Saturday Night’s last call
The big news at Q&Q Omni World Headquarters on Thursday was of Saturday Night’s “hiatus.” (Q&Q and Saturday Night are both owned by St. Joseph Media.) After the winter issue comes out at the end of November, that’s it. The staff was sent home Thursday for the rest of the week, but was expected to return the following week to wrap up the last issue.
For the book industry, Saturday Night’s shut down means the loss of yet another outlet for book coverage. In recent months, the magazine included regular space devoted to book coverage in some form, either an omnibus review or a publishing-related story. And authors such as Jane Urquhart, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mark Kingwell, to name a few, had been the subjects of articles in recent issues.
Saturday Night’s publisher, Q&Q alumnus Sharon McCauley, was interviewed by James Adams of The Globe and Mail, and her comments suggest a bleak future for general interest magazines: “According to Ms. McCauley, Saturday Night’s latest collapse is related directly to ‘the problem of the viability of the general interest magazine in Canada.’ The ‘engine of the current industry is women’s service magazines’ such as Chatelaine and Canadian Living, she said. These publications are distinguished by a readership that is at once ‘very wide’ and specific. Chatelaine, a monthly published by Rogers Media, has an estimated total paid circulation of 700,000. ‘Advertisers know who they’re getting when they buy in there,’ Ms. McCauley said, whereas Saturday Night presents ‘more of a complex and subtle message.’”
Check the links for more coverage.
Related links:
Click here for James Adams’ story in The Globe and Mail
Click here for Murray Whyte’s story in the Toronto Star
Click here for analysis on Antonia Zerbisias’s Toronto Star blog
