Periodical Ramblings (15)

 More Magazines We Soon May Be Missing
  In Periodical Ramblings (13) I mentioned that National Geographic was laying off its staff writers and more recently, among some news stories, I indicated that Reader"s Digest Canada would soon cease publication (see, Palewall (5).) Now, two more periodicals are in trouble and may have to resort to a cover such as the one above. It is from National Lampoon, but obviously the threat didn't work since it stopped publishing at the end of the last century. 

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
   The headline this time is, "Sports Illustrated Employees Left in Limbo As Publisher Faces Money Troubles," (Joe Reedy, AP, in the G&M, Jan.19, 2024.) The magazine used to be a weekly, then biweekly and since 2020 has been a monthly. The illustrations were excellent and the coverage broad, as the cover above indicates (although I admit that the European Court of Justice didn't declare that bridge isn't a sport until 2017.) 

It has been loosing subscribers over the years, as have other periodicals. A while back, for just a few bucks, they sent copies to me all the way up to Canada and I got the jacket pictured as a bonus. I have to be careful where I wear it since Washington had not yet changed the name of the team to the "Commanders."

      

Beware  of hedge funds and investors bearing brand names like "Trusted Media Brands", which is closing down Reader's Digest, and "Authentic Brands Group" which owns Sports Illustrated. Authentic also owns the intellectual property for Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and Muhammad Ali, all of whom are dead, but still making more money than Sports Illustrated. 

BUSINESS WEEK
   Another dreaded headline if you like magazines is, "Bloomberg Businessweek to Go Monthly: The Publication Has Not Avoided the Persistent Headwinds Facing All Print Publications," Katie Robinson, New York Times, Nov. 30, 2023. Business Week has been published weekly since 1929, but it will now be a monthly, albeit on "heavier paper stock for a more high-end look and feel." Bloomberg bought the publication in 2009 and affixed his name to it, as he has to many things. I suppose the name will have to change again. It was a readable magazine, even it you weren't much interested in business.

The Loss of 'Local' News
  It is unfortunate that such publications are disappearing. You may soon have to rely on "Sam on Substack" or even MM, if you are only looking for "freebies" and don't want to pay for solid research and good writing that has been edited and proofed.
   It is also the case that the loss of these magazines can have a 'local' impact and I have written often about the devastating loss of local newspapers. I am using the term "local" here to mean "Canadian". We generally think it is a good thing to have journalists embedded in the community and poking politicians about local issues about which they care and have been following closely. 
   Back about the time Bloomberg bought Business Week, I was in charge of a business library at a university which has a good business school and had very good libraries. I received a call from Toronto from the folks at Business Week, who wanted to know if I was interested in getting their entire collection, since they were shutting up shop and the journalists covering Canada would no longer be based here. 
   This has happened before and it is likely that good coverage of 'local' Canadian news has suffered.  The Times of London shut its Ottawa office in the early 1970s and the New York Times closed its Canadian news bureau in 1999. Perhaps good journalism can be produced from afar, or by a reporter passing through, but it is likely better to have a local observer who, for example, goes out drinking at the pub with some politicians and people in the neighbourhood. 

Sources (And A Bit More): That's Why 'Ramblings' Is In The Title!

  For more about Business Week: "Who Ever Said Magazines Need to be Ink on Paper?", Peter Coy, New York Times, Dec. 4, 2023. On the importance of BW, he notes: Business Week's editorials offered perhaps the most sophisticated Keynesian-style economic analysis of any mass publication, and its influence may have been disproportionate to its circulation, as it targeted an elite audience of businessmen." He is quoting, Professor Ranjit Dighe: “Business Week and the Coming of Keynesianism to America.” Research in Economic History 35: 25-57 (2019).
   The Times of London announced it was shutting its Canadian bureau in 1970, but that was delayed until 1971 by Canadian-born Kenneth Thompson, who was the chairman of the Time's board. "Times Decides to Close Bureau in Canada," Globe and Mail, March 31, 1971.

