Appointment notice
I leave the Post with great reluctance, and not a little heartache. I was one of the original “Posties,” and anyone who was there at the beginning will know what emotions well up at the thought of those times....
More »This is to tell everyone who hasn’t heard that I am leaving the National Post to become National Editor of Maclean’s magazine. I start next week.I leave the Post with great reluctance, and not a little heartache. I was one of the original “Posties,” and anyone who was there at the beginning will know what emotions well up at the thought of those times. We were all unspeakably young (well, some younger than others), all hand-picked for the job, and all of us unable to believe our good fortune: to work with the best writers and the best editors and the best designers, to be allowed to break all the rules of what a newspaper should do and say and look like, and to get away with it -- to put out a paper that was as good as anything anywhere in the world, and to do it here.
Then, as everyone knows, things went south for a time: Sept. 11, and the economic uncertainty it brought in its wake, compounded by Conrad’s mounting business woes, leading to changes in ownership and, regrettably but perhaps inevitably, in management. It’s fair to say the Post wobbled a bit. But in recent years, under the steady and assured leadership of Doug Kelly, Steve Meurice and their team, the paper has found its footing again. On its day, it is still the best, sharpest, wittiest paper in the country -- Jon Kay’s and Terry Corcoran’s comment pages are a particular highlight, though I’m biased -- combining the innovation and flair of its youth with a professionalism born of having come through hard times and survived. It has an amazing stable of writers, a devoted readership, and rock solid support from the Asper family. It will still be publishing when the rest of us are dust, and it will be a part of me always.
But every now and then you have to shake things up, and try something new, and the opportunity Maclean’s presented was simply too good to pass up. I have always wanted to try my hand at editing, and having only ever worked in newspapers, am eager to see what the magazine side of the business looks like. And what a place to start: Maclean’s is an established title, with all the strength that brings, and yet one that is in the process of reinventing itself, with the fluidity that suggests. Under my old boss Ken Whyte, it has put together a first-rate bunch of writers and editors, and it just sounds like something that would be a lot of fun to be involved in.
Not that I’ll be any less busy on the writing side. In addition to a weekly column, I’ll be writing longer-form pieces for the magazine, as well as blogging for the macleans.ca website (at last, paid to blog!). And yes, I’ll still be doing my CBC gig. Plus -- well, stay tuned.
10/30/2007
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76 Comments
Congratulations, good luck with the new job!
Oh come on, call a spade a spade. You're leaving the DNR in-patient of the National Post to work for the Weekly Post.
Good luck on your new job
Congratulations on the new posting. Hopefully your exit from the Nat'l Post was relatively smooth. Truth be told, it will nice to be able to read your columns without having to avoid the drivel spouted by George Jonas, Barbara Kay, and David Frum.
And come on Andrew, Corcoran is the most grumpy man in Canadian journalism. He is an uber-critic of everything and rarely has anything good to say about anything. I would go so far as to say he is a mouthpiece for the self-entitled, mean business class, who view poverty and inequality as "shit happens" issues.
I hope that you can (and will) still post your columns and blog here at ac.com.
Even though I'm not happy to see you leave the NP, congrats on the move!
Does this mean that I now have to subscribe to Macleans after I swore I would never again take out a magazine subscription? My morning Post will not be the same!
MB
Paid to blog ???
Wow!
Agree with all your comments on the trends of the NP and Maclean’s. At least we'll still have in the NP George Jonas, Barbara Kay, and David Frum, Jon Kay. All this bodes well for a bit more balance and diversity of thought in the overall MSM.
Congrats and good luck. I might even renew my subscription.
Maclean's is simply becoming the best weekly out there. Better than anything south of the border or across the pond. And always ahead of the curve. I applaud your addition and all the changes Ken Whyte has made.
Don't tell them this at your new gig, but they could easily be charging 50% more for this compelling magazine!
Please do not relent in your critismn of unrestrainted spending. We could pay this damned debt off in 10 years if we'd just focus at bit here! Then we'd all get a 33% income tax cut, instead of today's rumoured 1%.
Congratulations. I'm so glad that you'll still be on CBC I was worried when I first heard of the job change. I guess I need to resubscribe to Macleans. Looking forward to the longer articles.
