Creating Keepsakes Reduces Issues, Moves Customer Service

February 18, 2010 By 5 Comments

Creating Keepsakes has made official something close observers had suspected for awhile: the magazine is reducing its publication schedule from 12 issues to 8 per year.

The first bi-monthly issue of the magazine will be the combined March/April issue that will hit subscriber mailboxes shortly.

Creative Crafts Group will not be adjusting subscription expiration dates to reflect the reduced number of issues that will be sent to subscribers. Scrapbook Update has been told by reps for Creating Keepsakes that this is because the bimonthly issues are “double issues” so subscribers will still receive the same amount of content during their subscriptions.

The magazine has also moved part of its customer service operations to a new location according to Scrapbook Update sources. Subscribers who wish to contact Creating Keepsakes can now reach them via the following contacts:

888/253-0203 (US customers)

386/597-4387 (customers outside the U.S.)

Email: creatingkeepsakes@emailcustomerservice.com

The preferred method for contacting customer service should be via email.

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Top Scrapbook News Stories of 2009

December 31, 2009 By 4 Comments

It’s time to say goodbye to 2009…here’s a look back at the top scrapbook industry news stories of the year.

Paris Hilton Does CHA

The CHA crowd is used to having the likes of Vanna White and Martha Stewart grace the show with their presence. But the show has never quite seen a spectacle like happened at CHA-Winter 2009 in Anaheim when Paris Hilton strutted onto the show floor trailed by a posse of burly bodyguards and foreign paparazzi.

paris-arriving-webWell, now I can check “getting elbowed by German-speaking paparazzi” off my bucket list at least.

Creative Memories Files Bankruptcy

Although the bankruptcy of Creative Memories was technically filed in late 2008, the disposition of it continued into 2009. The court approved the company’s bankruptcy plan on January 9th, but former company officers still face legal action from former employee shareholders over their actions in regard to the bankruptcy plan.

CK Media’s Financial Problems

Stories stemming from the underlying thread of CK Media’s financial issues were a recurrent theme in the scrapbook news in 2009. First Digital Scrapbooking was shut down, and shortly afterward Simple Scrapbooks magazines was closed as well. Scrapbook Update broke the news in February that CK Media had called in turnaround/bankruptcy firm CRG Partners to settle its debts with its creditors under threat of a bankruptcy filing.

In early July, the sale of CK Media’s remaining publications to New Track Media became final, triggering major layoffs at the company.

CHA Craft Supershows

There was something else new at CHA-Summer 2009 besides the venue – the addition of a consumer event that operated the weekend after the trade show. Although controversial when first announced, the Craft Supershow was a massive success in Orlando, and CHA is continuing the event in conjunction with CHA-Winter 2010 in Anaheim.

IMG_6073

Big Names Depart from Creating Keepsakes

As the company foundered this year, a lot of big names departed Creating Keepsakes and its parent company to work on other projects. The departures went all the way to the top of the company, when Creating Keepsakes founding editor Lisa Bearnson announced she was giving up her role with the magazine. Other popular well-known names who departed the company included Becky Higgins, Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske, and Jessica Sprague.

Stampin’ Up Angers Demonstrators With New IDA

In early fall, Stampin’ Up issued a revised IDA (independent demonstrator agreement) to all of its demonstrators that included new restrictions on their online activity. Stampin’ Up originally interpreted the new guidelines as meaning Stampin’ Up reps couldn’t link to anyone online who linked to anywhere else that sold or promoted non-Stampin’ Up products. Many reps threatened to resign rather than live with restrictions that would force them to remove themselves from a large portion of the online community, and Stampin’ Up was forced to loosen the guidelines.

Memory Makers Ceases Publication

In early May, Scrapbook Update broke the story that F+W Media was planning to shut down Memory Makers Magazine with the Sept/Oct issue. This news was confirmed by the publication the next day. The magazine’s remaining subscriptions were picked up by Northridge Media for digital fulfillment with an all-access pass to its titles.

Melody Ross Departs Chatterbox, Company Shelved by Ultra Pro

In early July, Chatterbox founder Melody Ross revealed that she had departed the company back in April. At CHA-Summer, a rep for Chatterbox parent company Ultra-Pro confirmed to Scrapbook Update that the Chatterbox brand’s product lines were being discontinued. Ten years ago, the company was revolutionary in the industry. Now, it no longer exists.

Lenders Attempt to Force Wilton Brands Bankruptcy

After holding company Wilton Holdings breached covenants of loans it owed, the parent company of EK Success and K&Co was called into bankruptcy court by lenders who filed a petition to force the company into bankruptcy. The issue was eventually settled out of court by the lenders and Wilton. Later in the year, Wilton’s CEO resigned, saying that the new ownership should have an opportunity to select their own management.

