Mags I Love - O Magazine (it's about the big picture)

There is nothing democratic about publishing, and the editor’s blurb in a magazine can often sound like a political party line .... "as a reader of this magazine, you're concerned about this or that, you live this kind of life, doing these sorts of things, blah blah blah ... ".

By purchasing a mag you are, in effect, buying into the party. That’s why I don’t buy Field and Stream, and it’s precisely why I do support O Magazine …

In spite of the fact that Oprah's gay and lesbian fans greatly contributed to her success, you wouldn't know it by watching her television show. She is either completely unaware of this or just isn’t interested. I think it's this intentional distancing, this big step back, which fuels the unending “is she or isn’t she” gay rumour machine.

So, I’m not Oprah’s key demographic. Actually, I am not even in her top 5 target markets;

I’m not black; female; straight; any other non-white race; nor unmanageably troubled (struggling with; my weight or hair, chaotic debt, abuse or the result of, unhappy singledom)

I might possibly fit into an age demographic, the over 35s, but even that group is second-string to her headliners; the easily influenced, and influential 15 to 35 year old females.

Still, I have no immunity to Brand Oprah, nor do I want to.

Years ago a friend told me she wasn’t a big fan of Oprah because it felt too much like medicine. At the time I thought “who rejects medicine?” It took me years to realize the answer is someone healthy. This is why The Oprah Show is best watched, like most television, critically and sparingly. Tune in too much and she’s just preaching to the choir, attempting to heal the healthy. So how do you keep the attention of viewers who’re starting to wander?
Expand into another media, which is a game plan she’s repeated several times, and it all started with O Magazine.

Her name and face are on every cover, and she has the first and last words. Someone not aware of the entire Oprah universe might mistake this for ego or megalomania, but this is more than just vanity. Underlying the surface of rah-rah team spirit and custom place settings is a message of such magnitude that few publishers would have the courage to ask it of their readers, let along expect it.

Her message is, simply put, make yourself a better you. That's not a new concept but, in the case of Oprah, there are a couple of things that set her apart from, say, Nike or Jenny Craig, or church;

one - she actually expects you to do what she suggests;

and two - it's backed up with multimedia; daily TV program, a huge website, lecture tours, two magazines, books, DVDs, Harpo films, radio and now a television network. She’s created an incredibly far-reaching pulpit.

Like the namesake herself, O is big, glamorous, multi facetted; Pop Culture drizzled with pop psychology.

Much of the magazine's contents are off target for me (I don’t care that grey is the new black) but when Team Oprah hits a bull’s-eye, it’s so on-the-money that it compensates for all the misses. Largely the product of the advice she extols, she’s motivated to share the secrets of her success (this was particularly evident when not-yet-famous Phil McGraw saved her bacon in Texas during the big beef trial), and despite her carefully edited and coiffed persona, has somehow managed to remain grounded in reality. Earth to Celine Dion! And as with J. K .Rowling in to the UK, Oprah has the necessary pedigree to honestly speak of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

She continues her support of the book publishing industry with an entire section of the magazine devoted, each month, to books and reading; Books that made a difference and The Reading Room. My favourite column, which never disappoints, is Aha! Moment but, for the last few months, A million ways to save the Earth has been my flip-to section.

One mistake the magazine designers have made (possibly a trapping of being a part of a multimedia empire), is to lay it out like a website even though, of course, it can only function as a printed magazine. They’re created these bottom-page horizontal columns which, on a website, you could scroll down to read. Instead, I find myself moving the magazine higher and higher. It’s such a bother, I usually skip them. And since the publisher is Heart Corporation, you get saddled with the usual big corporate screw-ups, which we experienced while attemting to change our address.

So, I’m more of a supporter of the “party” than of the magazine specifically and I guess I read O Magazine more as a monthly progress report from the Oprah Foundation, with my eyes focused on the "bigger" good, than any one particular Samaritan event, and my subscription is a way of supporting her causes.

“What I know for Sure” is “Oprah’s Favourite Things” have financed positive changes in the world, and for that I’ll suffer through any amount of cheese.

Mags I Love - Scotland in Trust

This membership magazine wins my award for Best Realization of a Purpose; the Purpose to promote an organization which I wish we had here in Canada ...

