It’s a tough media landscape for craft magazines and today we’ve learned that three more legacy magazine titles will cease print publication. Golden Peak Media CEO Jeff Litvak has confirmed that Interweave Knits, Sew News, and Creative Machine Embroidery magazines will no longer be published.
“After the Spring issues in 2024, readers of Sew News, Interweave Knits, and Creative Machine Embroidery will no longer receive print products but will receive a fresh, engaging experience that they have come to expect, but via digital means,” Litvak said.Ā Golden Peak has seen growth and success in digital content for knitting and sewing communities since the pandemic. Open rates for the company’s newsletters soared from the low teens to 45% with an average click-through rate of 2%. Perhaps equally importantly, in Q4 of 2022, Golden Peak was able to sell out of some of its newsletter ad inventory as well.
Litvack says going forward the company will be making a two-fold investment in serving its readers. First, it will be developing digital membership models. For knitting and sewing, that will be “Makers Club” which will be unveiled soon. And second, the focus will be on premium print products. The quilting and art magazine Golden Peak still publishes will have more pages per issue, a larger trim size, and enhanced paper quality.
Interweave Knits published its first issue in the Fall of 1996. Sew News has also been in publication for more than 35 years.
“We recognize that these changes come at a time when other publications, such as Vogue Knitting, are also closing,” Litvack says. (See more about Vogue Knitting magazine’s closure on this Ravelry thread.)Ā “However, we want to emphasize that our decisions are not a retreat but a pivot towards a digital future. We are deeply committed to serving these industries for years to come, and we firmly believe that digital is the path forward.
Abby Glassenberg
Co-founder
Abby co-founded Craft Industry Alliance and now serves as its president. SheāsĀ a sewing pattern designer,Ā teacher, and journalist. Sheās dedicated to creating an outstanding trade association for the crafts industry. Abby lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
I hate how everything is going digital. I want paper. I want to look forward to an issue in my mailbox every month. I want to carry it around in my briefcase to page through on the bus. I want to be able to tear out pictures and dog-ear corners. I want to remember that pattern on page 57 in the issue with the blue hat on the cover, and not have to scroll and search and try to remember what the title was. I want to own my content, and not have it subject to the whims of paywalls and broken links.
All of the above! Plus, once something is published in print, it exists; it doesn’t require continual use of energy to access.
Agreeš
Agreed. I’m sick of having to sign in to read things and sometimes I don’t want to stare at a screen.
Totally agree. Printed mags are portable, able to be shown to friends at a moment’s notice, able to be accessed in an airport, read on the plane….etc
I don’t do digital. I only use books and actual magazines. I work on computers all day, last thing I want is my magazines on the computer. So I hope they refund the balance of my subscription cause they can stuff digital.
The digital magazines are not the same. I keep my favorite issues and return to them.
Also I donāt read deeply online and skim the articles.
Thank goodness there are still other options out there
I took look forward to receiving each new copy in the mail. Being able to pick up the print copy and turn to an article or a pattern. I keep all my magazines for that purpose. Good reference sources. I have subscribed on and off since the 80’s. Have kept older articles for reference.
So disappointing. Just like the other commenters, I love the physical magazine. I save all of my past issues — I just ordered a product highlighted in the Fall 2019 issue.
This is such a shame. I have both printed and digital versions of Interweave magazines. Guess which ones I use the most. The printed versions! As someone who has worked in IT for a long time, the last thing I want to do when knitting is to look at yet another screen! As another person mentioned, I can take my magazine anywhere and not worry that it is going to run out of battery or will need to be recharged.
How very disappointing! I want physical magazines. I don’t like spending money for digital resources that can disappear at a moment’s notice, and I certainly don’t want to be reading online after a full day on the computer at work.
This is such a bummer week for craft magazines. Pom Pom Magazine also announced that they are closing. (Completely, not just going digital.) š
Yes, I saw this right after this post went up. It’s so sad.
So sad. I just renewed my subscription too. Now I just have the UK magazine The Knitter to look forward too. I just can’t get into digital for literature.
The other thing that gets me about this is how “lifestyle” magazines seem to proliferate, while magazines that are actually focused on a skill or hobby are dying left and right. How many softly-lit photos of a country kitchen does one need to see? How many repainted pieces of antique furniture? I can’t decide if it speaks to the limited attention span of the buying public or the lack of interest in learning and honing a skill. Or maybe it’s just publishers doing shallow survey-type publications in an attempt to gain the widest possible audience. Ironically, in doing so they lose loyal subscribers and devotees to the craft.
Well, if you notice how many “teachers” are on You-Tube . . . and also consider level of education of all the people. Did anybody else notice in the film version of the Outlander series the decor of the North Carolina cabins looked like bleeping Wayfair? No, in the carefully researched books, Jamie had knocked together the first furniture items. Claire and Jamie are both educated and traveled, so they are looking for contentment and joy in all the situations they encounter. I suppose it was felt the viewers of the film version would expect the main characters to have ball fringe on the ruffled curtains and great amoire to match the fancy beadstead! We’re all looking to advance our interests. I have favorite embroidery websites where Mary and Jenny instruct, inspire, sell, and Mary Corbet shares book reviews and mention of fine embroidery classes. What a wonderful world!
They certainly won’t be discounting our subscriptions either. I just got my renewal notice and was on the fence about renewing since I’m still waiting for my Fall 2023 issue and the response from customer service of “it sent a few days ago, wait longer,” while Winter is supposed to be shipping this week. Then to announce two others are getting expanded and better paper? They already removed most of the articles from Knits, which I greatly enjoyed, then they got thinner, less durable paper, now this.
I have seen this coming. I loved Interweave Knits. Until I didn’t. And I could not afford a subscription. Then it seemed to me that the styles and articles had nothing to do with me, speaking of all three main knitting magazines. I have long felt that magazine editors could be brats. No, they are supposed to inspire ME, not hang what looked like bathmats off a favorite model. Well, something like that.I am disgusted with page after page of ugly people I never heard of wearing outrageous clothes and scowling at the camera! At 81 I love Drops, Knitty and Ravelry. I want pretty, fun, interesting and flattering clothes that fit my life and my ample bosom. When the pictures are online, I can reach for what I love and throw all my resources toward having that pretty thing — without wasting trees or creating weight for the movers.
What is particularly distressing to me is that the digital issues are visually inaccessible. With a fraction of the money saved by ceasing the paper issues these magazines could easily create digital versions that are accessible, similar to what Moorit magazine does, with 3 digital versions alongside the print version: the original digital, a large print easy to read digital, and a screen reader digital. This would open up the content to so many more people, and give those already interested many options for using the magazine.
I hope Interweave has the decency to notify it’s subscribers unlike Vogue Knitting.
As *former* subscriber, I can tell you 100% that they did NOTHING to notify us. I found out about it from this page. Emailed customer service to confirm, and then cancelled. It’s complete BS how they handled it.
I’m irritated that, as a long-time (>20 years!) subscriber, I have had zero notification of what is going to happen. I have only found out through here and rumors on Ravelry.
This is not a way to treat your customer base and if they offer the option of a refund for the unused balance after they stop doing print*, I am taking it, and telling them WHY
(*they probably won’t, that’s how everything goes now)
I dislike digital, I like paper magazines that I can read as many times as I want without worrying if the battery is going to die. All of my favourite knitting magazines will now be gone š
Face it, people: They are waiting for us non-digital natives to die. The sooner we move out of the picture, the better for the digital world. We are the horse and buggies of the automobile era.