Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Now It's Being Called the Muff, Instead


Dam it, Canadian magazine The Beaver Changing Its Name


Canadian history magazine The Beaver was founded in 1920, back when a beaver was just, well, a beaver.
Ah, how times and dirty minds have changed.
Seems double entendres take their time making their way across the border, hence a belated name change of the magazine to, yawn, Canada's History.
Love this quote from editor Mark Reid:

"Market research showed us that younger Canadians and women were very very unlikely to ever buy a magazine called The Beaver no matter what it's about. For whatever reasons, they are turned off by the name."

It must have been a serious problem as Reid used "very" twice, which I take as the Canadian equivalent of Defcon 4 in the publishing business. The women part I can understand. Younger Canadians? Not so much. If anything they'd just be pissed off when they find out the magazine is about history and not, um, you know, wildlife.




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