As a general rule, I feel that we should put our money into our own economy whenever possible and holiday travel is a perfect, economically powerful opportunity. It is during a holiday that we’re more likely to dine at restaurants, purchase locally made items, pay for accommodation and taxis or buses and, of course, pay to get there.


I make exception for, and have come to understand the need for, journeying home.
As much as I would like to see Portugal or Hungary, the Galapagos Islands or Australia, I’ve never felt such a “pull” as I felt for Scotland, Robin’s birthplace and that of my paternal grandmother’s family. It was during my research and preparation for our first Scottish trip that I discovered The National Trust for Scotland.


A branch of UK’s National Trust, the NTS was established 1931 as “the guardian of the nation’s heritage of architecture, scenic and historic treasures by conservation and management of properties”. They have a high profile patron, HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, and a roster of 128 properties with 76,000 hectares of property. There are 500 employees, 297,000 members, 2,500 volunteers, and 1.7 million recorded visitors.

We have similar organizations here in Canada;
The federal Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (created in 1919) designating National Historic Significance which can include people, events or things;
The Nature Conservancy which works to protect Canada’s fragile environments (1962);
Greenpeace, protecting the world’s land and animals, enforcing existing laws and lobbying for change (1971);
UNESCOs World Heritage Sites status which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopted 1972; and
Heritage Canada created in 1973 to “preserve the nationally significant historic, architectural, natural and scenic heritage of Canada”

The big difference between the National Trust of Scotland and all of our organizations is the Trusts one further vision; to promote. They don’t work privately, conserving for a select few – they spread the word.
And the major distinction between their magazine, Scotland in Trust, and a magazine such as Our Canada, is that the SIT publication is designed to be used as a travel guide, thereby achieving the Trusts goal of ambassadorally encouraging folks within Scotland and around the globe to celebrate they very things with which they are entrusted.


And so, early in 2003, we did what 297,000 others do every year; we bought a membership to the National Trust of Scotland and received our first copy of Scotland in Trust magazine, along with our membership cards.



Glossy and square bound, the magazine is published three times a year and is equal measure of news, history, tour guide and catalogue. The NTS markets its properties vigorously through this magazine, encouraging you to witness their hard work first hand. You can even rent a protected property for a holiday or take a tour of private homes and gardens. Along with an annual guide which is divided into types of properties (great outdoors, historic gardens, famous folks) or by region, each issue of the magazine addresses all branches of the organization, from buildings at risk (and how you can get involved) to endangered animals (and how you can get involved). They showcase house-brand NTS products which they offer at their gift shops across the country or through mail order, and profile their volunteers.

It is a smart, comprehensive presentation with well-written features and beautiful photos, but their goal is to make it very easy to buy into Scotland, investing in the history and, therefore, the future.

When we were in Scotland, the NTS symbol was our beacon, our go-to sign. We were ensured that, beyond it, there would be something we’d not want to miss, and it often included an information centre.

Our Property Guide, dog-eared and flagged with post-its, came with us from Castle to Garden, from croft to statuary and our membership card was like a Cub Scout nationalism badge, offering free entry to NTS properties and other such perks.

The broader benefit of course is the undeniable big-picture side-effect of supporting important conservation work; by protecting a heritage garden you’re also banning chemicals and GMOs, and by conserving a heritage croft you’re also preventing further suburban sprawl or more electricity pylons scaring pristine landscape.
And the Scotland in Trust magazine reports on it all, from an update on a Bronze Age roundhouse dig on Arron and holiday lets on the Isle of Skye, to this seasons release of new books and heritage daffodils for purchase.

An annual family membership of 65UK gives us a sense of honouring our own heritage while ensuring preservation. It’s a price I’d gladly pay to honour my new residence, the land my family has called home for several generations, if Canada ever decides to wise up and follow suit.

Mags I Love - Nutrition Action / Prevention

Most people seem to have an agenda, and even an honest person selects what truths they want revealed. And so, it’s very difficult to know which source of information is trustworthy; certainly a source relying on the sales of advertising or airtime has pressures other than telling all sides of the story.

I find this particularly the case with medical information. The entire medical industry (research, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, surgical equipment, vitamin-supplement) is so vulgarly lucrative and competitive, that most of it’s “trusted professionals’ seem to be selling anything but good health.