Gypsy Introduces New Era Of Scrapbook Electronics

Shortly before CHA-Summer, Provo Craft started executing a viral marketing campaign to raise buzz on its new electronic accessory for the Cricut called the Gypsy.

The campaign was successful at raising buzz on the Gypsy, which is a handheld device that lets users create designs from their cartridge library and then cut them via their Cricut machine. Probable future plans for the device include the ability to purchase individual cut designs from an iTunes-style store, instead of having to purchase entire cartridges.

The Gypsy debuted with an HSN package and a 30 day exclusive run at Michaels. Although the MSRP is $299, over the holidays the street price seems to be hovering around $250.

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State of the Scrapbook Magazine, Part 2: Advertising

December 7, 2009 By 1 Comment

Now that we’ve taken a look at magazine circulation of the news stand scrapbook publications, it is time to look at the second piece of the puzzle of their health: advertising. [Note that for reasons of comparison, the analysis in part one and part two of this series only includes the publications that have historically been widely available on news stands at places like grocery stores. The reason for this will be made clear in part three of the series when other scrapbook publications will be added in and discussed.]

Advertising content is an important part of the business model of the news stand magazines. A typical news stand magazine in any market needs to contain about 40% advertising to be profitable. Three or four years ago, scrapbook magazines were reaching this mark easily, and at longer issue lengths than they are now producing. Here’s how they’ve been stacking up recently:

Scrapbooks Etc.
(Nov/Dec 2008)
Creating Keepsakes
(Dec 2008)		Paper Crafts
(Mar/Apr 2009)
Length14413098 pgs
Percent Advertising36%37%18.57%
Scrapbooks Etc
(Nov/Dec 2009)		Creating Keepsakes
(Dec 2009)		Paper Crafts
(Dec 2009)
Length12812290
Percentage Advertising Content27.48%21%19.35%

So, what do all of these numbers mean?

  • All of the magazines are shorter today than they were in the earlier set of data. None of the three except Paper Crafts has been able to maintain their advertising content percentage over the past year, even by shortening their relative length.
  • Creating Keepsakes, in particular, has lost the most advertising in the past year. It is now in the very low 20′s where a year ago it was managing almost healthy stats in the high 30′s.
  • Scrapbooks Etc. has cut the most length (11%) in the past year. Paper Crafts and Creating Keepsakes have cut 8% and 6%, respectively.
  • Advertising percentages under 20% in a news stand publication indicate a title is likely in serious jeopardy. Simple Scrapbooks was at 15% when it was shut down. Memory Makers ranged between 15-19% in its last few issues. Digital Scrapbooking was at 11% by its next-to-last issue, and 5% in its last one.

While it is tempting to look at the above statistics and declare it to be a sign that the entire scrapbook industry is on life support, there is a bigger picture that needs to be considered here. That picture is the health of various business models in the publishing industry as a whole…and how that relates to scrapbook publishing.

To read about that, stay tuned for part three of the series.

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2009 State of the Scrapbook Magazine, Part 1: Circulation

December 2, 2009 By 9 Comments

The end of the year is a good time to examine the health of the publishing segment of the scrapbook industry for several reasons. First, the end of the year is a natural time to look back on things – especially things that have seen major change in that year. Second, the scrapbook magazines publish their annual ownership & circulation statements that are required by the USPS in their last issue of the year.

2009 saw huge changes in the publishing segment of the scrapbook industry. F+W announced it was shutting down Memory Makers Magazine in May. CK Media shut down Simple Scrapbooks in January (only a short time after shuttering Digital Scrapbooking), ended its major contests, and called in a bankruptcy/turnaround firm to settle its debts for pennies on the dollar before the magazines were sold in July to New Track Media. Over the course of the year, CK lost most of its headline talent as well: Cathy Zielske, Becky Higgins, Ali Edwards, Jessica Sprague, and Lisa Bearnson, to name a few.

Not all the scrapbook publishing changes were that drastic, or even negative, though. In April, Melissa Inman departed Scrapbooks Etc and was not replaced; instead, an organizational shuffle removed her title from the company. That same month, Scrapbook Trends began offering digital subscriptions to its publications. In October, Scrapbooks Etc. unveiled a redesign targeted at attracting news stand customers (among other things).