Peter
MacLean's? GROAN.
Sorry - I've harboured a grudge against them ever since the August 7, 2000 issue, which just struck me as hate literature (in the harshest sense of the term).
Of course, 7 years have passed, and having you on board is as good a reason as any to give it another chance. I guess.
Congratulations Andrew, from a Macleans subscriber who was thinking of not renewing at the end of the year and is now assessing the new landscape :)
Now if you could get Rogers to ensure that Canada Post gets me my Macleans *every week without fail* and fix the shocking design of the Macleans blogs, that would be awesome.
If you could tell Barbara Amiel she is barred from writing about Conrad or her stepdaugher for at least a calendar year that would be better still.
How long before Maclean's begins to publish a daily edition? I'd buy it. It's almost not fair how deep that bullpen is. Congratulations on the move.
Congratulations, Andrew, and welcome to the Maclean's family - which is just as colourful and mildly dysfunctional as a regular family, except paul wells is there so it's hard to get a word in (or seconds at dessert). I look forward to seeing you at the hazing ritual. (Bring extra underpants.)
With Mr. Coyne no longer at the National Post, an assessment of the NP's remaining columnists is due. Here is mine (comments and invective against me are of course requested).
The Dearly Departed:
Paul Wells, Adam Radwanski, Andrew Coyne
The Good:
Diane Francis, Don Martin, John Ivison, David Berman, Sean Silcoff
The Good/Bad:
Johnathan Kay, Robert Fulford, Christopher Hitchens (syndicated), Warren Kinsella, Conrad Black
The Bad:
Colby Cosh, Terrence Corcoran, Peter Foster, William Watson, Raymond de Souza
The Truly Ugly:
David Frum, Barbara Kay, George Jonas, Lorne gunters
I haven't been crazy about a lot of what's been done at Macleans since Ken White took over, but that's all the more reason why the magazine needs you. Because people can agree or disagree with what you have to say, but you are always, always fair.
This may just be what it takes to get me to come back as a subscriber, in fact. Best of luck. I hope we'll still get the occasional column from you, though, at least here.
Andrew,
Now that you are at Maclean's, will the At Issue Panel exclude Kady O'Malley as a guest panelist. She has some good insights so I hope there is room for two Maclean's contributers.
Congratulations, Andrew.
Now show some love for the thirty five year old productive men WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE DEPENDING ON TO PAY YOUR PENSIONS and WHO PAY YOUR SALARY and fire the next emo glass wearing 30 year old feminist whose prose drips with hatred of the patriarchy and who, when chosen to cover the throne speech, live blogs her panties and co-workers' panties instead:
http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dip&pid=81660&tid=81660&eid=48&so=1&ps=35&sb=1
Seriously, man, when I want to read about politics give me politics, not panties.
Congrats. Another giant step forward for the competitive Canadian media industry.
1. Happy that you are happy, but I see it as moving from one form of sinking print media to another.
Content will always be king, but it will be generated electronically and dispensed via talk radio, podcasts and blogs.
Print media lacks the ability to drill-down for more in-depth information - it is a mile wide and a sheet of 20 lb paper deep.
Your AC.com weblog was a pioneering effort (you seem to be vague as to its fate from here on...) and the next step would be to see you in the position as editor/contributor of a Townhall.com type of site that melds all three of the above together into a more stable multi-contributor site (as opposed to the AC.com which must have been exhausting at times). Perhaps the Aspers could underwrite the venture.
2. As for the comments on the NP columnists, my list is the exact inverse of Crusks, more or less.
And pretty much all of them are better than any of the dry rot that puts itself off as informed opinion at the G & M (e.g. Simpson and Salutin). (Simpson reminds me of a Bob Cole - a living fossil of the days of Vaive and Derlago -except he's still living in the days when Flora MacDonald and Dalton Camp were considered conservative and Fotheringham had the back page of Maclean's)
Anonymous, you should calm down. Too much white male rage. CAPITAL LETTERS will give you ulcers.
First of all, this blog could seriously use some Underpants Gnomes (South Park reference) to rid it of the several unfortunate references thereto.
