When I first brought back Handmade Seller Magazine, producing the magazine was a huge learning process. While my background is small business, I wasn’t used to the cadence of being an independent media company.
The last 2 plus years have been an incredible learning process. I knew when we first starting producing the magazine that we had some work to do. The content was not quite what I felt was needed. I embarked on a year long process of research with artisan businesses while I slowly adjusted what we wrote and published about. I talked to hundreds of artisans. And I embarked on a prolific set of relationship building with other companies in our industry which continues to this day.
I received a lot of direct feedback that businesses were struggling to find pragmatic advice that they could actually act upon. So this is our focus. I knew we had it right when I would show someone the magazine and they would say “ooo- I need to come back and read that.” Then flip a few more pages and say the same thing.
And here comes 2024
This year also brought a new reality- there was simply no way that an advertising supported model was going to work. While we were able to attract some wonderful advertisers, it was not going to be enough to make it financially viable. The automated advertising placements are even worse. So I have had to do the same thing that you have to in these types of situations- make adjustments to the business. I hate it, but it is necessary. This is also NOT a feel sorry for me post. I’m proactively making this change for the long term health of the business.
Earlier this year, I started letting people know we needed to transition our model. Depending on what and when you read things, you may or may not have realized it. We had a number of early adopters that understood our challenge and opted in right away. I am so grateful for these early subscribers. My friends keep encouraging me to talk about this, as I am assured I cannot over communicate about the topic.
I’ve also personally witnessed a number of friends with publications in this industry that have thrown in the towel this year. I bet you have noticed it too. There has been a lot of shock and heartbreak as this happens. I knew it was really getting bad when CNN started rolling out a subscription model….. I also know that eventually if I don’t have enough revenue to hire more help that I will burn out. And we all know how ugly that gets.
So now what?
We do still produce a lot of content that is free. And we will continue to do this. Our monthly news articles are free, as are our podcasts. We have just moved the magazine itself to a paid model. It isn’t a big company money grubbing scheme. No one here is making millions. We are a small independent publisher recognizing that we have to adjust the model for the long term health of the business. If that sounds like something you want to support- learn more about your options here.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and support Handmade Seller.
