The Bar Towel

Interesting article in Globe and Mail entertainment section about the LBCO's Food & Drink magazine.

Main points of contention from other Canadian magazines:
- LCBO's free magazine is essentially being unfairly subsidized by the government
- LCBO does not allow other magazines to be sold in their stores
- because of the massive distribution of Food & Drink, advertising money is being pulled away from other magazines

My message to the private magazine publishers:

Boo hoo. Go stuff yourselves.

If they think they're going to see an increased readership (and greater advertising revenues) due to Food & Drink going away then they're greatly mistaken. I don't purchase similar magazines now and don't intend to in the future if F&D ceases publishing.

There is actually an interesting antitrust issue here, since the LCBO is utilizing its monopoly power in one area to gain unfair advantage in another. These are similar arguments that Netscape and Real Networks have used against Microsoft who have leveraged their structural monopoly in operating systems to gain dominance in the browser and media player segments.

Having said that, the Great Lakes Brewing News seems to be doing all right on its own...

inertiaboy wrote:Main points of contention from other Canadian magazines:

- LCBO does not allow other magazines to be sold in their stores

Is that a fair claim? I haven't been to the Crossroads LCBO in a while, but when I used to go there, they had one or two wine magazines available.

While I can understand the position of the CMPA, I can't say that I agree with them on this one. Food & Drink is just a very large advertising flyer, with lifestyle articles included so as to create a desire to "buy up" and promote the purchasing of premium & super premium products. If the LCBO doesn't allow for the sale of other magazines in their stores, so what? They don't sell any alcohol related books other than for their Product Knowledge courses.

At first glance I was mildly sympathetic to the publishers arguments but then I realised that they are making the same argument as the record industry.

The assumption is that if I can't get my MP3s/Food & Drink available for free I will spend more money on CDs/other magazines. But that is a rather large assumption. Many people would simply do without.

Particulalry ridiculous are the comments of the publisher of VINES magazine. He started his magazine knowing that FOOD & DRINK was one of his competitors and now he has the gall to whine about the money he's losing...I want this guy managing my retirement portfolio....NOT! It's all part and parcel of this prevailing cultural attitude in North America that everything is someone else's fault. If I fail in business, it's someone else's fault...if I kill someone, it's someone else's fault. If I'm an idiot and do something really stupid, it's someone else's fault...I get so weary reading story after story in the daily papers about people who fail to take responsibility for their deeds and actions and this article is just another example of a select group complaining about something that existed when most of them went into business but now find distasteful. You are right, very little of the revenu from FOOD & DRINK would flow to other magazines since producers could never find a publication which is so directly targetted at their market.

Hoy...Hoy!

Holy crap! Is this thread actually defending something that the LCBO does???

esprit wrote:It's all part and parcel of this prevailing cultural attitude in North America that everything is someone else's fault.

We like good beer... that's Peter's fault!

No I get your point, it's a babyish mentality you describe and we must learn to stand up in life.

That said, I always felt the LCBO spends a lot of money on store reno and expensive printed materials etc. Does it matter to us or does it cost us money? Who benefits besides the building contractors and printers? I admit these free magazines are nice (I often grab a few dozen) and I might even buy the Pinot Noir they are hawking that season. But the way the LCBO spends money and manages things always looks a little too wildly out-of-control, as if they want to keep their shiny little bubble growing so we won't notice or question their shortcomings.

Belgian wrote:

esprit wrote:It's all part and parcel of this prevailing cultural attitude in North America that everything is someone else's fault.

But the way the LCBO spends money and manages things always looks a little too wildly out-of-control, as if they want to keep their shiny little bubble growing so we won't notice or question their shortcomings.

You mean: 'Like a government is running it' - Careful, if you look deeper you might discover that all Ont. & Can. functions are run this way and the cost is astronomical...oh ya...that is what we live with.

Rob Creighton wrote:

Belgian wrote:

esprit wrote:It's all part and parcel of this prevailing cultural attitude in North America that everything is someone else's fault.

But the way the LCBO spends money and manages things always looks a little too wildly out-of-control, as if they want to keep their shiny little bubble growing so we won't notice or question their shortcomings.

You mean: 'Like a government is running it' - Careful, if you look deeper you might discover that all Ont. & Can. functions are run this way and the cost is astronomical...oh ya...that is what we live with.

Un covering systemic government/bureaucratic waste and largesse seems to be a popular trend these days......but I won't hold my breath waiting for those who run these revenue bleading venues to repair them.

It's up to the consumer to demand better value for their dollar in everything....given the level of genetic Canadian apathy I won't hold out hope for this happening either.

It is apathy. We are an inherently wealthy nation with a lot of potential power to control our future. We have so many resources, and so little political will to manifest what these resources represent.

That irks me. We in Canada could have a culturally forward, independent, sophisticated and comprehensively smart society WITH our existing wealth, and yet somehow all we are doing is spinning our wheels, taking the fruit of our labour and tossing most of it away so SOME people can run the show ineptly. Our city of Toronto looks like dirty crap, there's no real public transit infrastructure or sense of public life and it's culturally dead. For every Beaches Jazz Festival that's reluctantly allowed to go one more year, we've got all these stffnecks enforcing useless regulations, stifling the relaxed commerce and vibrancy we dearly need. Why can't this city be allowed to breathe and smile, to brightly flower like any great city in the world?

It seems as if we're being told to be still, be quiet and to accept what's allowed us. If it's not planned this way (pick your dodgy conspiracy theory), it is deeply, madly endemic. WE can decide what will be.

One possible way out: that a critical threshold of personal wealth may force culture (and a spark of life) to happen in this provincial backwater of a land, in spite of itself. This is all theory of course... and at last count 'more wealth' seems always to be kept in check by 'more and gratuiltous taxation', keeping everyone "the same" so that no-one gets any funny ideas about general living standards and the importance of cultural life.

A bit of a rant, sorry. Apathy and hypnosis of the masses can't last forever, we should hope.

WE (agents) - and whoever else advertises in it - "pay" for that magazine. $10,000 a page (ad).