SPORTS ILLUSTRATED READY TO FIGHT
By Adnews Staff
Sports Illustrated is going to lobby for help from the U.S. government and fight in the courts to be allowed to sell a split-run edition in Canada. This was the response from the magazine belonging to New York-based Time Warner Inc. after the Canadian Senate gave its approval last week to a law imposing an 80% tax on revenues from split-runs. These are special editions of foreign magazines having little or no editorial content different from what is in the original publications, but carrying Canadian advertising. The law was specifically aimed at Sports Illustrated Canada, a split-run edition of Sports Illustrated that that began distribution in Canada early in 1993. The bill is designed to protect Canadian publishers from what they feel is unfair competition from larger U.S. publications. U.S. publishers could eat up Canadian advertising dollars with split runs without adding anything to Canadian culture, while putting Canadian magazines out of business at the same time.