Canadian Publishing Companies
Canadian Publishing Companies is a broad topic that encompasses newspapers, magazines, hardcover books and trade paperbacks. Though a relatively small country by population, Canada has a vibrant publishing heritage and many specialized publishing niches including the leading publisher of romance novels in the world.
In a country that is officially bilingual it is to be expected that many of the specialty presses publish in the French language but there are also many other presses that cater to a variety of the many languages spoken in and around Canada. Canada is not only officially bilingual but also officially multicultural.
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Publishing Associations in Canada
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PublishersGlobal.com lists some 467 publishers in various provinces and cities throughout Canada and includes nonprofit as well as for-profit publishing houses and organizations.
The Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) is an English language group of publishers in Canada representing some 140 publishers in many areas of interest and study. The group provides links to member sites and contact information. Its information says that some 80 percent of Canadian authors are published by Canadian-owned publishers, which serves to highlight the importance to the domestic market of these companies. This Association works to make the Canadian-owned publishing sector self-sustaining and viable.
The ACP site says some 10,000 books are published in Canada each year and offers helpful information should someone wish to be part of such a launch in the future. Publishing is, as the association notes, a risky venture so it is necessary to do one's homework and to be persistent.
The Canadian Book Market
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An historical overview of Canadian book publishing can be gleaned from a McMaster University page on The Business of Publishing- Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing (find a link in References). A cooperative venture of McMaster University, the University of Toronto and Queen's University and Canadian Heritage, this website offers an interesting slice of the Canadian Publishing business from the beginnings of the country and includes many photographs and other items related to the industry.
For a current view of the Canadian Book Market in many statistical interpretations the best site is BookNetCanada (see References). This site offers information is useful for the most dedicated bibliophile as well as someone only mildly interested in sales figures and trends in Canadian Publishing.
For more in depth analysis of Canadian Book Publishing one need only search Statistics Canada (or StatsCan http://www.statcan.gc.ca/stcsr/query.html?qt=Book+publishing&charset=iso-8859-1&qm=1&col=alle&oq=publishing&rq=1&style=emp) where a variety of articles and studies on the Canadian industry can be searched. Most actual copies of these studies are available in Canadian Reference libraries or by request from reference libraries around the world.
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Other Canadian Publishing
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Returning to publishers in French or other languages, the best site for this is again PublishersGlobal.com wherein it is possible to find smaller niche publishers in a variety of languages as well as the largest French language operations.
Magazinescanada.ca offers searchable information on magazines of all sorts published in Canada from the largest to specialty or in either Official Language.
Newspapers have been a vibrant part of Canadian Publishing for many years and it is still the same today. In the major Canadian cities many newspapers battle it out for market share while in similar US situations there may only be one daily newspaper.
Torstar is one of the largest newspaper publishers in Canada but also controls Harlequin Publishing, one of the world's largest publishers of romance fiction. It has extensive media holdings in Canada and some parts of the United States.
Canwest Global Communications is one of Canada's largest media companies with broadcast as well as print media in cities throughout the country.
Canada's "national newspaper" is the Globe and Mail, which is published by CTVGlobeMedia Publishing Inc. and was formerly the flagship of Thomson Newspapers. It is published daily in all major cities in Canada and is seen by some as Canada's version of the Times of London.
French Canadian Publishing
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La Presse and Le Devoir are two French Language Montreal Newspapers who have been in business for many years. They have been the voice of the French Canadian in most, if not all, of the important issues of Canadian history.
Quebec as the French province is where the preponderance of French language newspapers are but there are smaller pockets of French across the country that are served by smaller presses or internet access to these larger dailies.
Canadian Publishing
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Canadian Publishing seems to be dealing with the rise of internet and multimedia better than most countries.
Canada was the birthplace of many of the innovative voices of media, from Marshall McLuhan, the modern media guru used as a punchline in the movie "Annie Hall," to the CITY-TV news stations and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Many of these innovations have integrated publishing media that seems to indicate a healthy future for publishing in Canada.
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