Changing Faces on the Newstand

Just as in the rest of the scrapbook market, the publications segment is undergoing major business changes in the past few months. Companies are changing hands, consolidating and refinancing. Publications are disappearing and new ones are taking their place. Let’s take a look at the changes in the past year on the scrapbook newstand.

First there was the abrupt and startling closure of PaperKuts, a major player in the scrapbook publications market for many years and considered by most to be a very stable presence in the industry.

Then the Primedia Enthusiast Media Group, the home of Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrapbooks and PaperCrafts, were sold by Primedia to a private investment group. Based on the poor overall financial health of Primedia, this was probably a good thing for those publications, but still a major change.

One of the new company’s first major changes was the announcement in August of a new magazine, Digital Scrapbooking Magazine. The first issue will be published in February 2007, and is eagerly awaited by fans of Simple Scrapbooks’ digital special issues and books.

But in October 2006 came more bad news for the scrapbook newstand. The stunning decision was made by the parent company, Future PLC, to discontinue publication of Scrapbook Answers despite its amazing success for a first-year publication and great respect in the scrapbook community.  Another stellar publication disappeared from the newstand.

Late in the year some new faces were announced to potentially fill the empty spaces on the scrapbook newstand. Unfortunately, plans for Classy Scrapper Magazine were cancelled before the premiere issue was even published. But Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine is planning to publish a premiere issue in PDF format early in 2007 before moving to print in it’s next issue.

There is another major publication that I haven’t mentioned yet that definately saw plenty of change in 2006 and which may continue to be a big story in 2007: Memory Makers. In March a large majority of their staff was let go when F&W moved the magazine’s offices from Colorado to the corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, and the magazine was completely retooled. The magazine – perhaps in an attempt at a PR move or to bolster their subscriber base – in April acquired the unfulfilled subscriptions of the defunct PaperKuts. The first issue produced by the new staff in the new offices has hit the newstands and reaction has been mixed to say the least. Memory Makers is reportedly getting harder to find on newstands, stores are canceling orders and subscriptions are being offered via mail solicitation at rock-bottom rates. All together, the appearance is beginning to be that of a business that is suffering serious consequences of serious mistakes. Let’s hope that I won’t soon be writing a third publication’s obituary.

Stable publications in the marketplace to keep and maintain readers’ interest in the activity of scrapbooking – and provide reliable advertising outlets for scrapbooking companies – are important to the industry’s health. In the 8 years that I have been involved in the business, I don’t remember there ever being so much upheaval in the publications market at one time. Let’s hope for everyone’s sake – and the industry as a whole – that it stabilizes quickly.