Letter from the Publisher – May 2016

“The king is dead. Long live the king!” Shouted by the people of France when a new monarch was crowned, this cheer was meant to celebrate the deceased king while also pledging allegiance to the new king. I have to admit at this point, that, while I was planning to use this phrase in my May editorial, recent events have given it a bit of a different hue than originally intended. Only one week before this issue hit presses, we received word that our printing press of five years closed down under bankruptcy. We had been printing urbanicity Magazine there since our very first issue in May 2011. It was a heartbreaking call to receive, as the fine people at Canweb Printing have become very well known to us over the years. They’ve always been helpful, accommodating of our strange requests, and always highly professional. Their work was excellent. We’ll miss them. We’ve now begun working with a new press – this issue is likely the first of many in this new relationship. The press is dead! Long live the press! A bit awkward, but you get the idea.

My original intent for using the French coronation cheer was with regard to the print industry itself. Currently under significant strain, the magazines, newspapers, and tabloids around the world are trying to keep afloat by finding new revenue streams. Headlines are getting louder, cover images are increasingly provocative; all vying to attract more eyeballs than their competitor.

We have decided to take a different route. Currently our magazine is growing, and so we are able to take some risks and try new things. To start, we’ve completely rein- vented our cover. It’s now a basic table of contents on a strong coloured background which will appear in a different colour each month, clearly indicating when a new issue has been released. Beyond the cover, we’re starting a series of writer rooms, where we invite people to come and pitch their ideas for columns and features to us. Finally, we’re relaunching our website. In short, we will continue to grow urbanicity Magazine by doing print in new ways. Print is dead. Long live print!