Tiddlywinked

The crew at Magazines Canada have been very busy putting on a variety of events for the industry. They have certainly been very well organized and I give a hearty bow to Gary Garland and his merry crew.

GG presented the annual State of the Magazine Nation address last week where a near-full house at the Isabel Bader Theatre heard that there are now 1,160 Canadian consumer magazine choices (up 67% in ten years) with 167 new titles launched in 2004/05 alone. And he managed to make it sound like this was a good thing. Personally I say enough already! Time to put some rules in place akin to those we have for private clubs (e.g. before launching a magazine the publisher must be sponsored by at least three media planners).

GG then introduced Guy Consterdine, "one of the top magazine research gurus on the planet!" Sounded like a real winner. But did GG do his research? Could this be the same Guy Consterdine who was the Chairman of the English Tiddlywinks Association (1965-1967).


I don't mean to be cruel but this was possibly the dullest presentation I've ever attended. Is it possible to have a less engaging presentation on the subject of engagement? Pass the Red Bull!

Okay, I can tolerate a boring speaker when it comes to presenting predictable research but what in tarnation was he thinking with that ditty he created. If you missed it, it went like this (accompanied with a creaky old recording from the 1930's):

My magazines are my favourite friends.
My love of reading them never ends.
All my interests need
A magazine that I can read.
... and so on for another 43 excruciating lines

It was very painful the first time. But when he decided to play it again at the end, I wished I'd remembered to pack the cyanide.