Quill and Quire
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''Quill & Quire'' is a
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews books and magazines and provides a forum for discussion of trends in the publishing industry. The publication is considered a significant source of short reviews for new Canadian books.


History

Started in 1935 by Wallace Seccombe's Current Publications, ''Quill & Quires original editorial focus was on office supplies and stationery, with books taking on increasing importance only as Canada's fledgling indigenous book publishing industry began to grow and flourish. In 1971,
Michael de Pencier Michael Christian de Pencier, (born January 19, 1935) is an entrepreneur, environmental investor, and publisher. He is the grandson of Archbishop Adam de Pencier and brother-in-law of Richard A. N. Bonnycastle. Born in Toronto, Ontario, de Pen ...
purchased the magazine from
Southam Southam () is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Southam is situated on the River Stowe (called 'The Brook' by many locals), which flows from Napton-on-the-Hill and joins Warwickshire's ...
(who had bought it from Seccombe and owned it for just six months). ''Quill & Quire'' remained with de Pencier as part of the Key Publishers/Key Media stable for 30 years, until its sale in 2003 (as part of a larger transaction involving Key Media) to St. Josephs Corporation, a Canadian-owned and -controlled printing and media company based in Concord, Ontario, which also publishes ''
Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eatin ...
''. ''Quill & Quire'' was substantially redesigned in 2006 in an effort led by publisher Alison Jones, editor
Derek Weiler Derek Xavier Weiler (October 4, 1968 – April 12, 2009) was a journalist and Canadian magazine editor. He was editor of ''Quill & Quire'', Canada's national book trade magazine. Early career Weiler received a B.A. and M.A. in English literature f ...
and art director Gary Campbell. One of the chief aims of the redesign was to demonstrate to the book and magazine industries the viability of printing on 100% recycled, environmentally-friendly paper stock. (It was one of the first magazines in Canada to do so.) As part of the process, the magazine's trim size was reduced for the first time in 30 years, from a large tabloid newspaper size (11" x 14") to that of a standard magazine. This also marked the first time the magazine was printed entirely in colour. The debut redesign issue (January 2006) featured author and artist
Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms ''Generation X'' and ''McJ ...
on the cover. As part of this visual re-think, Campbell commissioned Canadian
typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...
Rod McDonald to draw a new logo and provide two custom typefaces, named Laurentian and Slate, in order to create a fresh and unique visual identity for the publication. The redesign was later shortlisted for an art direction prize at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards. Campbell acted as art director for both the print magazine and web site for five years. Athena St. Jacques was hired to take over art direction for the print publication in 2008 when Campbell shifted his focus exclusively toward the web site, which he continued to direct until 2012. Other notable former staff include Ted Mumford,
Kenneth Oppel Kenneth Oppel (born August 31, 1967) is a Canadian children's writer. Biography Oppel was born in Port Alberni, and spent his childhood in Victoria, British Columbia and Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also lived in Newfoundland and Labrador, England, ...
,
Bert Archer Bert Archer is a Canadian author, journalist, travel writer, essayist and critic. Archer was born in Montreal and lived in Calgary and Vancouver. He attended St. Michael's University School in Victoria, British Columbia, and then went to the Uni ...
, James Grainger, and Nathan Whitlock. Editor-in-chief Derek Weiler died unexpectedly on April 12, 2009, at age 40, as the result of a chronic heart condition. The current editorial masthead includes Sue Carter Flinn, editor-in-chief; Steven Beattie, review editor; and Dory Cerny, Books for Young People editor. The publisher is Alison Jones and the associate publisher is Attila Berki, founder and former owner of the small publishing house Riverbank Press. Athena St. Jacques is the magazine's art director, Caroline Potter is the production manager, and Larry Wyatt is the consumer marketing manager.


Quillandquire.com and digital brand expansion

The first ''Quill & Quire'' web site was launched in early 2004 as a membership-based online companion to the magazine. Spearheading the project were editor Scott Anderson, art director Gary Campbell, former
Shift magazine ''Shift'' was a Canadian magazine, devoted to technology and culture. It has now ceased publication as a print magazine. Its website continued to publish new content for at least a year after the print title was discontinued, but is no longer in op ...
web designer Steve Park, and developer Jakub Labath. The site replaced a twice-weekly
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
email newsletter, and was one of only a few Canadian magazine web sites to successfully implement a
Paywall A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of ...
. As of March 2014, ten years on, this paywall is still in place. At launch, the site also included an archive of Canadian book reviews dating back to 1996. In January 2007, the staff began blogging daily in a new site feature outside of the paywall called Quillblog. In 2010, the website was extensively redesigned by Michelle Darwin and Gary Campbell. Subsequently, the site was shortlisted for best digital design, best news coverage and website of the year at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards that year. Site-wide social media and a global commenting platform were added in September 2011. That year the site won two awards at the COPAs: gold for best news coverage and silver for website of the year.


References


External links

*
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'': ''Quill & Quire''


* Photographic collection commissioned by Quill & Quir
(Authors, an exhibition of photographs by Arnaud Maggs, Paul Orenstein and John Reeves, 1964-1983 collection / Quill & Quire, R11840)
is held at
Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quill and Quire 1935 establishments in Ontario Book review magazines Literary magazines published in Canada Magazines established in 1935 Magazines published in Toronto St. Joseph Media magazines