Frank magazine goes belly up

[Minstrel Boy]

This is why I've joined the presently jobless. I was contributing editor and principal satirist for 11 years.

CBC Dec 18

TORONTO - Frank, the satirical magazine that delighted in afflicting the comfortable, has ceased publication.

Famous for its gleeful mix of gossip and lowbrow humour, the magazine printed its final edition last week.

...

Never embraced by the mainstream, the biweekly publication prided itself on reporting stories no other news organization would touch.

...

To be "Franked" came in some circles to mean that one had been the subject of an unflattering story in the magazine's newsprint pages.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/12/17/Arts/frank041217.html


The Day the Gossip Died

Canadian Press, Sat Dec 18

TORONTO -- The satirical gossip magazine Frank has come to the end of its run, the Toronto Star reported yesterday. Long rumoured to be in financial trouble, the magazine printed its final edition last week, the newspaper said.

Publisher Fabrice Taylor, along with unnamed investors, bought the title last year from founding editor Michael Bate. At the time, paid circulation was 8,500, down from a high of about 16,000 during the Brian Mulroney years when it was considered a must-read in Ottawa.

...

Bate told the Star that because Taylor and company defaulted on the final payment, the Frank trademark reverts to him.

"I believe there's still value in the name and I'm going to spend the next couple of months trying to figure out where the future lies," he said in an e-mail. "These are good times to be in the satire business. ... There are a lot of possibilities as an online publication."

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/Entertainment/2004/12/18/788234-sun.html

[aquart]

1. Never heard of it.

[mr_hat]

3. It's anti-Semetic.

[seemslikeadream]

4. May I have proof of that statement please?

Thanks

[mr_hat]

5. J/k. Sorry.

[mr_hat]

2. You've been writing the wrong stuff.

What's on sale at Wal*Mart? Why is it super-sexy and a must-have-now? That's where the copywriting action is, baby!

[Feathered Fish]

6. That's too bad.

I haven't read it for a very long time, but it was a staple in my parent's house a while back. My brother was Franked a couple of times - pretty funny stuff. I'm sorry about your job - but Canada needs a magazine like this, so perhaps there will be one in the future.