No Bull

So the same day Reptile pokes some friendly fun at Benjamin Briggs of Toro, the magazine announces it is shutting down. Coincidence? I hope so.

Frankly, I have always admired the reps at Toro who have had to launch a major-league magazine without the infrastructure of a major-league publishing company. Then PMB 2005 comes out and finds them less than one reader per copy which doesn't exactly make the job any easier. Still, they sold lots of ads including many exclusive to the magazine (meaning they made the magazine advertising pie larger).

I'm surprised that Toro is being shut down. Was there any attempt to find a buyer? Unless the ads were being given away for a mere fraction of the rate card, it sure had the appearance of a successful magazine. The final issue ran nearly 50 pages of ads with a rate-card page rate of $17,000. Even with the requisite discounts, bonus and contra, that issue should have produced at least $500,000 in ad revenue. That is much more than many successful Canadian magazines.

Not having much circulation revenue was not an issue since few Canadian magazines actually earn a profit on circulation after accounting for marketing, fulfillment and staff costs. And the up-front investment to get a critical mass is huge.

A long, hard look at the expense side of this magazine might have found a cure short of closure. Or perhaps "suspending publication" is a secret-handshake-club signal meaning "for sale". After all, suspend is defined as "to come to a stop, usually temporarily".