Beaver name gnawing at magazine’s rep

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This article was published 12/01/2010 (5822 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CANADA’S second-oldest magazine — the venerable, Winnipeg-based history publication The Beaver — has been forced to change its name after 90 years because the title’s inadvertently sexual connotation is getting caught in spam filters and preventing the publisher from reaching a new, life-sustaining generation of readers online.

The surprising rationale behind the rebranding plan wasn’t revealed in a statement issued Monday announcing that the magazine — being relaunched under the name Canada’s History — would hit newsstands in April.

But Deborah Morrison, president of Canada’s National History Society and the longtime publisher of The Beaver, told Canwest News Service that the unfortunate double-entendre has posed serious difficulties for several years as the magazine attempted to attract new, younger, web-based customers to bolster its loyal but aging base of about 50,000 print subscribers.

"To be perfectly blunt about it, The Beaver was an impediment on the Internet," she said. "People were literally writing us and saying, ‘We can’t get your e-newsletter because it’s being spam-filtered out, can you change the title of the heading?’ "

The real-world conundrum for The Beaver is reminiscent of a running gag in the former CBC comedy series Made in Canada, in which a fictional broadcaster’s sappy "Beaver Creek" pioneer drama inspires it to produce a knock-off with the same title for porn customers.

But Morrison says the history society — which is in the midst of rationalizing all of its educational and publishing brands under the Canada’s History title — was being blocked from key demographic groups because of the flagship magazine’s X-rated name.

"There were some really unfortunate but practical reasons why The Beaver couldn’t be the universal brand," said Morrison. "That’s the factor why it was a deterrent — particularly amongst women and people under the age of 45."

She added: "Unfortunately, sometimes words take on an identity that wasn’t intended in 1920, when it was all about the fur trade."

The magazine’s last edition with The Beaver on its banner — the February/March issue — goes on sale this week.

The Beaver was launched in October 1920 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Hudson’s Bay Co.

The company sponsored and managed the magazine until it was transferred to the history society in 1994.

After decades of devoting almost all of its content to the history of the fur trade, the Arctic and Canada’s northwest frontier, The Beaver’s focus was revamped and broadened over the past 15 years to make it a pan-national clearing house for news and feature articles covering all aspects of Canadian history.

Only Maclean’s, the popular weekly Canadian newsmagazine founded in 1905, is older than The Beaver. Saturday Night magazine, founded in 1887, was discontinued in 2005.

The Beaver made news itself in 2007 after publishing the results of an online poll ranking the Top 10 "worst Canadians" — a list headed by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, still despised by many in Western Canada.

The society’s official announcement about The Beaver’s name change highlighted it as one part of a "rebranding effort that will also include a relaunched online portal with a strong complement of multimedia features and activities."

Mark Reid, editor-in-chief of The Beaver, said the name change would help ensure the magazine’s "continued relevance in the 21st century," adding that the new title should "make it easier for history enthusiasts to find us, whether it’s through any one of our print publications or online."

Morrison said in the statement that the society’s market research showed that "Canadians remain very interested in our history, but increasingly, they are looking to the web for their information."

 

— Canwest News Service