Rogers is doubling down on digital, taking some of its lead magazines off store shelves in favour of online distribution. Beginning in January, Canadian Business, Flare, MoneySense and Sportsnet magazines move to digital. Maclean’s, Canada’s only newsweekly magazine, will publish a monthly paper edition, but online weekly. Chatelaine and Today’s Parent goes to six editions a year, but will publish monthly online. Rogers also put 34 trade publications up for sale, including Marketing Magazine, Canadian Grocer, and its French-language magazines, Châtelaine, L’actualité, and Lou Lou. The only publication to remain unchanged is Hello! Canada, which will continue to publish weekly.
Spotify, the music streaming service, is in advanced talks to acquire SoundCloud. A deal between the Europe based titans comes as Apple and Amazon recently launched their own music streaming services to keep up. In June, SoundCloud raised $100 million from a group of investors including Twitter. There’s no word on how much Spotify is willing to pay and a report in the Financial Times suggests the discussions could still collapse.
Frankly Inc. has appointed Tom Rogers to the board of directors. The company creates, distributes and monetizes content across all digital properties with a focus on broadcasters and media companies. Rogers is Executive Chairman of WinView, Inc., a provider of games that engage with live TV sports. He also was CEO and Chairman of TiVo. Rogers starts on the board immediately.