So we must do our own research and check sources.

Very trustworthy;
The Centre for Science in the Public Interest, C.S.P.I., was founded in 1971 by E.D. Michael Jacobson, PH. D and 2 other scientists. It is a non-profit health-advocacy group which publishes Nutrition Action Healthletter (NAH), mounts educational programs and presses the government and corporations for changes. Their website boasts a huge list of accomplishments which is impressive, but not really the point.
The point is, they do their own research. And once they’ve completed their research, the share it. Sometimes, they use it to help persuade governing bodies to make positive changes, as they have in restaurant nutrition labeling and improving food safety laws.
They also ensure science and technology are used for public good, and encourage scientists to engage in public interest activities.

And, if research is the point, then the bottom line is, well, their bottom line; as in who’s financing their research. The very good news is CSPI is privately funded by 900,000 subscribers, they accept no advertising, nor corporate funds or government grants. And because of this, not only can we trust their information, they can also be brutally honest about, and print the names of, familiar, powerful corporations; KFC, PC, Dairy Queen, McDonalds.

If they have an agenda, this would be it; as their information is well researched, Nutrition Action Healthletter presentation can be quite blatant - almost sensational. There's not much subtlety here, which is how I prefer it.

In one of my favourite columns, Food Porn, a picture of the offending product is shown (Our Compliments Crustless Quicke Lorraine, PC Hors d'Oeurve Collection) followed by an analysis on why this item has been chosen as the nasty of the month (misleading labeling, banned ingredients, excessive sodium etc.)

Another fav is the Best Bites page where products competing in one category, such as tomato soup or fish sticks, are compared to each other and ranked. I'm usually surprised at the "healthy choice" items which are acutally anything but.

NAH is available only by subscription or at a library, and, though CSPI is an American group, they produce a Canadian Edition. Each issue has a specific focus and the final issue of each year includes an index for the year’s investigations, organized by subject (exercise, memory, fiber etc…)

A year is $36.00 for 10 issues and, though the issue is quite thin at 16 pages, as it is more newsletter than magazine it is 100% information, nicely organized and easy to understand. Once you’re in the loop with a subscription, you’ll receive offers to give free subscriptions to friends, which is how I received my first edition. My pal Lisa, back in 2003, gifted me with my first year of Nutrition Action and since then I've passed-on half a dozen more.

Trustworthy, but corporately funded

Similar to the NAH is a publication called Prevention Magazine. This is a digest-style health-nutrition-beauty monthly published by Rodale, a huge American publishing house founded in 1930 by Mr. J.I. Rodale. As a publisher, Rodale is more of a vehicle for information than a researcher, but each issue of Prevention contains an abundance of ideas, developments and alternatives. Women rule the kingdom of Rodale, and female Rodale’s have historically held the most authoritative positions, including the current Chairman of the Board (grand-daughter Maria), and 3 out of 7 Board of Director chairs.

The magazine itself is pocket-sized, like Reader’s Digest and, also like R.D., the regular departments contain highlights of information gleamed from world-wide resources, which you can explore further if desired as the sources are always noted. As well, the sections are colour-coded enabling you to skip the categories which aren’t pertinent. Unlike NAH, Prevention has a gender bias; roughly half of the contents are geared specifically towards women and a gal is always on the cover (84% of their readership is female).


Ad revenue must fuel the Prevention Magazine machine, with 94 pages out of 192 dedicated to selling products. And the brilliant thing about pharmaceutical advertising, thanks to our litigious culture, is that every 1 paid page of drug promotion has to be supported by 2 or 3 further paid pages of micro-print, explaining side-effects and drug interactions. It’s a win-win 3 for 1 cash cow for a publisher.

In spite of this shameless profiting from society’s fears I can’t deny I’m glad that, with this ill-gotten capital, Rodale is able to publish works such as Rex Weyler's book Greenpeace, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, dozens of titles about organic living and several about the teachings of world religions. They are also able to pay for ad space in one of my other favourite mags, Plenty.

I believe Prevention Magazine is available only by subscription (a year is $24.00) though most libraries likely offer it.

Mags I Love - ReadyMade

While visiting our pal Janet at her home in Austin Texas a couple of years ago, we fell in love. Not with Janet (that happened years before), but with her house.

