Creative Leisure News - Memory, Paper & Stamps

The trends, the issues, and productive business strategies.

Scrapbook Etc. Readers Speak Out

They are sad and angry.

Staff Report (May 21, 2011)

(Note: The following are excerpts of comments from Scrapbooks Etc. readers on the SBE blog.)

1. "I am terribly sad to hear this news! A chance meeting with a Scrapbooks Etc. issue in the Wal-Mart check out lane in 2000 is what introduced me to this wonderful hobby."

2. " NO! Not you too! What is happening to the scrapbook industry as a whole? Where is it going? Is it dying because of the digital revolution?"

3. " So sad to hear this. Quilting gets to keep a magazine but scrapbooking doesn’t it? I don’t get it." (Note: Meredith will continue to publish a quilting magazine.)

4. "I am sick about this!! I started scrapbooking after being inspired by an issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. in 2001. It changed my perspective of scrapbooking and has been a driving influence in what is now a huge part of my life."

5. "Hate it but not surprised."

6. "It would seem that quilting customers are spending more than scrapbooking customers. Therefore the quilting manufacturers/businesses are willing/able to spend more on advertising. Advertising, rather than subscribers, is the life blood of magazine publishing. Without the advertising, there is no magazine. It is sad, but the attraction to close-outs and off-branded “bargains” within scrapbooking has been hard to miss."

7. "It's hard to believe that the forecast sees no future in continuing this periodical when scrapbooking is a 2+ Billion dollar industry, when there are 350,000 subscribers, and when competition is little to none in the marketplace."

8. "You will be missed, but as the publisher of a magazine myself, I completely understand the decision."

9. "Here in Puerto Rico there is a very strong and large scrapbooking market and it is very sad to hear this."

10. "I realize there is so much content online but I for one love having a magazine to look at and read through! I am on a computer all day for work and it's the last thing I want to do at home for my hobby!"

11. "I got pulled into this hobby against my better judgment and now that I am totally addicted slowly but surely the market is disappearing!"

12. "I do hope this is just someone misreading the market place and not a continuing trend. Those of us who love scrapbooking and paper crafting are not feeling the love returning from the publishing sectors."

13. "Unfortunately many of the magazines made the mistake of going with 'Creative Teams' instead of using reader submissions like they did when they started. It used to be exciting to flip through an issue and see if a friend was featured, or to see your own layout in there. At one point I subscribed to 4 different scrapping magazines…..and then slowly they all started to look the same. Same people month after month."

14. "Remind me to cancel my other Meredith magazines."

15. I think the scrapbooking craze peaked a few years ago. I think the scrapbooking industry over saturated itself with too many products to choose from. I really wish the companies hadn't done that because they took a nice family oriented hobby and turned it into big business."

16. "I personally think scrapbooking is the one craft that will continue to grow as people will always treasure their family pics and will continue to want to preserve it."

17. I cannot believe how many obnoxious people are making rude comments about 'them.' If you ever worked in the business world, you would understand that no one was trying to scam you to renew your subscription (they pay an outside company to handle that), and you have no clue what kind of subscription base it takes for a magazine to be PROFITABLE."

(Note: To read all of the reader comments visit HERE.)

xxx