F+W Media, the publisher of many craft and hobby related publications, including Interweave books and magazines, filed for bankruptcy protection, citing changes in the industry and mismanagement for their financial problems.
The company has said it plans to sell off parts of the company in order to pay its creditors, including its communities group and its books division.
There is no word yet on whether any of the company’s magazines will cease publication, though it was reported that subscriptions across its properties have dropped from 33.4 million in 2015 to 21.5 million in 2018 (and ad revenue dropped from $20.7 million to $13.7 million in the same time period).
And while a lot of the crafting community has moved online, that hasn’t been a successful proposition for F+W (which also publishes titles like Writers’ Digest and Popular Woodworking). In just the crafts sector, the company spent $6 million in its online efforts and only generated $3 million in revenue.
It will be interesting to see what happens. Of course we always hope for the best for crafting publications and the industry as a whole, but as things continue to change companies will have to evolve in ways that are profitable and effective and inspiring for crafters.
I’m still getting several emails a week encouraging me to subscribe to their magazines– Beadwork, Interweave Crochet, and several for which I have no interest in the crafts they feature. And they all require I be on an “automatic renewal” plan….