Macleans To Lose $1,000,000 In Government Subsidies?

Paul Wells was making callous free market noises over the plight of The Walrus, and I laid into him with my standard "How dare you talk like that when Macleans is riding the government gravy train to the tune of $3,000,000 per year?" What I was referring to was Macleans PAP (Pubications Assistance Program) subsidy, which paid out $2,538,282 to Macleans in 2008. He responded:

"I'm not sure this is a particularly bad time to point any of that out. Incidentally, the current Heritage Minister has announced plans to cut our subsidy by nearly a million, in a naked grab for the bcl vote."

Well, what appears to be happening is that the Canada Periodical Fund, which is due to replace PAP and the Canada Magazine Fund, will

...cap at $1.5 million annually the amount that an individual title can receive. The money saved will be reallocated to small and mid-sized titles, recognizing the economies of scale available for larger titles and the need to support a wide diversity of choice for Canadians.

...which is good. What is not so good is that the Heritage Minister has decided to defund Canadian small-circulation (under 5,000 ) and literary magazines, including On Spec Magazine, which published my first short story ("In The Train Of The King") so many years ago, and which survives on a grand total of $618 government dollars per year.

Macleans is still getting a pretty sweet deal, as far as I'm concerned.