Besides being ultra-cute, it:

was of a certain age (50ish);
was a manageable size;
had windows to open on all sides;
was surrounded by a bit of property and (best of all for me);
was house shaped!


Though we knew we were loving her home while intoxicated with the scent of blooming jasmine and being shaded by the arched branches of pecan trees from across the street, we both suddenly knew how we wanted to live.
And so we were thrilled, a few months later, to welcome Janet into our own wee house after our move from Toronto condo to St. Thomas bungalow; a move she so innocently inspired. It was during this visit that Janet gave us, and our new home, a subscription to ReadyMade magazine, not knowing we had a “readymade” house of our own.

"The design and lifestyle bible for a growing generation of 20 - 30 years olds ... inspired ideas in sustainability, great design, home solutions, named after Marcel DuChamp's phrase "ready-made" used to describe everyday items displayed as art". This blurb from their website sounds a bit like copy from a loan application and it doesn't do justice to the do justice to the brainchild of Grace Hawthorn (president and publisher) and Shoshana Berger (editor-in-chief).

More accurate is Mini Manifesto pledge #5 from Berger and Hawthorne’s book “ReadyMade”; “I will attempt to keep all consumer goods in circulation and out of the big Wal-Mart in the sky, by reusing them”

Actually, if they used the pledge line at the bank, they’d likely have been turned down as a bad risk. I mean, the health of Western culture seems so dependent on the youth-fueled forward thrust of acquiring the “new” while abandoning the “been done”, who would have enough faith to back such ambition? Well, someone did (maybe it just themselves or friends and family) and since 2001 ReadyMade has been motivating, instructing and inspiring.

Part of the secret to their success might be their website (designed by Toronto based Fluffco) which is extremely interactive; apart from the usual bits like an on-line store (note cards made from damaged back issues and reclaimed all-weather billboard vinyl with design ideas – pretty cool) and project downloads, there is also a blog and searchable archive through which you can find any scheme they’ve published, streaming how-to videos, MacGyver style challenges and discussion forums. This is by no means a handyman guide and we’re not talking high-powered supped-up bbqs. Ultimately, design is paramount; design of the form-follows-function variety.

The magazine layout is both clever and verging on over stimulating, and I get that tinge of vertigo I remember getting when I laid my eyes on the first issue of Wired. There’s a lot going on each page and the regular departments offer a wide variety (who was the smarty pants who convinced Todd Oldham to write and photograph a column?). But the strongest point for me is, though it may be designed for a 20 to 30 year old’s speed of sound attention span, this magazine doesn’t condescend. The instructions aren’t dumbed-down and the quality of writing is taken very seriously (Rachel Sherman’s Tree Envy: How to decorate like Shiksa had me rolling!). In short, even someone closer to 20 plus 30 years will get jazzed.

Although their formula must be working, there is a key part of the ReadyMade model that seems disconnected. The inside of the magazine is very hands-on and realistic, yet the cover is frostily staged with pretty models; perhaps they’d consider using real people instead of cover models?

This bi-monthly, US based mag is disproportionately pricey at $7.25 Cdn an issue to the US $4.99, while a subscription at $24US for 6 issues, would likely get you each issue for $4.00 Cdn. As well, it’s available at Chapters/Indigo/Coles/Smithbooks and a few independents.

Mags I Love - Our Canada

I guess, by definition, I’m a Nationalist … a person devoted to the interests or culture of one’s nation. That's not to say I think Canada is necessarily the best place in the world to live, or that being Canadian is somehow better than being Swiss or Maori or whatever. But it is where I choose to live and where my roots are.

It's because of this perspective that I was initially attracted to Our Canada magazine. Created by Reader’s Digest and launched in 2004, simply put, Our Canada is a forum for people wishing to share photos and stories of Canada with those interested in Canadian life.

My first issue was September/October 2004 and I’ve pretty much read all 66 pages of each issue since. Much of the content is nostalgic with heart-felt tales of reunions and quaint memories grandma’s cookies, all of which works for me. But the real star of this publication is the undeniable, unarguable natural beauty of Canada captured by amateur photographers. This is particularly evident in the department called Coast to Coast. Here, in each issue, you’ll find photos submitted by readers, one from each province and territory; a kind of day-in-the-life of Canada, from coast to coast to coast. These few pages in each issue make my subscription worthwhile.


