Just got a tip that the Western Standard, Canada’s only conservative magazine, is closing its doors.
Can anyone confirm or, hopefully, deny?
Just got a tip that the Western Standard, Canada’s only conservative magazine, is closing its doors.
Can anyone confirm or, hopefully, deny?
Don’t beleive that one. As of 4:30 PM CST Oct. 05-07, , the online subscription is still available. False prophecy. Look for an “NDP” in the woodpile.
Check out the shotgun blog – 4:50 p.m. MST
Ezra confirms it here:
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2007/10/150-million-pag.html
I guess I will now have to get my Canadian news entirely in electronic form as the Western Standard was the one newsmagazine that I read. With all of the leftist rags out there, I can’t believe that Western standard couldn’t make it financially.
“To my deep regret, the Western Standard has decided to stop publishing our print edition.
It’s a purely financial decision. Even though our advertising revenues were stronger than ever, with marquee brands like GM, Mazda, BMW and Air Canada filling our pages, and even though we had the most loyal subscribers in the business, with an unheard-of 80% renewal rate, we just weren’t close enough to profit.
I offer my thanks to our amazing staff, our loyal investors, and our enthusiastic subscribers, all of whom showed great faith in our project. Our online presence will continue for now in the form of this blog at least; when I spoke recently with our senior columnist, Mark Steyn, about our financial difficulties, he suggested ramping the website up into a Canadian version of Townhall or a conservative version of the Huffington Post. It’s an idea worth considering.”
— snip —
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2007/10/150-million-pag.html
So… Will all of the people who paid for a print subscription be getting a refund on the unserviced portion? (I’m not in that boat, BTW.)
Dammit!
That’s terrible news. I have been giving money to them the last few years as a member of the publishers circle. I am very disappointed.
Take heart folks, you can get lots of right side viewing and lisening by tuning into the daily radio streams of Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Miller and others.
For some Canadian ‘light right’ … you can go to the CKNW site and listen to Adler and go the vault for past programs.
Along with SDA there are many blogs with lots of encouragement.
The Left does have a strangle hold on MSM, but like Frank Zappa once said (not verbatim) if the meek gets hold of anything, they won’t keep it for long.
In the USA, the New York Times is going down fast as is CNN, MSNBC and other leftist venues. Air (head) America radio has already tanked.
In the end reality and honesty will always prevail and that is what we have on our side.
Thanks to Ezra for taking his best shot.
Sean, I am a subscriber and I doubt I will get a refund. It is quite petty to even talk about it.
Now go cash in your pop cans.
Can’t believe it. Say it ain’t so.
I look at the magazine rack at the local drug store. There’s a magazine for every peculiar bent and hobby people have. All in glossy colour. There’s gotta be a way.
this is depressing – where can you hear conservative voices in Canada?
Word on the street is that Ezra had a deal with his backers where he wouldn’t re-enter politics while publisher for 5 years, IIRC. So the brightside is that he may get back into politics.
Ezra’s not always my cup of tea, but he and The Standard did an awful good job helping boot the Liberals from office and I can’t pay him a higher compliment than that.
I always thought they were way overpriced. Too bad. It was a good publication, but you have to be competitive.
“Now go cash in your pop cans.”
I’d rather cash in yours. 🙂
Nothing to stop Ezra from joining the Marines now. Semper Fi, loser.
Sorry, that was rude of me. I apologize.
It’s a disgrace that in a City like Calgary, the only national magazine defending free enterprise was shunned by the Oil Patch head office CarpetBaggers. I suppose they were too busy listening to their Left-lib spin doctors and giving their corporate excess to Greenpeace or some other anti-industrial parasitic organization.
I suppose going to the Government for a bailout is out of the question – just joking!!!!
Manny,
Way to zing Ezra. You can now return to your cave. Troll.
“Sorry, that was rude of me. I apologize.”
It wasn’t rude. It was just stupid.