   The New York Times closed its Canadian bureau and moved it to Denver. The reason for the closure was TAXES. They were prohibitive: "During the 1990s , one American newspaper after another quietly folded its tent in Canada. In an exodus largely unnoticed by the Canadian public, The Detroit News, closed its Ottawa bureau. The Chicago TrIbune closed its Toronto bureau. The Los Angeles Times  moved its Canada correspondent to New York and The Wall Street Journal adopted an informal policy of not sending Americans to Canada." ("Why The New York Times' Canada Bureau Isn't in Canada: Canadian Taxes on Taxes Have Made the Cost Prohibitive. But the Story Is Larger Than the Times," James Brooke, The Globe and Mail, Oct. 4, 1999. 
   The Columbia Journalism Review explained the exodus in this article:  "Why Canada Is Shrinking: The New York Times  Berlin Correspondent covers Germany from Berlin. Its Nairobi Correspondent Covers Kenya From Nairobi. And Its Canadian Correspondent Covers Canada From ....Denver, Colorado." (by Dayna E. Simon, Mar. 2000):
" The Times joined the exodus last summer after paying $114,000 in income tax to Revenue Canada for its resident reporter. The sky-high bill results in part from "tax equalization," in which the company pays the tax bill that is over an above what employees would pay if they were working in the U.S. An American in Canada could be taxed as high as 52% when federal and provincial rates are combined. But, it isn't the higher rates that the Times objects to -- it's what happens next. Under Canadian rules the money paid for tax equalization is added to the correspondent's salary as income in the following year. Thus, the amount builds, year after year." Plus, the reporters didn't qualify for Canadian benefits. 
  This long tax digression is interesting, but provided only because Toronto may soon be loosing Tavares because of tax issues and therefore it has some relevance: "Maple Leafs Captain John Tavares in $8M Tax Dispute With CRA," CBC, Feb.7, 2024 and many other examples c. Feb. 2024.

  The basic point is, I suppose, that while the Internet has led to an increase in the number of sources available to us, we are losing magazines, newspapers and other reliable sources and are surely not getting any smarter.

The Bonus:
  Unfortunately, billionaires may not be able to bail us out. Here is another recent headline: "Billionaires Wanted to Save the News Industry. They’re Losing a Fortune. Time magazine, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times — owned by Marc Benioff, Jeff Bezos and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong — Are Still Losing Money," Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson, The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2024.

Bloomberg

 

Johns Hopkins University

   The name "Bloomberg" may be familiar to you and you are likely to have heard of Johns Hopkins. Bloomberg was the mayor of New York City for many years and he was a presidential candidate in the last U.S. election. Johns Hopkins University is a small, private one, located in Baltimore and you probably know about it because of its medical school. Loyal readers of this blog will recall a post about Sir William Osler, who was important in the history of that school. There was recently some very good news about Johns Hopkins, because of Bloomberg, and I thought of it as I read the very bad news about Laurentian University. 

Bloomberg the Benefactor

   Recently Mr. Bloomberg gave Hopkins another donation of $150 million. Earlier, in 2018, he gave the University $1.8 BILLION, which is surely the largest gift given to an institution of higher education. His first gift was $5 when he graduated and the total he has now provided to Hopkins exceeds $3 BILLION.  His generosity extends beyond his alma mater. He has given lots to Harvard and $100 million to Cornell which is in the state next door. He has also donated considerable sums in other areas ranging from the Arts to Public Health initiatives. I won't go on. The sums are too great for me to handle and they are outlined in the sources I will provide.

   It is interesting to learn about the source of his riches. The Mayor of New York does not make very much and Mr. Bloomberg spent millions when running for president and even more to try and keep Trump out of the oval office.  Bloomberg does not come from a wealthy family. What he has comes mostly out of the object pictured above and there are thousands of them, all known as "Bloomberg Terminals." When they arrived on desktops in the early '80s, it was thought that they would not last, but they have. 

