Cat Fancy Magazine

This article, about the Cat Fancy Magazine, was written in about 2010…

The Cat Fancy magazine is probably the most well known of all the cat magazines. It is arguably the number one cat magazine in the number one cat market place – the United States of America.

However, the magazine is not confined to North America. It is possible to subscribe internationally. I have just subscribed to the magazine and I live in London, England.

The first year’s subscription was impressively cheap for a high quality magazine. I won’t quote prices as they are subject to change. Amazon sells subscriptions.

The magazine is a good way to keep abreast of what is going on in the cat world. It has won Cat Writers’ Association awards in 2007 and has a circulation of 278,500 copies as at 2009. The editorial offices are located in Irvine, California.

The Name

The name is a good name. I find the name interesting as the magazine is definitely not just for people in the cat fancy. The cat fancy could be described as the community of people involved in breeding and showing mainly purebred domestic cats. But it is probably wider than that.

The magazine is written in a breezy engaging style for anyone interested in the domestic cat. Topics, though, are sometimes serious. They are researched to a reasonable depth as well. But this is not a scientific magazine. The general feeling is that this is a fairly lightweight read designed to be attractive to a wide range of people. Typical articles might be:

• facts on cat health issues such as heartworm
• how and if cats can predict disasters
• cat scratching posts
• feature article on a cat breed

The ‘cat fancy element’ is addressed with useful articles about the purebred cats.

Helmi Flick

Helmi Flick, perhaps the best cat photographer is not infrequently published in the Cat Fancy magazine and that includes cover pages.

Each monthly issue is dedicated to a particular cat breed with a beautiful example of the cat breed on the cover and in the form of a poster inside the magazine. Helmi has taken some stunning photographs that have featured on the cover.

Her photographs are the cornerstone of this website.

The Publisher

The publisher is BowTie Magazines, which is a division of BowTie Inc. BowTie Inc. is a multimedia company. The business serves people interested in pets, animals and lifestyle. The forms of media that this organization is involved in are:

• trade magazines
• books
• websites
• newsletters
• e-letters

Of these the first is the largest part of their business. There are:

• 9 monthly
• 4 bimonthly
• 2 seasonal
• 13 annual consumer

….magazines.

The websites interest me as they are competition! The Cat Fancy magazine understandably contains a number of references to the CatChannel.com website.

This is one of 8 animal websites owned and managed by BowTie Inc. The DogChannel.com is marginally more successful than the CatChannel.com as at mid-April 2010.

The Editor

At mid-April 2010 the editor of the Cat Fancy magazine is Susan Logan. She has been the editor in chief since 2003. She has a blog on the CatChannel.com called ‘mewsings’ – nice title.

Other senior members of the staff at June 2009 were:

• Annie B Shirreffs – Managing Editor
• Lindsay Hanks – Associate Editor
• Nikki Batalls – Managing Web Editor
• Jerome Callens – Art Director
• Melissa Kauffman and June Kikuchi – Editorial Directors

Note: staff changes. The majority of senior staff are women. This is probably because the cat fancy is mainly populated by women, which in turn is because women are cat people more often than men. See cat ownership in the UK.

Despite the sensible nature of magazine, the journalistic style often has a humorous or smiley edge in my opinion, which I like. In one article, written by Neil Kilmer, of October 2006 about a certain Mr Paws a veritable barrage of humorous cat terminology was employed:

• “far from purr-fect”
• “cat-aclysmic failure”
• “purr-sonality”
• “fur-ther”
• “cat-astrophe”
• “a-paw-ling”
• “fur-ociously”
• “me-out”

…clever stuff.

Past editors

Past editors¹…..

• Mingle Donaton 1951-1959
• Johnny Covor 1960-1971
• Hen Tirr 1971-199? aka “The Cat Lady”.
• Debbie Phillips-Donaldson
• Jane Calloway
• Bridget Johnson
• Amanda Luke
• Ellyce Rothrock
• Susan Logan 2003-present

When it started

Well, I can work this out from the June 2009 edition. This edition had the first ever flip issue in 44 years. This is where half the magazine is another magazine and it has to be turned upside down to read it. The ‘other magazine’ was called ‘Cat Fancy’s naturalcat’

This means it was first published in 1965.

Natural Cat

The first edition was part of the flip issue of the June 2009 Cat Fancy. It featured a cover picture or Jenna Fischer and her gorgeous black and white moggie, Andy, who has a beautifully symmetrical pattern on his face and chest. Good looking women like good looking cats — meow.

Natural cat contained some good articles about nutrition, eco-friendly cat litter and eco-friendly house for people and cats plus information about supplements. There is also an article about acupuncture for cats.

Main competitor

The biggest rival in North America to the Cat Fancy magazine is Cats and Kittens published by Pet Publishing Inc. They also allow for international subscriptions judging by the application form.

Although not a competitor to Cat Fancy magazine in the strict sense, the top UK cat magazine is ‘Your Cat’.

Associated page:

Cat Media Reviews

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Fancy_%28magazine%29

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