Frank magazine - Ottawa edition - Encyclopedia II

Bentley's expansion of the Frank franchise from its Halifax base to include an Ottawa edition in 1989, with the help of Michael Bate, proved extremely successful during its first decade of publication as the edition quickly outsold its Maritime cousin in feeding off the void of gossip news among mainstream media in the nation's capital.

While the Halifax edition continued to grow in popularity, the Ottawa edition took off in just a few years, rising from a start of 600 copies to a publishing run of over 16,000 at the height of the Mulroney years. Bate subsequently bought out Bentley and his other partners to take the Ottawa edition of Frank independent of its Halifax roots, although both magazines maintained very similar coverage and continued much as before.

Bate did make several changes including adding a "Remedial Media" section which printed gossip tidbits on the internal politics of local media outlets. Michael Coren, whose humour column "Aesthete's Diary" was retitled "Michael Coren's Diary" after he revealed his true identity, was one of the only contributors ever to use his real name in the magazine (a collaboration that ended acrimoniously).

The final page of the Ottawa edition of Frank also featured a humour column, usually satirizing the point of view of a real Canadian political figure such as Sheila Copps or Preston Manning. In later years, the back page column was titled "Dick Little's Canadian Beef" -- Little was not a real figure, but simply a curmudgeonly character meant to satirize a typical "angry Canadian".

The Ottawa edition of Frank received incredible notoriety during its most famous edition during 1991 when the magazine ran a satirical advertisement for a contest inviting young Tories to "Deflower Caroline Mulroney." Mulroney's father, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, was incensed and threatened physical harm toward those responsible before joining several women's groups in denouncing the ad as an incitement to rape -- the magazine maintained that it was commenting on Brian Mulroney's perceived habit of using his daughter as a political prop.

The Ottawa edition of Frank broke a number of notable stories, including being the first to publish the tale of Mel Lastman's wife's shoplifting arrest and was the only Canadian publication to cover the sordid divorce trial of cabinet minister Paul Dick. Other Frank href = "http://www.experiencefestival.com/1987">1987, 1989, 1990s, 1991, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, Bank of Montreal, Brian Mulroney, CBC Radio, CBC Television, Canadian, Caroline Mulroney, Cynthia Dale,

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ottawa edition", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page