Laurentian University

   The good fortune of Hopkins is interesting to consider given the bad news coming from Sudbury. Laurentian needs a benefactor to lift it from insolvency since it does not appear that the current government will. Or perhaps Hopkins can send relief in the form of some of the staff members from their Advancement Office who surely can't have much to do. It is probably not a good idea to rely on noblesse oblige to support higher education, just as there must be a better solution than relying on the largesse derived from foreign students. But, what other options are there? Unfortunately here in Canada, colleges and universities have never received as much support from alumni as those in the United States and the provincial governments are typically rather stingy benefactors. 

Sources: 

Bloomberg Philanthropies will keep you busy for the rest of the day. Among other things, a large amount is expended to keep people from drowning. 

Plenty of bad news can be found in Sudbury. The Sudbury Workers, Education and Advocacy Centre (SWEAC) is trying to get more government assistance for the university.

 Both the COU and OCUFA issued statements about the inadequacy of the Spring Budget.

https://ontariosuniversities.ca/response-to-ontario-spring-2021-budget.

https://ocufa.on.ca/press-releases/2021-budget-a-missed-opportunity-to-invest-in-ontarios-future/

The Bonus

Bloomberg's daughter went to Princeton and many benefitted. There is now an Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity. 

In an earlier post, I provided this quote about Canadian universities c1930s: 

The universities had no contact with one another. Most of them had been conceived, born, and nourished for sectarian purposes, and all were very poor. Because they were poor they were ill-nurtured, and were as a rule at odds with one another. Professors were badly paid, libraries were meagre, laboratories were few and scantily equipped, museums hardly existed. The provincial treasurers, harassed by other demands for which they were afraid to tax their constituents, took advantage of the divided interests of the colleges to refuse aid impartially to all. From: Fifty Years Retrospect: Canada, 1882-1932

Professor Macksey's Library

    In July of this year there were many obituaries for Professor Richard A. Macksey who taught for over six decades at Johns Hopkins University. Apparently he was a legendary and inspirational teacher. Clearly he was a great collector of books. His library of approximately 70,000 of them is pictured above.






Sources:
"Richard Macksey, Johns Hopkins Professor With Capacious Mind and Library, Dies at 87, " Matt Schudel, Washington Post, July 26, 2019.
"Dr. Macksey (pronounced “Maxie”) was a wide-ranging scholar and polymath whose expertise extended from ancient and modern literature — in at least six languages — to medical history, biophysics, critical theory and film. He had joint appointments in Johns Hopkins’s School of Arts and Sciences and the medical school, where he helped design a curriculum that included writing and the humanities."
"He also was a founder of what is now the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore and volunteered to work in the night shift at a free book exchange. He seemed to subsist on three hours of sleep and pipe tobacco."
"Dr. Richard A. Macksey, A Legendary Johns Hopkins University Professor, Polymath and Noted Bibliophile, Dies," Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun, July 25, 2019.
"At home, the center of Dr. Macksey’s life was his library, which came about after he and his wife decided to convert the garage of their 1921 Guilford home into a library measuring 16 feet by 28 feet, and whose walls contained shelves that rose 15 feet to the ceiling. In spite of the massive size of the room, which had a Palladian window and a heat pump to protect the books from humid Baltimore summer, his library of an estimated 70,000 books spilled onto tables and rose in piles from the floor, making it the largest private library in the state."
"Richard Macksey, 'A One-of-a-Kind Intellectual Giant' Dies," Rachel Wallace, HUB, July 23, 2019.
"When Hopkins Alums Think of the Humanities, They Think of Richard Macksey," HUB, July 23, 2019.  This is a profile of Professor Macksey that appeared originally in the Johns Hopkins Gazette on June 21, 1999.  The picture of Macksey is from this article.
"Farewell Richard Macksey, Legendary Polymath and 'The Jewel in the Hopkins Crown,(1931-2019)" Cynthia Haven. From "The Book Haven", her blog at Stanford.

[Once again, no links are provided because of the likely instability of many of them and because some sources may be behind a firewall. If you google, them you can verify the sources.]

Post Script:
This bad news for Hopkins is offset to a great degree by this good news:
"Bloomberg Gives $1.8 BILLION to Johns Hopkins for Student Aid," Anemona Hartocollis, New York Times, Nov. 18, 2019