Updated: Canadian Family cancels print edition; lays off 7 staff
St. Joseph Communications announced Canadian Family magazine will cease distributing hard copies after its summer issue and become a digital-only publication.
Canadian Family magazine is going all-digital and cancelling its print edition. It also laid off seven staff including editor-in-chief Brandie Weikle.
Its parent company, St. Joseph Communications, announced the parenting magazine will cease distributing hard copies after its summer issue.
“While readership of the magazine is actually higher today than it was five years ago, print advertising support has continued to erode to ultimately unsustainable levels,” the company said in a press release.
St. Joseph’s president, Doug Knight, said it was a very difficult decision, but not one he plans to roll out at the company’s other publications in the near future.
“People love magazines and the readership of Canadian Family has been growing incredibly,” he told J-Source, but paradoxically, “the print advertising is just not there.”
The majority of the seven layoffs will be in editorial, Knight added. “This is a remarkable, really talented group of people who we’re letting go, and that’s not easy to do,” Knight said.
Weikle tweeted it was with a “heavy heart” that she told readers the magazine was cancelling its print edition.
It's with a heavy heart that I share that @CanadianFamily will no longer publish our beloved print mag due to declines in print advertising.
— Brandie Weikle (@bweikle) June 10, 2014
I'm so grateful for my time with CF's incredibly creative and resourceful staff.
— Brandie Weikle (@bweikle) June 10, 2014
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.
