Successor to Krause Publications files for Chapter 11
CaptHenway
Posts: 32,230 ✭✭✭✭✭
Sorry if this was already posted, but I was out of town for part of the weekend.
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
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I wonder if corporate mismanagement and poor decisions were the major cause or if it was decreased subscriptions from declining interest in this and similar hobbies.
Forums like this one have really hurt mailed magazines and changed the speed and thoroughness of information distribution.
agreed. I have seen posts on other threads try to connect this one company's bankruptcy to a doom and gloom prediction about coins. Ask yourself how many print magazines have done well in the internet age? sports illustrated is being sold cheaply but that is not a comment on the popularity of sports. Very few print magazines or newspapers are doing well.
Used to buy the Krause World Coin Catalogs every few years - then the CDs. Now all the data is available online, on my phone no less.
Print is no more.
F & W was a wildly financially over-leveraged company. Too much debt.
Even those who followed this story very casually had to know the eventual bankruptcy outcome.
I personally was hoping for one more print edition of the 1801-1900 SCWC. It hung in limbo for years over two years.
I will miss their advertising in World Coin News.
April Krueger gave terrific customer service .
They had good employees who tried to please.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
I find this so very sad. As a subscriber to Numismatic News for about 40 years or so (and still to this day), I’d hate to see it disappear😢
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
I never renewed my subscription to Numismatic News when most of the editions turned out to be electronic.
I liked to carry the paper edition in my back pocket, and read it at my leisure.
Also, when I renewed my subscription for the last time, I saw no indication that almost all editions would be elctronic.
I was also a subscriber for many years, but would never renew again. I paid to receive a paper that I could read, not something sent to my e-mail.
The writing was on the walls...
“An effort was made in 2017 to restructure F + W Media’s debt, according to Osberg, but “largely as a result of mismanagement, the Company exhausted the entire $15 million of the new funding it received in the first six (6) months following the Restructuring,” according to Osberg.”
https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/2019/03/numismatic-news-owner-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy.html
$100MM debt is a lot for a company like that. You would think, with 20MM+ subscribers they would be able to cherrypick some assets to save. Unless every pub lost money and they were trying to make it up in volume.
Sad to see this...However, magazines, newspapers etc., are all feeling the impact of the internet and instant communications. Almost anything one wants to know can be found with just a few keystrokes. Articles/blogs etc. are readily available, along with discussion groups and forums. The times they are a-changing. Cheers, RickO
My wife gets some house and garden type magazines, which normally means projects for me.
The subscriptions are about 30 cents an issue, and they basically are a few articles and advertisements, so I know they are not making a dime off the subscription price.
bob s. the guy who taught me some stuff on the stock market said to stay away from retail stores because of the internet and the problems its gonna bring in the mid 80s. I guess this is happening with this one as well
Many of my keystrokes still go to online magazines. The funny thing is that some current events articles seem to talk about forum discussions.
I wonder if paywalls would help them survive. I don’t like paywalls but they have done wonders for The NY Times.
I'm such a fossil.
My kids even gave me a Fossil watch to wear.
i actually walked to edge of my driveway this morning to pick up the print edition on my newspaper.
I'll need to update my collection of Krause's and hunker down with them I guess.
1601-1700 4th edition
1701-1800 5th edition
1801-1900 5th edition
1901-2000 36th edition
2001- date 8th edition
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
I also missed the plethora of Coin magazines and paper publications. A different era but the memories are good. I saved my favorite articles and clippings.
100% Positive BST transactions
There are over 500 pages of creditors in the Chapter 11 filing. This will be in the court system for awhile.
Case 19-10479-KG, F+W MEDIA, INC., et al., Debtors
IN THE UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF DELAWARE
CERTIFICATION OF DEBTORS’ CONSOLIDATED LIST OF CREDITORS
In accordance with Rule 1007(a) of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and Rule 1007-2(a) of the Local Rules of Bankruptcy Practice and Procedure of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Local Rules”), a list of creditors (the “List”) of F+W Media, Inc. and its above-captioned affiliated debtors and debtors in possession (collectively the “Debtors”) is filed by attachment hereto.