There is very little obvious advertising, except for a strange, full page promo, apparently paid for by the Dairy Farmers of Canada, which first appeared in the March/April 2005 issue and has run in every issue since. Placed immediately following the “A Taste of Canada” recipe section it features the profile of a Canadian dairy farmer, always a woman, and includes a photo, typically “women with cow”. I don’t drink milk and I’m not a fan of conventional dairy farming procedures, but I continue to read these bios each month in the hopes I might better appreciate an industry so strongly associated with Canada.

The charm of this full-colour, glossy bi-monthly magazine seems to lie in it’s “small town” feel; the historical “then and now” pictures, the spot-the-loonie and “what is it” challenges, and lots of stories of how life goes on across this huge country.

However, using “Our” in the title gives hint at what might be a slightly narrow perspective that this magazine, or its editors, have of Canada. In spite of the name, it’s not really about our fellow Canadians, but rather about just a few Canadians, which brings me to my really big question; is everyone in Canada white? In the 21 issues that I have, I could hardly find one face that wasn’t.

Now, I realize that some folks think a Nation should be stagnant, frozen in time amidst the romance and tragedy of post-war 1950’s. On the other hand, many think a Nation’s strength lies in its ability to evolve, as people move around the world exploring and connecting. Clearly the editors, and possibly many of the readers, are of the frozen variety which conspires to present a very flat, one-dimensional presentation of our vibrant, incredibly complex nation.

So, although I caution readers to view this magazine with a critical eye, if you can look past the white-bread stories you’ll see what we can all agree on – Canada is truly a beautiful country and for that reason alone, I think we’re lucky to live here.

Mags I Love - Spacing Magazine

Launched in Winter of 2003 – 2004, Spacing Magazine is both periodical and protest, with equal parts of victory-tale and call-to-arms, and I was hooked from my first read.

Spacing focuses primarily on the real-estate owned collectively by us all, our Public Spaces; the urban landscape, from green (ravines, parks, trees, water and air) to grey (sidewalks, billboards, garbage cans, government buildings and pollution) and all the spaces in between (our alleys, boulevards, traffic islands, rooftops, fences and borders).

Perhaps intentionally, this magazine about-the-masses is minimally distributed (by Magazines Canada). It is available only by subscription or at a few, quite specific locations across Canada; some independent book sellers, a handful of galleries, and most University bookstores (along with the lobby of the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, the host of several issue release parties). It’s somewhat revealing that, although this Toronto-based publication is available at four locations in Halifax, there is no one in London selling it, not even U.W.O.

The first issue I laid my glomers on was Spring/Summer 2005, when Spacing was already 4 issues into print. Given to me by our pal Brian who had picked it up, I believe, at Toronto City Hall, I remember cracking it open and seeing an article called Skybandits. It was a discussion on illegal billboards; how to identify them and how to report them. This was an issue I had been struggling with for some time and here were the answers to all my questions. And don’t get me started about the article on Guerrilla Gardeners! It was a very, very good start.

Cleverly written from it’s first issue, Spacing has evolved into a powerful forum for writers and visual artists working to engage those citizens interested taking ownership of that which they already own, but neglect.


The layout is horizontal, like a city, and the content is probably 60% words to 40% full-colour imagery.




There is no letter from the editor-in-chief (the current issue instead has an introduction penned by Pier Giorgio DiCicco, poet laureate of the City of Toronto), in fact, there is no E.I.C., rather Publisher and Creative Director Matthew Blackett gets top billing. The (only)14 ads are completely relevant to the content (Centre for Social Innovation, getoffset.ca, Toronto Conservation Authority, Grass Roots, Curbside Cycle etc.) and the masthead is located at the conclusion, much like the chef who comes out from the kitchen to meet you following a wonderful meal.

Spacing Magazine was named Canadian Small Magazine of the Year, and Blackette and Dale Duncan (Executive Editor) were named 2007 Editor of the Year. Their blog was named Best Local Blog by NOW Magazine. In 2005, Spacing was awarded the Canadian National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Best Editorial Package.