Meredith Corp. Announces Scrapbooks Etc Magazine to Cease Publication [Updated]

Editor's Note: Please note that this publication, Scrapbook Update & Nally Studios, is not affiliated in any way with Meredith Corp or Scrapbooks Etc. We are simply reporting on a news story affecting the scrapbook industry and are not affiliated in any way with the companies that we are reporting on. 

Meredith Corporation announced today that Scrapbooks Etc magazine will be ceasing publication after its August 2012 issue. The move has shocked industry observers, as the magazine's circulation numbers have been the strongest in the industry over the past several years, based partially on its leveraging of strong newstand placement.

The announcement was made via a post by editor Michelle Rubin to the magazine's blog. The blog posting said the closing decision by Meredith was made because "due to the longer term business forecast for the franchise and the industry, the corporation has chosen to cease publishing within this marketplace."

The final issue of Scrapbooks Etc, August 2012, will go on sale June 19th and be available through August 14th. The magazine's website will continue to offer content through that time period in support of the print issue.

There is no word from Meredith at this time regarding the fate of unfulfilled issues on subscriptions, but it is standard industry practice in magazine publishing that a publisher will either sell the subscriptions to a rival magazine title to be filled, or fill the remaining issues of subscriptions with another title from their own portfolio.

Meredith stressed their continuing support for the crafts market in the announcement by plugging their upcoming publication "Make It Yourself" that is launching this fall and also their selection of quilting titles.

Rubin addressed the magazine's readers in the announcement on behalf of the entire staff:

On a personal note from the editorial staff, we are grateful for your support through the years. We could not have asked for better readers, and we have loved seeing your scrapbook pages and craft projects in our inboxes, on our website, and on our Facebook page. You inspired us in our mission to give you the ideas and information you wanted to preserve your memories and express yourselves creatively, and we hope that we in turn inspired you to create great pages and projects.

This announcement now leaves the Creative Crafts Group titles - Creating Keepsakes and Paper Crafts Magazine - as the sole "newsstand" class of magazines in the scrapbooking & papercrafts industry, an outcome that seemed highly unlikely only a few years ago when CK Media owned them and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy before the sale to New Track Media and the formation of Creative Crafts Group.

The Creative Crafts Group titles still have competition from the specialty titles from Northridge Publishing (which publishes Scrapbook Trends, Cards, Cricut Magazine, Signature Series, and a host of other titles) and Stampington (which publishes Somerset Memories, Somerset Studio, Stamper's Sampler, Where Women Create, and Art Journaling, among others). These titles sell for prices that rival books for each issue (averaging around $14.95/issue), and thus operate under a totally different business model than the $5-$6/issue newsstand magazines.

Update: Creating Keepsakes Editor-In-Chief Jennafer Martin shared her thoughts with Scrapbook Update about the industry's loss of Scrapbooks Etc. magazine:

We at Creating Keepsakes magazine are saddened by the closure of Scrapbooks, Etc.. It is a fantastic publication, and its quality has challenged CK to be better in order to stay competitive. We'll miss it, and we tip our hats to the editorial staff there for years of inspiring, quality publications. Creating Keepsakes will continue to work hard to provide content that connects with and inspires scrapbookers to preserve their memories creatively.