Oh well nothing lost. You can still get Canadian Dimensions Magazine”
http://www.canadiandimension.com/
http://www.canadiandimension.com/
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Calgary is no longer a conservative city. Check out city council. Mayor Bronconnier is a liberal and is surrounded by socialists and unionists. Ric MacIver is the only solid conservative. Unfortunately, magazines like Ezra’s won’t make it in a province that is becoming increasingly liberal. I would urge anyone concerned about the direction our province is heading in, to join the new Wildrose party and see if we can elect a few members in the next election. Its our only hope.
Unfortunate but not surprising. I think it really spells out the difference between the left and the right. Most of us are doers not followers and lay a bouts with government jobs, [or no job] we work, we produce, we create, we are productive. In my case as much as I liked Western Standard the cold fact was I never seemed to find the time to read it. Not only that all my friends never seemed to find the time to even fill out the subscription form.
Will fewer words turn into more aggressive action from the right?
“this is depressing – where can you hear conservative voices in Canada?” (ex-liberal, 7:35PM)
Right here, ex.
Bit of slag here, too, sometimes. But those posters aren’t “ex” liberals. (off topic, caught your arguments at “Fundamentally Flawed”… top notch!)
Although I never subscribed to the WS, I would pick up a few issues a year at magazine stands; and I’m happy to report I sent Ezra a few bucks to help him with the legal fees last year.
. . .this is depressing – where can you hear conservative voices in Canada?
Posted by: ex-liberal at October 5, 2007 7:35 PM
———-
Try Michael Coren for size.
Canoe CNEWS columnists… some good ones over there, various Sun newspapers (try Paul Jackson)
I will definitely miss the Western Standard.
The day it came in the mail, I would read the whole thing front to back. On a brighter note my family will be happy to have those 2 hours back with me every couple of weeks.
all the best Ezra and all those at WS.
Big whoop. I stopped printing three of my rags when the cost of paper and shipping just stopped making it worth it. Going digital saved money, attracted a better readership, and has almost made up for the drop in ad revenues (we are still profitable, thank you). In twenty years, everyone will be digital. Paper is heavy. Weight is cost. Do the math.
saskadan said:
The day it came in the mail, I would read the whole thing front to back.
That’s weird, ‘cos I read it back to front but like you in a single day. I inhaled the WS.
I gave the dudes $1,000 for their defence against the Muslim imam. Got an intital letter, never heard a thing after. Anywhere. Left a bit of sour taste, frankly.
Quoting myself: “There’s no real conservative constituency in Canada”. Certainly, not enough of a one to support a glossy dead-tree publication. I always knew it would be a matter of time before it would be defunct.
I’m a subscriber as well and I’m not expecting any refund. I’m certainly not asking for one. I happily paid the high subscription price because I felt that the magazine what worth supporting.
It will be missed.
If only Ezra would have had asex change then the Liberal start-up dollars would have kept it going for 30 yr’s and a 28% profit! Oh the benefits of sucking at the Ottawa teat!
is it only the printed version gone? no more glossy expensive stuff?
Ah, Kelly, at last, a conservative who understands economics! The future of serious media is online. Print will be left to the supermarket trash: you will still have the latest Angelina and Britney news on paper. The rest? Forget about it. Paper is highly compressed wood. The better stuff is hardwood. It is heavy. What is cheaper? Pixels or postage?
The handwringing here is absurd, and that is what is wrong with too many conservatives: worrying about sentimental crap and letting the ball drop on real matters. Read it online. Get over it.
Bigger fish to fry. For instance: oh…nevermind.
Could’nt you have let us know? Pride before the the fall… Ezra…
This is so liberal… I am certain you’ll have an opportunity with them
Devastated
“Not Waiting For The Asteroid” aka God Bless Darwin and the free market.
been sayin it for years, 60% of all canadians are socialists the other 40% are socialist lite. there aren’t enough conservatives to suppport one publication in the entire country with a conservative slant.
‘Know whatcha mean Me No Dhimmi.
‘Entered an essay contest at the Western Standard about a year ago. ‘Had to pay $50 for each entry (‘sent more than one), which did include a free subscription (which, now, will be truncated).
No one won the contest. It disappeared from sight, and to a request to Ezra to find out who won, nada.
