 From the Editor
New Year's Evolution
We've accomplished a lot since we started the electronic version of CM last June, and we're proud of the magazine. (You may have noticed that our Welcome page now sports this button indicating we're a "Top Canadian Web-Site" according to the 1996 Canadian Internet Directory.) But sometimes as you're swinging along from tree to tree, you begin to think brachiation might not be the most efficient way to go. Or, in our case, we've recently realized that restricting access to paid subscibers might not be the best way to market CM over the Internet.
That subscription-based plan was based on a print model, and of course the Internet is really an electronic mass-medium -- like TV. And like TV, it turns out that people expect everything on the 'net to be free.
Finding subscribers has been harder than we thought, particularly since we've been telling people that it will cost money just to take a look at the current issues. Although our overall readership isn't bad -- we're approaching the numbers of the old, paper CM -- our subscription revenue isn't what we'd hoped. So we've evolved a plan to substantially raise our readership in order to better chase advertising dollars. The goal is simply to stay financially healthy enough to be around for the long-term.
For starters, from now on access to CM will be free. We will continue to ask regular readers for a $42 annual contribution to cover our costs, but we're not going to try to keep out anyone who hasn't come up with the money. Sort of like PBS. (Well, we won't be doing pledge drives, but our publisher, the Manitoba Library Association, is a registered charitable organisation; anyone who makes a contribution, or who already has, can request a receipt for tax-purposes.)
Because we won't be restricting access based on subscriptions, we'll also be taking the opportunity to market ourselves more aggressively both in print and throughout the Internet. So tell your friends, colleagues, and relatives: CM can be had for free at portal.mbnet.mb.ca/cm -- or by sending an e-mail request for subscription to cm@umanitoba.ca. And expect to see us everywhere you turn . . .
Along with our new, wider-distribution policy, we've changed a couple of other things about the magazine. First, we're expanding our mandate to include reviews of non Canadian materials -- from a Canadian point of view. What's important to remember is that we will not be reducing the number of Canadian titles we cover, just starting to add international content as well. We'll continue to attempt to review Canadian materials comprehensively, and they will always form the majority of our content.
And one more thing. When we were a print publication, CM stood for Canadian Materials. People called us by both the short and long versions. When we changed to electronic production last spring, we kept the CM, but added the very catchy subtitle: "an electronic reviewing journal of Canadian materials for young people." Now that we won't be reviewing only Canadian content, our name is going to change a little again, to CM: Canadian Review of Materials. Shorter, even catchier, and more appropriate.
If you have any questions or comments about our new policy, please get in touch at the address beneath my name.
-- Duncan Thornton
cmeditor@mts.net
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Book Reviews
 Student-Led Conferences.
- Janet Millar Grant, Barbara Heffler, Kadri Mereweather.
- Review by Katherine Matthews.
- Professional.
- Sink or Swim.
- William Pasnak.
- Review by Katherine Matthews.
- Grades 3 - 6 / Ages 8 - 11.
- How the Pinto Got Her Colour.
- Kate Buchholz. Illustrated by Anne Hanley.
- Review by Kenneth Field.
- Grades 4 - 6 / Ages 9 - 11.
- Really Weird Animals.
- Tammy Everts and Bobbie Kalman.
- Review by Harriet Zaidman.
- Grades 1 - 5 / Ages 6 - 10.
Video Review
- Toronto: Stories from the Life of a City.
- Lynx Images Productions.
- Review by Katherine Matthews.
- Grades 8 and up / Ages 13 and up.
Features
- The Great Canadian Trivia Contest
- The Little Math Puzzle
News
- International: "Taming the Tube" Project
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e-mail: cm@umanitoba.ca