The List has been prepared, on a consolidated basis, from the Debtors’ books and records. The undersigned, the Chief Executive Officer of the Debtors, hereby certifies that the List contains the names and addresses of all creditors of the Debtors that could be ascertained after diligent inquiry, based on a review of the Debtors’ books and records, and is consistent with the information contained therein. To the extent practicable, the List complies with Local Rule 1007-2(a). The Debtors reserve the right to amend or supplement the List as necessary.
https://document.epiq11.com/document/getdocumentbycode/?docId=3447871&projectCode=FWM&source=DM
@Hemispherical "There are over 500 pages of creditors in the Chapter 11 filing. This will be in the court system for awhile....."
My goodness.
Looks like every name in the phone-book is on that list of creditors.
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
"The Standard Catalogue of Creditors, Vol. One"
Yes, the times do change.
The printed publication isn't as necessary as it used to be.
Back in the day,I HAD to subscribe to 'Coin World' just to get the "Wanted to Buy" ads. There were pages and pages of them. I was making packages constantly and sending them out. Now, what does 'CW' have for buy ads? Probably a column and a half......
Dowloaded the Rulau book of tokens from them today. Doing my part to help the creditors and grab material while it lasts
Latin American Collection
"I don’t like paywalls but they have done wonders for The NY Times."...................
Must be a different NYT than the one I visit. What paywall? Any limit on views easily bypassed by clearing cookies.
OMG, how sad. They had some useful publications !!!
Thanks for posting this. I just picked up the 4th edition and addendum.
There's great information here, but I can see how this would be a hard business today. The book has small back and white images when we are in the age of TrueViews. I think they would need to move to an online website like a cross between PCGS CoinFacts and Token Catalog and then have books auto-generated from the content on the website. The books could be broken into many different volumes with super large photos like Mint Error News.
On the plus side, the search works well so I'm still glad to pick them up
The auction was held yesterday...
The winner of the "Collectibles" community was
Successful Bidder Bid Amount
Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. $350,000
Backup Bidder
International Gem Society, LLC
CBP is a privately held magazine publisher: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=23334792
CBP appears to be a subsidiary of Active Interest Media - https://www.aimmedia.com/brands/
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
@BStrauss3 Thanks for the update. I am watching with some apprehension.
Maybe they named all of the subscribers they have left.
Thanks for the heads-up !!!
Efram Zimbalist III
I met Chet Krause long ago. Nice man.
He is probably spinning in his grave. Sad how times have changed
Cruz Bay Publishing won the bid on several of the communities lines... Let's see...
Sky & Telescope Community went to The American Astronomical Society for $1,225,000
Outdoors Community to Rucks Media LLC for $575,000 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-rucks-493a471a/)
Construction Community to Shield Wall Media LLC/Gary Reichert for $400,000 (Cruz Bay Publishing is the backup bidder) (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-reichert-35826515/)
Both Rucks and Reichert are/were F+W employees
Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc.
Family Tree Community $100,000
Writing Community $200,000
Woodworking Community $1,000,000
Horticulture Community $75,000
Collectibles Community $350,000
Crafts Community was split, with
Macanta Investments LLC paying $2,850,000 for everything except Scrapbooking
and
CK Scrapbooking Events, LLC/Todd Friedli (Scrapbooking) for $300,000
_Artist’s Network Community _ to Macanta Investments LLC for $675,000 with Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. as the backup bidder
Note: The Debtors have not yet selected a Successful Bid for their UK e-Commerce business.
With all of the contracts being listed and such, it seems like each bidder gets the magazines and conferences. It's not clear what happens to the technology (the shared subscription fulfillment services and web sites). A lot of those contracts were in the rejection list. We'll have to see the sales contracts to figure out what happens to things like https://www.shopnumismaster.com/... the domain and such probably was part of the community.
If I had to guess, you get a data extract of the subscriptions you are obligated to service to import into your own existing subscription platform, the files for the next issue(s). And the F+W backend stuff gets shut down... Unless somebody saw an opportunity to buy a newer platform than the one they have for pennies on the dollar.
