Canadian Heritage Proposes Merger of CMF and PAP

On Jan. 25, the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH) announced a consultation process to rehaul the way they fund Canadian magazines, which will result in the merging of the Canada Magazine Fund (CMF) and the Publication Assistance Program (PAP) to form the new Canada Periodical Fund.

Of note to the Arts and Literature community, according to a post on the Canadian Magazines blog, the proposal will eliminate the $1 million Support for Arts and Literary Magazines.

Also of interest are two aspects of the proposal:

Business flexibility for publishers: Canada Post's decision to withdraw from the PAP offers the opportunity to open funding to other methods of distribution, thereby putting more strategic control in the hands of publishers.

Transitions to digital technology: The proposed approach offers opportunities to address changes in the way Canadians are consuming news and entertainment: through joint initiatives on industry-wide projects and by exploring the possibility of opening funding to new forms of publications or to online content produced by print publications.

The first item seems to open the door for predominately controlled circulation arts and literary magazines such as The Music Scene Ontario and La Scena Musicale to regain funding. Recall that in 2003, the CMF cut off funding to controlled circulation magazines when it reduced its budget by half, affecting several arts titles including La Scena Musicale.

To participate in the consultation, DCH has issued 10 questions for discussion.
The deadline for submissions is April 25, 2008.

Discussions on other blogs:
> Canadian Magazines
> The Shoestring
> Masthead Online [subscription required]