Just got my copy in the mail and it’s noticeably “skinny.” Wow, only 90 pages including both covers. I’m sure you’ve noticed how thin CK has been in recent months and Scrapbooks Etc, although thicker than the others if i remember right, is still not as fat as it used to be. I don’t imagine these scrap mags will be in business much longer at this rate. How can they maintain subscribers with that many pages; how can they maintain profits with that few ads? We’ll be sad to see them go, but it will be {at least partly} our own fault, I’m afraid…I know many of us now get our scrap-fill (page ideas, articles, etc.) from the internet, but it just won’t be the same without magazines. You can’t lie on a lounger, the couch or in bed with your computer (well, we laptop-ers can but yuck, uncomfortable and impractical). And the pics in a magazine are much more fun and easy to look at than those on a screen. I for one will truly miss the scrapbook magazines when they’re gone and, at only 90 pages this issue, Memory Makers appears to be sliding on out…

What are your thoughts about this issue, or scrapbooking magazines in general, these days?

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10 Comments

  1. avatar

    I don’t subscribe to any of the magazines anymore. I got tired of nothing but ads or 1 picture layout ideas. Seemed like it was always the same thing every month. There is just too much good stuff on the web for free. I do buy idea books and magazines if they are cheap at my LSS’s bi-annual yardsale though. That’s my magazine fix now!

  2. avatar

    This is one of the reasons I usually don’t buy them anymore.. if I do, it’s at HL with a 40% off coupon. I’m not going to spend $6 on something that I can run through in 15 mins, and that’s mostly ads..

  3. avatar

    What I think is that they should put some of my layouts in there, then I would tell my friends to buy the magazine, and they would tell their friends, and so on and so on… (kinda like that shampoo commercial!)

    Seriously, tho, CK claims that it is the same amount of content… I don’t know tho. Maybe their ad sales are down. Which to me, doesn’t make sense because there is just so much new product out there. My DH just ordered CK for me for Mom’s day, so I hope it doesn’t get any thinner.

  4. avatar

    I have a free sub to CK from an album I bought at target awhile back. But I won’t subscribe to it when it runs out unless I get an offer that is CHEAP. I used to get MM (becauseI could get cheap subscriptions), but I don’t anymore. I’d like to- I love flipping through the mag, but again- too $$$. I am actually subscribing to Scrapbooks Etc. though. I don’t like the content as much as CK and MM- it tends to all look the same to me- but I got it really cheap online.

    I don’t know if it’s just me, but don’t you think the layouts have gotten a bit ridiculous lately (in all the magazines)? I mean, I don’t have $30 and 6 hours to spend buying all top-of-the-line product and painstakingly creating my pages and I don’t get much enjoyment out of looking at those kinds of layouts. Yeah, they’re pretty and all (sometimes), but to me they just make me feel overwhelmed and like I’m not doing enough in my own scrapbooking. And, uh, does anyone do traditional, real scrapbooking anymore? Almost all layouts in magazines are single pictures, blown up to 8×10 and are about somebody’s favorite shoes or their personality. Yeah, it’s nice if you have the time to do these kinds of pages, but as for me, I have a stack of thousands of photos waiting for me to scrap them. Things like birthdays and trips to the zoo.

    If you ask me, the mags are losing their subscribers because the only people who make pages like the ones in the magazines are the people who have pages in the magazines. Just my opinion. : )

  5. avatar

    first of all, thanks a lot you enabler you! I picked up some of that clearance garden party!!!

    Second of all, I just don’t really like the magazines anymore. they have such generic, boring layouts with the same old people and their same tired style. I am so much more inspired by blogs, message boards, online galleries etc.

  6. avatar

    Erika, the mags have gotten really skimpy! So disappointing! I have 3 subscriptions and the only one I think I’ll keep for sure is Scrapbooks Etc.

    love Chrispea’s work!!!

  7. avatar
    themrsd says:

    I’ve never really gotten into the magazines…I usually look online for inspiration or I buy second hand books.

  8. avatar

    It’s a good point you make Erika, but like someone else said, they only seem to want to publish the peeps that already get published. Too few “real” scrappers in there. I love to look at the lush layouts with all the lovely stuff, but it would be good to see more of the ordinary scrappers – who still produce lovely if less product laden layouts – getting pubbed. Why buy something that doesn’t showcase your style once in a while?

  9. avatar

    I thought it was rather thin too. A while ago, someone left some messages on the MM forum about it. It was addressed by staffers, but I can’t remember much about it. At least they’re addressing it though.

    I do wonder what it is exactly that is causing this. Is the price of production so high?

  10. avatar
    lilaccitydesigns says:

    Hey Erika,
    I agree, it’s a sticky situation with mags, but somehow Papercrafts is managing to pack more projects in than the scrap mags and it’s the SAME media giant running the majority of the mags. I had to let all but my memory makers sub run out, I just cant afford all the luxuries anymore and sadly my subscriptions were the first to go. (I really am sad about it, I LOVE getting them in the mail!)
    I think if the magazines do find their way out of existence that the specialty publications will reap the benifit. We’ll be seeing more (and paying more) challenge and technique books I think.

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