Part I - Program objectives, eligibility criteria and funding conditions

3. Eligibility criteria

Meeting the following criteria is a first step in qualifying for financial support; the second being project eligibility. At the time of submitting an application, applicants must be eligible publishing firms of eligible magazines.

3.1 ELIGIBLE PUBLISHING FIRMS

A publishing firm and its affiliated companies must:

be in operation throughout the application process and until project completion;
be majority Canadian-owned and-controlled in fact by Canadians;
have its principal place of business in Canada;
publish no more than seven (7) magazine titles, unless the total average circulation per issue for all titles published does not exceed 50,000 copies; and
respect all contractual agreements with its creators (writers, photographers, artists, etc.).

3.2 ELIGIBLE MAGAZINES

A magazine must:

be published by an eligible publishing firm;
have completed at least one uninterrupted full twelve (12) month publishing cycle and have been in operation for a complete financial year prior to the application;
have at least 10% paid circulation and demonstrate an ability to grow the paid circulation market. However, magazines meeting all eligibility criteria but with paid circulation between 10 and 50% may only apply for projects aimed at building the level of paid circulation. Magazines with more than 50% paid circulation may apply for all types of projects. Aboriginal, ethnocultural, GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered) and official-language minority magazines are exempt from this circulation criterion;
have a print run of at least 500 copies per issue as well as an average circulation of no less than 250 and of no more than 45,000 copies per issue;
be published at the time of application, throughout the application process, and to completion of an approved project;
be edited, designed, assembled, published and printed in Canada;
be printed and appear in consecutively numbered or dated issues published under a common title, at regular intervals, not more than once every week, and at least twice every year;
contain an average of at least 80% Canadian editorial content. Canadian editorial content will be calculated as a percentage of total editorial content;
contain no more than 70% advertising content. Advertising content will be calculated as a percentage of total advertising and editorial content; and
have a minimum subscription prices of $12 or more per year or $1 or more per single copy; or a single copy sold directly to individuals or through newsstands/retailers must be sold at $1 cover price or more per single copy. Both the subscription and single copy prices must be clearly displayed in the masthead or on the cover.

3.3 INELIGIBLE PUBLICATIONS

Certain publications are considered ineligible under the CMF including publications that are:

published or produced only electronically;
published for the purpose of promoting the interest of the principal business of the person who publishes or at whose direction the magazine is published, where the principal business is other than magazine publishing;
published directly or indirectly by groups or associations such as fraternal, trade and professional associations, trade unions, credit unions, co-operatives, religious, community, recreational or business organizations, and which primarily report on the activities of the group or organization, or which primarily promote the interests of the group or organization, or its members;
published directly or indirectly by one or more individuals, groups, organizations, or corporations providing goods or services, where the principal goal of the publication is to enhance or to promote the sales of such goods or services;
distributed to Canadians from any location outside Canada;
whose editorial content is primarily reproduced or repeated from current or previous issues of the same publication or of other publications;
published in loose-leaf format;
published directly or indirectly by any level of government, its agencies including Crown corporations;
primarily or a combination of newsletters, newspapers (see Part III - Definitions and scales in 3.3.1), comic books, community newspapers, weekly community newspapers, alternative newsweeklies, directories, guides, financial reports, catalogues, magalogues, schedules, calendars, timetables or listings (see Part III - Definitions);
produced or published under contract by a non-Canadian entity on behalf of a Canadian client, or produced or published under contract by a Canadian entity for a non-Canadian client; and
publications that include, in the opinion of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the following types of content:
- material that is hate propaganda, obscene or child pornography, or any other illegal material, as defined in the Criminal Code: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46
- pornography or other material having significant sexual content unless it can be demonstrated that there is an overriding educational or other similar purpose;
- material that contains excessive or gratuitous violence;
- material that is denigrating to an identifiable group;
- any other similarly offensive material.

3.3.1 SCALES TO DETERMINE ELIGIBILITY

For the purpose of determining if a publication is a newspaper or newsletter (as defined by the SBDMP component), the following scales apply:

a) Newspaper scale:
Broadsheet format, tabloid format or outsized (larger than 8½ X 11)	2	points
Unbound	3	points
Printed on newsprint of any quality	1	point
Identified as a newspaper	1	point
Cover subdivided (i.e. articles and boxed photos)	1	point
Advertising on front cover	1	point
Divided into detachable regular sections (e.g. news, analysis, entertainment, sports)	1	point
Total	10	points

A publication with six (6) or more points is ruled to be a newspaper for the purposes of the SBDMP component and therefore considered to be ineligible for funding. This preserves the principle that an eligible publication can share some common characteristics with newspapers and still be considered a magazine.

b) Newsletter scale:
No cover page - articles start immediately	2	points
Unbound	2	points
Between 8 and 20 pages	2	points
No table of contents	1	point
No authors listed	1	point
No full masthead	1	point
No regular editorial columns or letters to the editor	1	point
Continued series (volumes)	1	point
Total	11	points

A publication with six (6) or more points is ruled to be a newsletter for the purposes of the SBDMP component and therefore considered to be ineligible for funding.

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