Us Canadian Magazine Dispute Case Study

In my opinion, the U.S.-Canadian magazine dispute was, on the Canadian side, motivated by a genuine desire by the Canadian government to protect Canadian culture and national identity. ”In 1970, a special Canadian governmental Committee on Mass Media concluded that 'magazines constitute the only national press we possess in Canada. Magazines, in a different way from any other medium, can help foster in Canadians a sense of themselves.'" (“Globalization 101”, pg. 17). Canada has, on many occasions, sought to protect the creative works of its citizens by ensuring that some Canadian-produced content is always available to the public. For example, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements demand that a percentage
Since American magazines can advertise to a larger share of people, they are able to offer much lower advertising prices than a homegrown publication with a much smaller readership, therefore concerns arose over Canadian advertising dollars being spent with U.S. publications and not with Canadian publications. (“Globalization 101”, pg. 18). Surely Canadian magazine publishers were envisioning a scenario where, if U.S. publishers were allowed free reign to publish split-runs in Canada, that they could easily offer a better value to advertisers, which would quickly run competing Canadian magazines out of
I would define a domestic magazine as any magazine headquartered in and printed in Canada, and whose written content is at least 51% produced by writers of Canadian citizenship and residency. Therefore, a split-run magazine would be a magazine that was either printed in another nation, headquartered in another nation, or whose writing staff were mostly of foreign extraction and/or foreign residency. This would account for Sports Illustrated's end-run around import restrictions by transferring U.S. produced content by satellite to a printer in their Canadian office. (“Globalization 101”, pg. 17). It would also ensure that a domestic magazine is exactly what the name implies: a magazine published and printed in Canada, by Canadians who live in Canada, for Canadians. However, since I am against the idea of additional taxation on a foreign product, the definition would be largely ceremonial, as I would expect domestic magazines to work to “get in touch” with their readership, strategize on how they can best attract Canadian readers away from popular foreign magazines, and focus on how to make the best possible Canadian content that they can