

 

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What a great week

by michele 18. February 2011 07:55

Lots of great new issues

I love Tuesdays, which we call Magazine Day. It is our largest shipment day so it is always interesting to see if anything intriques us on the covers while we are trying to process the magazines. It can get quite distracting at times. With teasers like "Google, Is the coolest company already over the hill?"- Canadian Business; " 1 Million Workers, 90 Million iPhones, 17 Suicides...Should you care?" - Wired and " Just Food, How to fix our food system" - Alternatives, I was indeed intriqued. Plus there was " Print me a Stradivarius, The manufacturing technology that will change the world" - The Economist and Why machines will never beat the human mind" - The Atlantic. Now it is just a matter of figuring out when I am going to read them! ( I just linked the magazines and strangely the first three were previous issues that were still listed as current issues on their websites. Nice to think that newsstands have the magazines available first!)

 I am also very proud to let you know that we received the Bronze Award for Small Business of the Year at the Halifax Business Awards. The Chamber of Commerce put on a special evening

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Print World 2010

by michele 24. November 2010 08:06

and my world...

 I was just at a large trade show in Toronto over the weekend called Print World 2010. I really do enjoy trying to learn about various aspects of the magazine and newspaper industry. Needless to say printers are a big part of it, on the flip side periodicals (5%) and papers (2%) are a small portion of their overall industry. That being said, one of the printers to speak at one seminar was Transcontinental. They are the fourth largest printer in North America and is Canada's leading publisher of consumer magazines and when they said that they believe in print and that they have invested a billion dollars on improved technology that makes my day! Bring on those magazines...

 Also part of my world is my manager Angela Carlsen, photographer. I just want to pass on something from her 

Images on first page are on 16x20 paper, hand-printed by yours truly in a darkroom. That's right,  these prints are old school. They are all on sale for the low price of $50, which is 1/3 of the original $150 price. The first 20 sold come packaged with a mat. All are signed.

Plus, I have just added some digital prints to the mix. These images are of buildings that no longer exist. They are digital prints on 13x19 paper and are also selling for $50 a piece. Mats are available while supplies last.

http://angelacarlsenearlyworkssale.weebly.com/
--

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What's in a name?

by michele 29. April 2010 04:30

How about $175.00!

I have previously been asked what is our most expensive magazine. It used to be $125.00 but about three weeks ago, Bloom arrived ( we have 2 of only 6000 published) and it was $169.00! Yesterday though, Box arrived and it is $175.00. So there you have it, our most expensive magazine.

Our staff are great! And interesting and doing their own thing. Recently Ryan was invited to submit a film of his for the 10th anniversary of the Chicago Anarchist FilmFestival. Not only was  'Danger Dead End 5' accepted but it will be the opening film of the festival's Friday evening theme of "unembedded" films. This means the filmmakers have not been officially sanctioned by the governments involved. "Embedded" journalists are attached to invading or occupying armies. Their purpose is of course to reflect the official line. The scheduled films are activist documentaries or comments on heavy handed government activity that has not been properly covered by the popular media.  

 Congrats Ryan.

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Magazines

Magazines and Brooms

by michele 14. May 2009 08:31

They have lots in common!

The other day I met up with the father of my daughters friend. While he was waiting for me to arrive he was happily spending time reading a book. When I came up to his side, he said " Books are dead". Print that is; in his hand was a Sony Reader. I hope I masked the distress that flooded through me! I replied that I didn't believe that to be the case. He went on to say that his wife swore she would never read a book unless it was print. She did up trying the Sony Reader and read a whole novel in a weekend. I was given the analogy of rugs, brooms and vaccums. Can you picture in your minds eye the woven cane rug beaters? How each spring the carpets and rugs would be taken outside and given a beating. Brooms were used to tidy up and then along came vaccum cleaner sales men traipsing from door to door selling the new fangled gizmo to make your life easier. The father said how it took a few years to make the vaccum commonplace but where would we be without them today. Soon enough he believes that The Reader, Kindle, and others like them will replace shopping for and reading a print edition. My answer back is that most of us may have a vaccum cleaner but we all still have a broom. And some of us even still beat out the rugs in Spring. Print Dead? I don't think so.

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About the author

I was born in Yarmouth and grew up in Chester. I have lived on a sailboat, travelled to Zimbabwe, and lived in England where I worked in a fabulous country house hotel. While in England I met Stephen and then brought him home to Nova Scotia. Now I am a wife, mother of two great kids, and a businesswoman. Life is good.