TV Guide To Stop Publishing In Canada
Posted October 19, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It is for many longtime subscribers the end of an era.
Increased publishing costs, the proliferation of channels and the advent of the Internet have all combined to finally end one of the most remarkable runs in publishing history.
TV Guide Canada announced Thursday that it would stop producing its printed magazine as of November 25th.
The publication, which has been a virtual institution on newsstands since 1953 when it cost just 15 cents, was taken over by a Canadian company in 1976, after the government cracked down on foreign ownership of magazines published north of the border.
The printed pages of TV Guide have become a virtual dinosaur in a world of 500 channels, endless program changes and DVDs. Mail and production costs have all soared, and many cable and satellite boxes now provide their own free TV listings.
Weekend newspapers also carry large supplements that have eaten away at the magazine’s reach. As of June 30th, it had an audited circulation of 244,000.
Loyal readers have noticed the change.
The magazine went from digest form to a larger size last year. It then dropped various and costly local editions to publish only two versions – one for eastern Canada and another for the west.
But for some, that made it hard to read and figure out and as the price inched up ever higher, it became increasingly more difficult and expensive to produce.
Its U.S. counterpart also made recent big changes, increasing the size of the magazine, adding glossy pages and paring down its listings to just national coverage. That helped add circulation, and with a bigger market to deal in, that publication thrived.
It hasn’t been quite the same north of the border.
But while the magazine that grew up with TV will disappear from the landscape, it won’t be completely gone.
Transcontinental, the company behind the publication, is transferring its listing sections to its Internet site and will make all of its contents available free of charge, selling web advertising and its listings to other publications to make a profit.