You can’t run a business this way. I have been extremely diappointed by Mr. Levant’s business tactics: take people who can afford it on Caribbean cruises and leave loyal readers, who paid the high price of the magazine in order to support an enterprise which debunked the lib-left view of the world, blowing in the wind.
I’ll be sorry to see the demise of the Western Standard, but I can’t say I’m surprised, given Ezra Levant’s rather cavalier attitude.
I’d still like to know who won that essay context…
contest…
And THIS Magazine http://www.thismagazine.ca/ continues because of taxpayer fubnding. Yuck!
I too am disapointed. I look forwaed to my bi-weekly read. They sent an e-mail to my folks stating they would be publishing every 3 weeks.
There might be something to the idea that Ezra is again entering politics. As Link Byfield is trying to get signatures to get official party status for the Wild rose Party of Alberta.
A new conservative provincial party.
Levant is the second editor to be disappointed in the support a conservative magazine gets from conservatives…..he should have listened to the Byfields when they told him Conservatives have a hard time putting their money where their mouth is……all of you who bemoan the closing of this unique conservative voice, how many of you had subscriptions?
this is the second time I have been left with pre paid subscription in a western conservative news mag that folded.
Putting money where mouths are is not a reserve of Conservatives.
But it’s especially galling when Conservatives, who say they want to protect and uphold the values of Western Civilization, refuse to back up their claims with monetary clout.
I have said it and will say it again: Conservatism without Judeo-Christian values is a lost cause. We’re seeing it play out in the demise of the Western Standard.
I might add, that I am a conservative who has supported conservative causes, not out of an abundance of financial means but because I recognize that we in the West are in very deep trouble if we allow the liberal-left forces of license, irreposponsibility, and unaccountablity to plunder our society which once rested upon the pillars of faith, law, and order.
Amen, batb.
Ezra Levant has been a huge disappointment: very little gravitas there, methinks. Very sad. Not a patch on the Byfields, IMO.
(Did I hear about the demise of WS from Mr. Levant, with any explanation about my lost subscription—keep the $$? No. I understand the feelings of Me No Dhimmi and Burned too.)
For the record, my husband and I were subscribers to both Western Report and–charter subscribers to–The Western Standard.
C(c)onservatives, including libertarians, in this country, need to bloody well smarten up (despite Ezra’s shortcomings)! Otherwise we’ll continue to be swamped by the liberal tsunami that’s devastating our once proud dominion.
Kyrie eleison.
It’s a crying, crying shame. Only goes to show that Canadians have been brainwashed to such extent that conservative ideas are a hard sell.
The Western Standard was the only media outlet to tell the truth: on Liberals, on Arar, on the Khadrs, on multiculturalism, etc.
WS will be sorely missed by those Canadians who still have a functioning brain.
Burned too: Now THAT is rich, really rich. In fact, it’s hilarious! So the essay contest disappeared eh?
Repeating: I gave them $1,000 to help fight the Alberta Kangaroo Court — the Calgary imam’s human rights (sic) complaint. Got an initial thank you letter but nary a word after.
Now I’m totally intrigued: Did Levant, after his noble and eloquent defence of free speech during the cartoon caper, CAVE. Did he settle out of court (sic)? If so, could this have been a factor in the magazine’s demise.
Is there no one here in Canada to whom the torch can be passed?
As my brother-in-law so succinctly puts it:
Sad Canada.
Yup, MND: ‘contest completely disappeared. I looked high and low, in the magazine, on the WS Web site, e-mailed Ezra…but, poof, it was sucked into a black hole.
As I said to Mr. Levant, I hadn’t expected to win, but I figured SOMEONE must have won. If anyone saw a winner to the essay contest that was announced last September (2006) in the Western Standard, please let me know via this thread.
Well, Burned too: my loss was 20x yours but I’m laughing out loud, believe it not! Black comedy.
Your essay wasn’t about Black Holes I presume.
Is there no one here in Canada to whom the torch can be passed?
Posted by: ‘been around the block at October 6, 2007 4:24 PM
Heh batb, maybe after the burns heal!
Me No:
If I have heard correctly, Ezra is still fighting in the courts.