So, after that year of seismic change, where has that left us? Here’s where the three remaining news stand magazines are positioned in total circulation:

MagazineOctober 2008October 2009Change
Scrapbooks Etc.266,784212,683-20.3%
Creating Keepsakes203,967177,218-13.1%
Paper Crafts161,000121,220-24.7%
  • The three magazines are ranked in the same order for total circulation numbers as in 2008.
  • Everyone was down significantly in total circulation.
  • In 2008, Creating Keepsakes had managed a 5% increase in circulation while everyone else’s numbers declined. This year, they fell into the trend of declining numbers with the other publications.
  • The gap is closing between Creating Keepsakes and Scrapbooks Etc. In 2008, Creating Keepsakes had 76% of the circulation of Scrapbooks Etc. In 2009, Creating Keepsakes had 83% of the circulation of Scrapbooks Etc.

These circulation numbers seem to reflect pretty much the status quo from the past few years – a segment in decline and dominated by Scrapbooks Etc – until you break them down into subscription and news stand sales.

The largest percentage of the magazines’ circulation comes from subscriptions:

Scrapbooks Etc.Creating KeepsakesPaper Crafts
October 2009 Subscribers147,344152,79995,550
October 2008 Subscribers201,994171,475120,000
% Change-26.5%-11.1%-20.37%
  • Creating Keepsakes actually has more subscribers than Scrapbooks Etc. The difference in total circulation that gives Scrapbooks Etc. its lead comes from news stand sales.
  • Creating Keepsakes got this lead by being the best at retaining its subscribers. It had by far the lowest decrease in subscription circulation over 2008 of the three magazines.

The news stand sales numbers also have a lot of information to offer about where the magazines stand:

Scrapbooks EtcCreating KeepsakesPaper Crafts
October 2009 Actual Sales65,33924,41925,270
October 2008 Actual Sales64,79032,49241,000
% Change in News Stand Sales From 2008-2009+1.6%-25%-38.36%
% of sales from News Stand in October 200931%13.5%20.84%
% of sales from News Stands in 200824%15.7%25.46%
  • Scrapbooks Etc maintained its sales news stand sales numbers while the other two publications experienced massive losses in that area. Anecdotal evidence suggests this is quite likely due to a smaller number of outlets carrying Creating Keepsakes & Paper Crafts, while Scrapbooks Etc. has maintained its distribution points due to the clout of its parent company Meredith.
  • A much larger percentage of Scrapbook Etc’s circulation comes from the news stand than is the case with the circulation of the other two publications. This would either explain the new cover design, or was perhaps the result of it.

Overall, these numbers aren’t good for the scrapbook magazine industry. They show a continued decline that so far the various efforts have been unable to arrest. This is in line with the experience of other publishing market segments, where publications are rapidly shuttering. Unfortunately, I highly doubt that we’ve seen the last of the lights going out at publications in the scrapbook market.

For more on why and more talk about the future of scrapbook magazines, watch for the 2009 State of the Scrapbook Magazine, Part 2: Advertising (coming soon)

[Note: All of the above statistics are based on the single issue published closest to Oct. 1st for the magazines. Due to their different business model, publications from Northridge and Stampington were excluded from this analysis - but you will be able to read about them in part three of the series.]

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Lisa Bearnson Leaves Creating Keepsakes

November 25, 2009 By 5 Comments

Lisa Bearnson thumbnailCreating Keepsakes Founding Editor Lisa Bearnson announced via her blog today that she is saying goodbye to the magazine that she founded in 1996. Although she will remain titled as the magazine’s founding editor, Bearnson will have no duties for the company and her Editor’s letter will no longer appear in the magazine.

Bearnson had long ago given up day-to-day editorial control of the magazine, and in recent years had drastically cut back her presence both in and her appearances on behalf of the company. One of Bearnson’s last remaining public roles for Creating Keepsakes besides her Founder’s letter in the magazine was her appearances on QVC, and in May of this year, she indicated she was taking a “leave of absence” from those appearances.

According to Bearnson’s editorial from the upcoming January 2010 Creating Keepsakes issue, which she also published on her blog, this decision was made because she would like to spend more time with her family. She will continue writing for her personal website, and also continue producing her Lisa Bearnson Memory Keeping Collection product line.

Is this goodbye forever? Maybe not. In her editorial, Bearnson leaves the door open for the possibility of returning to the magazine’s pages to “write a feature here and there.” And Creating Keepsakes Editor-in-Chief Jennafer Martin tells Scrapbook Update, “The door will always be open for her to do more [for Creating Keepsakes], should her time allow it.”

2009 has been full of change for Creating Keepsakes. It’s parent company, CK Media, was bought by New Track Media in early July and Brian Tippetts was replaced by former Simple Scrapbooks & Digital Scrapbooking Magazine Editor Jennafer Martin as Editor-in-Chief.   (Tippetts later rejoined the staff as a Contributing Writer.) In September, Becky Higgins announced her departure from the magazine, and then just yesterday, Ali Edwards announced the end of her Studio A column.

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