Dear re:place and Spacing readers,
It has been a long time coming, but re:place magazine and Spacing magazine have decided to team up to bring you Spacing Vancouver!
As many of you know, the creation of re:place in 2006 was inspired by the creation of Spacing magazine in Toronto, a few years earlier. Cities are complex and need a venue to intelligently discuss – and read about – the important urban landscape issues that affect us. Having seen the popularity and quality of Spacing since it first came out, the re:place editors – many of whom have used to live in Toronto – wanted to bring a similar approach to urban issues to this great west coast city. Over the years, Spacing has supported us at re:place in a number of direct and indirect ways, fostering the growth of a strong relationship between the two magazines.
Since re:place was launched, Spacing has grown in both popularity and stature – attracting readers from across Canada and the world. Between 2006 and today, Spacing has added blogs in Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax. In the minds of Spacing editors, Vancouver has always been thought of as a natural fit for our editorial coverage given its reputation for quality urban planning, design, and livability. But starting up a new blog in direct competition with re:place didn’t sit well, on both sides.
This brings us to the present. After lengthy discussions, the editors of our two publications have decided to bring re:place under the banner of Spacing Vancouver. Naturally, given that Spacing has already begun creating a national network of blogs centered around urban issues and has the infrastructure in place, the inclusion of Vancouver within this network makes perfect logistical sense.
But these aren’t the only reasons for our decision. With currently over 14,000 visitors a day to the Spacing blog network, sharing re:place’s Vancouver-related content directly and quickly with this wider range of readers, while receiving Spacing’s great country-wide coverage benefits everybody. Both re:place and Spacing have always had a vision of creating a Canada-wide forum where problems and solutions to urban issues could be readily shared and accessed by anybody. We have many of the same dilemmas, after all, and understanding how our fellow cities are dealing with issues is a necessary step in finding viable solutions. Ensuring that all Spacing-reading regions of the country are aware of Vancouver’s most recent developments, and vice versa, takes us one step closer to our vision of a more informed public and, ultimately, a better country.
If you are a regular re:place reader you won’t be disappointed by this merger. All of the editors from re:place are remaining on board and the regular features will stay constant (Year in 5 Minutes, Cartographically Speaking, etc). In the coming weeks and months, we will integrate the re:place articles into Spacing Vancouver’s search option. This will ensure that the wonderful contributions to re:place to-date will not get lost in the internet’s ether. In fact, the content will immediately get a new and broader readership.
Readers will also see more content more regularly. There will be cross-posts from other Spacing blogs, as well as regular network-wide features (such as the World Wide Wednesday round-up of international urban news, the best posts from the network highlighted in Spacing Saturday, and our national podcast show Spacing Radio).
The editor’s of re:place and Spacing are extremely excited to be working together. We both believe this is the best way to serve Vancouver’s growing urbanist movement, let the rest of Canada know what a jewel it has on the west coast, and take us one step closer to bringing together all the necessary voices that will lead to a better country.
Matthew Blackett (Spacing publisher) and Erick Villagomez (re:place editor and co-founder)