I gather Vollman is referring to the Stock Day "How Scary?" cover. That was under a VERY different Macleans administration (it's humbling how long it can take for change to register with public). Though it could be argued that Whyte has done many more "in your face and/or burqa" covers.
Congrats Andrew. I wish I could cancel the Post and tell them to stick it up their Kinsella, but I still like the FP columnists.
Also good to hear another blogger is getting paid to take a byte out of the so-called old media. Contrary to the fevered rantings of some, I am not one of them.
Crud, now I really do have to subscribe.
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Good timing, Andrew, I hear the Post is due to go TU any day now.
Hopefully, you'll bring a dose of moderation to old Mac. Since Whyte has been there and they let that freak Steyn write for them its been almost all downhill. (His coverage of the Black trial was a disgrace.)
PS. I can send you my portfolio if you're looking for better writing. Take whatever they pay Steyn and subtract $100; that's what I'll do it for.
Totally agree bigcitylib. Mark Steyn is a bombastic fool, with very little to actually contribute to the political debate. His jingoistic rants are comically bad. I've always liked Coyne because he is not afraid to get into the ostensibly boring details of policy, avoiding reflexive partisanship.
Also, Anonymous 1, I agree with anonymous 2. Your rant about the virtues of patriarchy are trite and obnoxious. Conservatives who are progressive and want to use small-government/free market ideas to improve society are interesting/electable. Idiots like you only contribute anger, and ensure Conservative electoral defeats time and time again.
Maclean's offers a more diverse set of opinions regarding Can. Politics. You have Amiel and Steyn, blustering away on the right. You have Potter, Wells, and (now) Coyne, pushing a more nuanced, classical liberal position. And you have Feschuk and Peter C. Newman bringing a more leftist position. THIS COMBINATION IS WHAT A GOOD PUBLICATION IS ALL ABOUT...a debate. Although, I will admit, it makes marketing very challenging.
However, Maclean's could do with halting its practice of Tabloid-style covers. BUSH IS LIKE SADDAM, and RUSSIA GOES TO HELL are as hyperbolic as anonymous 1's rant about patriarchy.
The future is definitely with magazines. I think the last time I bought a newspaper was 3 years ago, yet I have no problem keeping myself informed with internet news.
But I do buy a magazine almost every week or so. Magazines come on quality paper, you don't get dirty, the size format is easier to read and carry around, you can keep them, etc...
Have fun, and best of luck. We'll miss you.
Sean
Andrew,
Really excited to see you take this more robust role on.
As a young journalist and columnist, I look to you as the standard bearer...you don't just add to the debate, but often expand on it with a unique and well thought out offering.
I've been tuning in a lot to MacLeans since the changes, and I think this just may make my daily web visit habit an hourly one.
Best of luck.
Congratulations!!! MacLean's is just getting better and better and I'm glad I get it. The NP gig was up when they quit home delivery to 1000's of loyal readers like me.
Well, Andrew, you got me into blogging on 23 Jan 06 with the election. Don't quite know if I'm grateful, but it's been interesting.
Best of luck at MacLean's, and keep blogging. Don't always agree, but I know that you write what you think, not what someone might like you to think.
Coyne in colour now!
For Coyne's first long piece, he can do an indepth historical excavation of that underappreciated medieval thinker, John Buridan.
That was the fastest I have ever decided on purchasing a new magazine subscription. Congrats, Andrew. I always look forward to reading your columns.
I mean seriously, what is the thought process that goes into turning a going concern and a national institution into a money bleeding neo-bolshevist propaganda machine?
Publisher: We need to make a profit, any ideas?
Editor: Provide insightful analysis and commentary appropriate for intelligent adults, particularly the male 25-50 cohort which makes this country happen and whom advertisers covet?
Publisher: Too patriarchal. We need to "think outside the box".
Editor: Hire square glass wearing devoid-of-life atheist feminists who seem to think they get paid a nickel each time they ever-so-cleverly compare Harper to Bush, thus acting as a collusive unit to raise Canadians' taxes and impose even more affirmative action which materially benefits them?
Publisher: Good call.
Congrats. Now you're writing for a national publication again.
