[1]Toronto – Despite the global economic downturn, new technology and consumer media consumption trends have created a host of employment opportunities in Canada’s publishing industry.
[2]
As the Canadian magazine sector rushes to adapt to an online audience, the shift is fueling a need for technology-savvy professionals who can help take the publishing sector into a brave new world, says professor Denise Schon of The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College.
“Traditional magazines are quickly evolving into a multi-platform medium including not only print, but online with the advent of web 2.0 technologies and live video streaming,” Schon says. “As such, we are seeing our grads working in a much wider variety of jobs across the magazine industry. Our program prepares students for that new world.”
The Centre for Creative Communications [2], Centennial College [1], has been offering its unique Book and Magazine Publishing program, known as a cornerstone of the industry, for more than 30 years. More recently, it responded to publishers’ needs with intensive, new courses in web 2.0 digital media publishing skills.
Online audiences have grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and the Canadian publishing sector has been responding to these changes with various initiatives designed to train a new breed of publishing practitioners.
“Although we are in a period of big change, readership, including online, is as solid as it ever was, and magazine companies are well positioned for the long term,” says Mark Jamieson, CEO, Magazines Canada [3], a leading professional magazine industry association representing more than 300 of the country’s titles.