Sad news from Canada, where the country’s second oldest magazine has been forced to change its name because email spam filters have blocked readers.
Being called The Beaver could potentially be a boon in terms of search engine optimisation. But the 90-year-old Winnipeg-based magazine has found the opposite to be the case.
Publisher Deborah Morrison told AFP (via France 24): “The Beaver was an impediment online. Several readers asked us to change the title because their spam filters at home or at work were blocking it. I’ve even had emails bounce back because I had inadvertently typed the term in the heading.
“Nearly a century ago, it probably seemed the perfect name for a magazine about the fur trade and Canada’s northwest frontier. There was only one interpretation for the word then.
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“But you’re likely to find a lot of (porn) sites now if you search for the title of our history magazine online.”
After the Feb/March issue The Beaver will be renamed Canada’s History.
The magazine of the London School of Economics, also called The Beaver, has not revealed any plans to change its name.
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