No Joan, although the Stockwell Day issue had its anti-Christian moments, it didn't hold a candle to the hate literature that was the "Why do men do it" issue. I won't dignify it by saying anymore - it made me physically ill. You rarely get to see that level of hate in mainstream media.
A lot of original "Posties" at MacLean's now: Whyte, Coyne, Wells, Steyn, and doesn't Frum contribute now and then? Anyone else I missed?
Excellent news! Best of luck Andrew!
Congrats! So will you still be appearing on "At Issue"?
Congratulations, Andrew! You'll do a great job.
And with this, Macleans completely breaks free of the Liberal/liberal shackles that seemed to consume all of its editorials and columnists until near the end of the Chretien era.
I may yet subscribe to it again.
Perhaps the next "How Scary?" cover headline will be about future-federal-Liberal-leader Bob Rae.
Congratulations, well deserved. MacLeans is the winner.
Art Schwartz
Founding Post Subscriber
Congratulations on the new "post"-ing! Looking forward to reading your work in its new environment.
(As an aside, though, and not intending to in any way diminish your new appointment and title: I have often wondered what it means to be an "Editor" at Maclean's. It seems a very popular title, with something like 41 or so folks having "Editor" in their masthead title, versus one "Columnist" -- and a "Senior" one at that.)
Congratulations! I can't believe it - I'm now a Macleans subscriber.
... Mr. Coyne... I am very sorry to see you leave the Post. In a way, it makes sense, that as the Left dies in Canada, there is now room for you at middle-of-the-road magazines like Macleans.
... I expect that you will be back in a bit... at some point, you won't be able to take the compromise anymore.
... Best wishes!
You're leaving the Post and the post left me!
My city of 100,000+ is not considered big enough for home delivery. I subscribed from issue 1 until July, when they stopped sending them. I won't read them anymore, so missed your writing.
I may subscribe to Macleans!
I subscribe to both the Post and MacLeans, so it'll kinda be like having my brother in law divorce one sister and marry another. Hmmm, never mind, that was an inappropriate parallel to draw. In any event, Andrew, I was drawn to your insightful comments in the Post and will likewise enjoy your contribution to MacLeans. A coup for MacLeans and a loss for the Post. Whatever happens, I will continue to be an admirer of your clever prose and uncanny ability to make me say "Hmmmm, I never thought of it in that way." And isn't that what any columnist craves - to be able to address an issue every journalist and his/her dog is writing about but do it in a manner that is interesting and uniquely thought provoking? Andrew, this is what I have learned to expect from you. I look forward to the longer pieces promised. Peace to you and thanks for making my mind bigger.
I'm just glad your move wasn't down south! Great to hear you won't put down your pen (or laptop) and will continue with the CBC's At Issue Panel. All the best.
Vancouver
Congratulations!!
Congratulations AC! Thank goodness you're still writing.
Boo... hopefully you'll push out that lout Wells
Yeah, the sooner the better.
He might regret getting paid to blog...no more half year vacations!
Congrats, Andrew, you earned it. You are one of the few common-sense thinkers in the Canadian media and have not been infected by the Liberal disease.
bigcitylib must be kidding about submitting his "portfolio". Puh-leeeeeze!!!!!!!
Most bloggers are still grappling with the spelling of three and four letter words -- you guys are still years, nay, decades from writing for a living. Sorry, but I call a spade a spade.
Congratulations AC, this news will help take a little of the sting out of any future (6+ months from now) illnesses I encounter and the subsequent visits to medical waiting rooms.
Can you do me a favour as editor - insist that Maclean's report all annually recurring revenues/expenses as annual figures rather than selecting some arbitrary number of years, adding up the recurring figure over the arbitrary number of years and reporting it as a total figure without any discounting for time value of money?
e.g. Government declares tax cut of roughly $12B / year. Media decides to aggregate over 5 years and report as $60B in tax cuts.
Yes, I know it is tricky when things are phased in but surely the great minds of the Canadian media can get past this?
