A thriving Western Canadian publishing sector would be a great thing, not just for this publication and others like it, but for democracy in Canada and the health of our Alberta economy.
It is long overdue that Western Canada be seen as more than just oil barons and farmers, because we’ve been so much more for a good while now. Western Canada, Alberta especially, is educated, well-read and more urban than rural – contrary to the image propagated in the Ontario media.
The vast majority of the publishing in this country is based in Ontario and Quebec. But thanks to many factors, including the business-friendly environment in this province, some cost-effective presses, our industrious workforce, and a growing pool of talented writers, editors and photographers, the West is gradually catching up.
That is why I’m excited by the introduction of the Western Standard, the new national magazine published and printed in Calgary.
It is a huge leap in this progression, being run as it is by real businesspeople. And it has noble, national aspirations.
WS’s business plan is light years ahead of its quasi-predecessor, The Report (aka Alberta Report). It is being marketed and managed by writers who understand business, and not simply advocates who want to sell ideas. Ultimately, the advertising business is about selling eyeballs, and we lure those eyes with what we write.
WS’s publisher Ezra Levant knows this stuff. He is a sharp guy if there ever was one.
There is no way that he could have landed 10,000 subscribers for his first issue without some serious marketing muscle behind him. He told me in a phone interview that his company did extensive market research before launching WS. And it paid off. He also has oilpatch money and management backing him.
But there is a danger in Levant’s marketing strategy. He risks flooding his engine with all the gas he’s pouring in. Brightest fires burn briefest because they consume the easy pickings first, missing the sustainable fuel – which in the publishing sector is trustworthiness.
Trust takes a long time to earn, and there is no substitute for the time it takes to get there.
By exploiting the ex-Report subscribers – his marketing has aggressively targeted this 40,000-strong group (Levant told me that “about 50 per cent” of his subscribers are former Report subscribers) – he risks being identified too closely with an outdated way of western thinking, one that has more in common with “Bible Bill” Aberhart and Social Credit than with economics and common sense.
Last July, I outlined some core reasons behind The Report’s demise: Basically, it was a local, niche, advocacy journal. WS will need a strong Ontario following if it wants to attract national advertisers. A magazine filled with Alberta PC Party ads, advertising from the columnists (David Frum plugging his book, Ted Byfield plugging his non-profit organization), and gun-related ads is not going to convince Ontario ad agencies that WS has Alberta’s sophisticated urban reader in hand.
One of the fundamental assumptions behind Levant’s marketing that grates on me is the notion that the “right” needs its own magazine. For one, I think educated people in Alberta (as elsewhere) are smart enough to know that complex issues can’t be chopped into two clean slices, left and right.
Admittedly, Levant recognizes this by having two different “right wing” opinion-makers square off in each edition. I encourage him to go even further afield. We do need more independent press, but that means independent from political party affiliation, too (Levant recently ran for a nomination in the Alliance party, as you may recall).
People in the West have seen first-hand how the “conservative” George W. Bush closes off his borders and clamps down on free trade, anathema to most westerners’ notion of the “right.” We know that that “right-winger” Ralph Klein intervenes in markets (with rebates, insurance rate freezes) and has his spending problems, even though he is supposed to be “fiscally conservative.”
These recent experiences have helped us in the “West” grow up. We are now smart enough to recognize a good regulation, which evens the playing field, from a bad regulation, which favours political friends. We know a good tax from a bad tax now. And not all taxes are evil.
Life is more complex in real life than it is in the spicy pages of sensationalist rags, and educated readers know that. And if readers are unaware of these distinctions, our responsibility in a democracy is to help them get there. Anything less is irresponsible journalism.
Keeping WS from being identified as such a publication will be a challenge because of the first foot that is now down.
For every Mark Steyn (a star writer whom Levant is justifiably proud to have on board) there ought to be a Rick Salutin. Just imagine the excitement.
