Four years ago today, the parent company of Popular Woodworking Magazine, F+W Media, filed for bankruptcy. And in short order the company was chopped up and sold at auction to other publishing companies and venture/vulture capitalists.
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky are filled with people who worked at this once-great publishing company. People who love making physical books and magazines. Creatives who were willing to work for peanuts for a company that was harvested for its organs by greedy individuals who cared little for the business of publishing.
Today, Megan and I will get a drink at lunch and toast this sad day. And then we will return to the shop to continue the difficult and rewarding work of making books that people want to read.
— Christopher Schwarz
As George said, we are living in the material world.
Venture capitalists, MBAs, and “consultants”: the grim reapers of the business world.
Really sad.
Hear hear, skool!
The friendships we all made through PWM will last my lifetime. But whoof, I learned my lesson to never work for a venture capitalist ever again.
I’ll join you in that lunch-time toast, but I may be off a bit time-wise, due to time-zone differences. While I mourn the demise of many good magazines that fell prey to the dark forces in publishing, I’d prefer to celebrate the good outcomes, including the creation of Lost Art Press.
long. long ago in a Cincinnati far far away i met you and Megan for the first time at a Lie Nielsen show at pop w….it was in the days when PW was the best source of info for amateur woodworkers and I couldn’t wait for the next issue…..even FW could not stand up…………then the staff started to disappear, then you disappeared then Megan, then the whole shebang….what a sad, sad story and my guess it is all about corporate greed………but alas FW has stepped up a notch or two and we now have Lost Art Press…all is well in the galaxy………..dale
“Magazines all too frequently lead to books and should be regarded by the prudent as the heavy petting of literature.”
― Fran Lebowitz
Hear here ! 🥂
PW went down fast, Viagra and cigars started showing up in the ads instead of chisels. I didn’t renew, along with a few others. Well, maybe hundreds or thousands.
I dropped my subscription when they started running articles on concrete and how to weld up steel legs for a table…
Cheers!
With you in spirit as a casualty of another corporate / manufacturing demise a few years ago a few miles north in the Dayton area.
Thank you for your commitment to the cause. Your books are a pleasure to read, to hold, and to savor.
I got my issue of Popular Woodworking today in the mail
Do you have an opinion of the current owner of Popular Woodworking?
Hooray for you and Megan, and all the other creatives who were victims of the vulture capitalists. Keep up the great work!
Dia de Los muertos carpintería popular!
amen Chris, I’ll drink to that..Hey do remember several yrs..ago receiving a red flannel shirt? I sent you that in hopes that you would be replacement for Norm Abrams. Have taken 2 of your classes at Marc Adams School. Will be at your next open house,see ya then!!! KEEP THE GOOD WORK
I was cleaning a bin of “stuff I need to sort one of these days” and came across a few issues of the old PWW, and it was like finding an old friend. That it was from a time long ago hurt just a bit.
You both had to sew your own parachutes, but I’m very happy you got out before the crash.
At the very least, I borrowed a lot of parachute silk from Chris. (But thank you)
Made the mistake of going to the website for the current owner of PWW.
If this doesn’t give you the “run away from the MBA” chills, I don’t know what will.
“Across five divisions and 46 brands, AIM publishes more than 20 well-known magazine titles plus a multitude of special interest publications, reports and guides”
translates as “we’ve collected the rubble from dozens of bankruptcies and will keep churning the IP to monetize it as best we can”
“AIM’s brands curate one of a kind experiences… ” Ok, I can’t do any more. ‘Curate experiences”? WTF?
UGH…
I feel your, and everybody else’s pain – and joy BTW. I started with Western Electric in 1973. Soon we became AT&T, then Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs Innovations. Judge Greene came along in 1986 (I believe) and pretty much ruined everything. After that, with poor management decisions at the highest levels in the company along with horrible plans for the future, anyone with enough service along with age was offered a buyout (in 2001, which is when I left). Much to our surprise (NOT!), the company then became Alcatel/Lucent, and is now currently Nokia!!! Corporate greed and horrible management ruined a great American Institution!
I used to call on Lucent – spent the better part of a year in Allentown. Called on Bell Labs, too. Nortel was among my customers – at least I got a trip to Ottawa out of that deal. Then I went to work for Philips. Remember the movie “Goldmember” and what they said about the Dutch? They spoke the truth.
Yes! Yes! YES! Congratulations to the two of you for no longer being there!
Clay DeForge
Good for y’all! Keep up the great work and keep marching on.
you shall inherit the earth
Kudos
Thank you to you both for …making books that people want to read!
That building has bern pictured a few times.
Is there a particular name for it or address ?
I sort of like that style of architecture, especially since newer architecture of similarly sized buildings, is routinely, although not always, lacking in quality details.
1507 Dana ave. The old coca-cola building. A masterpiece. That is where F&W was when I started there.
You both have accomplished so much since then I’d think you should view its passing as a step to where you are today.
Decades ago, I used to thumb through Popular Woodworking Magazines on the rack at the store and put them back without buying. They were filled with lame projects that required little skill. Then, one day, the magazine changed. Suddenly, it taught people real skills, and the projects got better. I didn’t know what caused it to change at the time, but I began buying it more months than I put it back on the shelf. Some issues were really excellent. I mean they were filled with nothing but top notch articles. I frequently saw tips that I’d never seen before, not even in the “fancy” brand X magazine. It took me a while, but I eventually realized that the improvement happened about the time that they hired a guy named Schwartz to write for them.
I learned a bunch of things from him and I’m very grateful to him for that. I also ardently disagree with him on a couple of things that he advised, but there’s no doubt that he lit a fire in people to pick up the hobby of woodworking. Popular Woodworking pocketed the profits from the boost in circulation brought about by Mr. Schwartz’s work. When he left, it kept going well for a while, but it eventually headed back to what it had been before Schwartz and now it’s gone.
Less smart folks than there are businesses. I remember about 20 years ago someone talking about Caterpillar (I like earth moving machines, what can I say). They said it was a good investment because it was really common for grandfather, son, and grandson to be working there including management. As such, management knew their future families would be working there so they weren’t likely to run it into the ground. I don’t know how true it is but I get the point.
Chris, I will raise a glass to you and Megan tomorrow……being the very best to come out of P.W. We are blessed to have the two of you.
I took one business class. It was at City College of San Francisco in 1986. The instructor taught us his “IOU” theory of business. A business is started by an Innovator who makes it successful. When they’re done, they sell it to an Operator who keeps it going more or less until profits go down. Then it’s bought by an Undertaker who gussies up the corpse.
Chris, I try to read all you write and everything you publish. You inspired me 15 years ago at Kelly’s school and signed my CS workbench made in the class. Today I am building a replica of the President’s Resolute desk precisely because it demands skills I do not currently possess. Woodworking has been a life giver for me. Thanks.
Unfortunately, this has happened in many companies across the country. You are fortunate, through hard work and smarts, to have survived and flourished. Not everyone has or can.and my heart goes out to them.
I left their readership after they devolved into woodworking pablum and pisspoor layout. The differences between your time and what PWW became were jarring. I’ve not even picked one up from the newsstand in passing since. So hum a few bars of “The Parting Glass”, and toast the past then get your arses off the barstools and back to making your fabulous books. We’re waiting…
I too agree with all the posts here, the publication was superb prior to take over, a bit like when I started reading Fine woodworking.
I also like the ‘vulture capitalists’ phrase, my humour exactly.
Keep up the great work, also, stop making those books so good, costing me loads.