My congratulations, also, Andrew! I am happy to know that, as you say above, you will still be writing a regular column. I was initially concerned it might not be so. You are now joining the esteemed Mark Steyn again who used to be at the Post. I think Ken Whyte has made excellent changes at Maclean's. Also, I hold in high regard your former Post co-writers George Jonas, William Watson, Peter Foster, and Conrad Black. May I suggest that at Maclean's you institute a regular (weekly) guest column and use, if possible, these former co-writers of yours. Perhaps even such other excellent writers as George F Will, Charles Krauthammer and John O'Sullivan, to name a few, could provide the occasional foreign column as well. Looking forward to more great things from you. Good luck!
A foreign column?! Great idea. Get on that, will ya Andrew?
Great move on Macleans part. Andrew too. Perhaps the Canadian media industry is starting a long overdue overhaul :)
One request Andrew; please, no more Suzuki on the cover ---- civil fraud suit (along with Al Gore) excepted.
IMO, a mark of a good writer is; ---- are their columns still relavant and factually correct, one, five, ten years later ?
I often arrive at waiting rooms early, to go through old magazine articles. It always amazes me how out-to-lunch some are, while others are so 'bang on' with their predictions. (Terrence Corcoran comes to mind, with his 'Kyoto is a fraud' articles)
Magazines are much more unforgiving than newspapers because they tend to hang around a lot longer.
Andrew has nothing to fear in this regard.
How about a new Macleans feature --- Columns from 5 years ago; 'The Bang-On' and the 'Out To Lunch'.
We all have to be accountable for our actions. Especially those in positions of power.
Andrew's take on the Mulroney investigation question will be very interesting to watch for.
It is too bad you are leaving. The Post has just lost its best writer. Look forward to Maclean's though.
Mr. Coyne,
It will be nice to be able to read you again in ink on paper. A number of the months ago The Post, I refuse to use the term national,has stopped distributing the paper east of Quebec. A more accurate name for the newspaper you've just left is The Partial Post, or the Partly Post. So now you will again have a national readership, not just the Canadiens, the Upper Canadians and the Western Canadians.
The best of luck in your new venture.
Al Holman
Charlottetown
Andrew
Would you find out why the only National Columnist who's on to Harper
is in Paris!
Its about time we heard what progress is being made on the recovery of the $40,000,000 still unaccounted for in the sponsorship scandal. Maybe Mr. Wells could report on this for MacLeans.
Perhaps now is a good time to suggest a group hug.
Does this mean you might have the scratch to update some of blog news?
Some of the links are almost 8 months old.
If Coyne get paid to blog, it is more likely you will have to be on macleans site to read him and watch macleans ads.
So i would more likely expect this site to to idle than updated.
Yes, what about that $40,000,000? At today's dollar value, that's like $25,000 right?
Congrats and I look forward to reading you in the dentist's office waiting room.
As I see it, going from the National Post to Maclean's is a move from the country's most biased publication, that is, from one that is wholly a right wing propaganda sheet to one as yet only partly that. Can we now expect Maclean's to develop a further tilt to starboard?
Perhaps not, since Mr. Coyne's views are often broader and more reasonable than those of some of the Post's other contributors he mentions. I do not see what there is to praise in the work of Terence Corcoran or most of his colleagues.
Anon (Nov 7), the most biased publication out there is obviously the Toronto Star. It was ridiculous before; it's become even worse in the last year-and-a-half. I do not know who writes their editorials, but they are 90% of the time G-A-R-B-A-G-E. Incoherent, simplistic, shameless, and mostly devoid of reality. It's as though they've given over authorship of their flagship piece to some co-op students. It's that bad.
AC, please don't totally abandon this site, and leave it to die. And yes, scrapping or finally updating the side blog news would be nice.
I suppose tonight's At Issue panel will deal with the Senate reform thing, Mulroney, and the SK election. Anything else? Perhaps the dollar, and McGuinty's call for the BoC to reduce rates (what an idiot!).
Yeah, don't abandon the site. Just delete the rants of incoherent loonies like that one above me.
...I'm so tired of hearing how rightwingers hate everything and everyone just because it and they are more sophisticated than they are.
Congratulations, Andrew, on your new job! I look forward to reading your pieces in Macleans.
best regards,
Annamarie
(Verbena-19)
(also one of your Facebook friends)