12 January 2012

Federal support for Canadian publications

In Tuesday's Ottawa Citizen columnist Randall Denley writes "The little-known Canada Periodical Fund doles out about $71 million a year to publications ranging from Newfoundland Sportsman to the Canadian Coin News." Surely out of that amount there must be something for genealogy.
Yes there is, but it's not as I expected. The only periodical I can immediately identify from the genealogical/family history community is "Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française" receiving $8,625. That's 0.012% of the total.  That's no match for gardening at 0.975% and hockey which receives 1.17% of the funding. So much for genealogy as the most popular pastime.
I'm not complaining, it does help put our genealogy interest in perspective.
To be fair, some of the other publications have history content. Legion Magazine is a Canadian English-language magazine with a French insert published in a four-colour format covering stories about Canadians, Canada’s institutions its military and its heritage. At $7 per year for six issues a substantial part of the $574,113 from the fund must go as a subsidy.
Canada's History, formerly The Beaver, costs $32.95 for the annual six issues and receives a grant of $139,214. Might a reduced price bring a larger subscriber base and a larger grant? For comparison, Canadian Geographic, the cover of the January issue featuring the War of 1812, receives a grant of $592,964 and costs $28.50 for six issues.

No comments: