How the national journal of human resource management came to be
Sometimes, a good idea just keeps getting better. That’s how it must feel for Derry McDonell, a product development manager at Thomson Carswell, publisher of Canadian HR Reporter.
That’s because in the middle 1980s, long before he came to Thomson Carswell, McDonell was working in Southam’s business publications group in Toronto.
People at Southam were talking about how health and safety was an emerging market, says McDonell. At the same time human resources was becoming a priority on the Canadian corporate agenda.
“But there was no objective voice on the HR profession at the time,” he says. “I was given the mandate to explore the market and come up with a plan and a recommendation on how to proceed.”
Based on the success of HR magazines south of the border, it was clear HR practitioners were interested in reading about their profession, he says.
The question was should this new Canadian resource be a subscription-based newsletter or contain advertising — an anomaly with Southam’s business publications at the time.
“The difficulty and the reason we were cautious is that those (U.S.) magazines had a fair amount of penetration into Canada at that time, plus there was the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario’s magazine, which was taking up a lot of advertising,” he says.
The decision was for a hybrid approach: charge for the magazine with subscriptions and sell advertising.
When the first issue launched in September 1987, McDonell was at the helm as publisher with just two editorial staff and two sales reps.
And though they were thrilled to get Canadian HR Reporter off the ground, within three months they decided it was already time for a new look.
“We didn’t like the design at all,” he says. “I got a newspaper designer (to create Canadian HR Reporter) and should have gotten a magazine designer.”
The result was a product that was too grey for the market.
“We realized we were in the magazine business but just published on newsprint,” he says.
In the early going it was also tough for sales reps to convince advertisers used to four-colour ads in glossy magazines to consider newsprint.
“And the numbers for circulation were nowhere near what they would have expected,” he says. HRPAO was probably getting between 15,000 and 20,000 readers at the time, but Canadian HR Reporter could only claim about 5,000.
“But from an editorial standpoint we immediately caught the curiosity of the market,” he says. The publication was coming out with topical, timely news and with an objectivity not found anywhere else.
That said, it still took about five years “before the advertising base settled out.”
McDonell left Southam in 1989 and Canadian HR Reporter was sold to Toronto-based Marpep Publishing shortly after. McDonell probably assumed he had seen the last of the publication he helped launch. But in the late 1990s, Thomson Carswell and McDonell came calling at Canadian HR Reporter’s door. Hoping to attract customers to its HR reference materials, Thomson Carswell bought Canadian HR Reporter in 1998, believing it could leverage its high brand awareness among HR professionals to build a greater recognition for Thomson Carswell’s other products.
Originally the plan was to use the content for a new HR web portal, but that soon changed.
“There was a strong directive to basically leave (Canadian HR Reporter) alone and we still had to figure out that portal strategy,” says McDonell.
It was probably a wise move because Canadian HR Reporter has thrived since then, he says.
David Brown is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
That’s because in the middle 1980s, long before he came to Thomson Carswell, McDonell was working in Southam’s business publications group in Toronto.
People at Southam were talking about how health and safety was an emerging market, says McDonell. At the same time human resources was becoming a priority on the Canadian corporate agenda.
“But there was no objective voice on the HR profession at the time,” he says. “I was given the mandate to explore the market and come up with a plan and a recommendation on how to proceed.”
Based on the success of HR magazines south of the border, it was clear HR practitioners were interested in reading about their profession, he says.
The question was should this new Canadian resource be a subscription-based newsletter or contain advertising — an anomaly with Southam’s business publications at the time.
“The difficulty and the reason we were cautious is that those (U.S.) magazines had a fair amount of penetration into Canada at that time, plus there was the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario’s magazine, which was taking up a lot of advertising,” he says.
The decision was for a hybrid approach: charge for the magazine with subscriptions and sell advertising.
When the first issue launched in September 1987, McDonell was at the helm as publisher with just two editorial staff and two sales reps.
And though they were thrilled to get Canadian HR Reporter off the ground, within three months they decided it was already time for a new look.
“We didn’t like the design at all,” he says. “I got a newspaper designer (to create Canadian HR Reporter) and should have gotten a magazine designer.”
The result was a product that was too grey for the market.
“We realized we were in the magazine business but just published on newsprint,” he says.
In the early going it was also tough for sales reps to convince advertisers used to four-colour ads in glossy magazines to consider newsprint.
“And the numbers for circulation were nowhere near what they would have expected,” he says. HRPAO was probably getting between 15,000 and 20,000 readers at the time, but Canadian HR Reporter could only claim about 5,000.
“But from an editorial standpoint we immediately caught the curiosity of the market,” he says. The publication was coming out with topical, timely news and with an objectivity not found anywhere else.
That said, it still took about five years “before the advertising base settled out.”
McDonell left Southam in 1989 and Canadian HR Reporter was sold to Toronto-based Marpep Publishing shortly after. McDonell probably assumed he had seen the last of the publication he helped launch. But in the late 1990s, Thomson Carswell and McDonell came calling at Canadian HR Reporter’s door. Hoping to attract customers to its HR reference materials, Thomson Carswell bought Canadian HR Reporter in 1998, believing it could leverage its high brand awareness among HR professionals to build a greater recognition for Thomson Carswell’s other products.
Originally the plan was to use the content for a new HR web portal, but that soon changed.
“There was a strong directive to basically leave (Canadian HR Reporter) alone and we still had to figure out that portal strategy,” says McDonell.
It was probably a wise move because Canadian HR Reporter has thrived since then, he says.
David Brown is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