Another thing we care about is that the coin publications (e.g. Numismatic News) seem to now be firmly separated from Krause Publications (SCWC etc.).
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
I still read Coin Week but frankly, most of the articles do not really interest me and it isn't just because I don't collect the topic. The articles are too basic. This one is free so I can easily see why print magazines are out of favor.
Good riddance to both of them. Krause has printed that same pricing in those catalogs for 20 years. Any "successor" should consider starting over. In this digital age I'd like to see NGC take over this piece of data but I also understand the sheer amount of data involved in tracking that many coins, many of which are always going to be thin markets.
It has long been my understanding that 'World Coin News' monthly publication was simply a 'loss leader' to introduce people to 'The Standard Catalog of World Coins' series of books.
Separate the two, and there is no reason for WCN to keep going.
Thin markets getting thinner. I wonder how many of the bidders will find they overpaid?
Part of the problem with NGC or anybody taking over the SCWC for an online version is where the data ends up. It likely went to Penguin with the books. NGC only had rights to use the data, not ownership...
So...
From a technologist's perspective, none of this is hard. But it's a lot of work because of the volume. To startup AND to maintain (a lot of our complaints are due to lack of maintenance over time). All of which has to be done with an uncertain return on the investment.
Steps:
Pick a CMS (Content Management System - Adobe or ilk). Design a page template and hierarchy, search criteria. Extract the data from the current books. Load into the CMS. Publish.
Now you need a network of dealers to report sales. Each time there is a sale, you adjust the price for that coin for that grade AND perhaps algorithmically adjust other prices. If a report comes in of selling a 1929 Lundy Puffin in NGC62 for $110 and the catalog was $100, all the prices on that line get increased 10%.
Lather rinse repeat
Once you have the data in a CMS it's easy to create a template and publish it as a (crude) book every so often.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
I have to wonder what will happen to NN. I felt their Coin Market column by Richard real world. I also use certain dealer ads (L&C Coins) as price compare (archetype) to a lot of what I carry (mainly walkers, Commems,Dollars, gold). My subscription has few mo to go wondering if should renew.
I bought the newest Krause Book on North American coins as I do a lot of Canadian and Mexican Coins. I have World coin and currency books as well. Sometimes I will do Pmg search with AS looking for WPM picks. Don C Kelly (not with Krause) has stepped up on CSS and obsoletes with his excellent book. I have his book on NBN as well.
Concern: If the Krause books cease who will fill the vacuum.
I will be set up at the Houston Summer Show this upcoming weekend.
I used to love reading NN. At some point years ago I stopped subscribing because I didn't want it delivered to my house for security reasons. After that, as mentioned above, everything I wanted could be found on websites for free.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Having read Numismatic News since the mid 1970s, the recent retirement of Mr. David Harper was a mild shock (but I suspected he had already stayed past normal retirement age).
Mr. Mischler's fine column (coins, travel, and social) has appeared quite recently, however.
Maybe the KM world catalogs can be carefully digitized, the data extracted, and then used as the basis for an annually updated version sold on-line....? Just a thought.
One thing NN has going for it are frequent articles by R.W. Julian.
Bidders typically get to see the financials, and these people are in the business, so they should know what it will cost to run each publication using their systems.
Thus they knew how many subscribers they were buying (semi public information) and how much longer existing subscriptions have to run (non public). Plus advertising contracts etc.
What we don't know is if they are planning to run all the magazines or shut some down... And how much leaner they can go on the editorial side.
Time will tell
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
What’s the consensus a year out?
I worked for a national magazine publisher from 1984-1996. During that time, we took over several titles when a publisher failed to pay the printer. We then had six monthly titles plus two bi-monthlies. Only two of those titles are still being printed today.
I see their website isn't back up yet, other than links which they put up when the filed for bankruptcy.
https://www.krausebooks.com/
Well, Penguin Random House (Bertelsmann) bought the books side of F+W Media
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/80380-winner-of-f-w-book-group-auction-to-be-announced-soon.html
Persuing their site, I don't see a single sign of any updated Krause books. The 2020 Standard Catalog of world coins was published in June 2019, no sign of a 2021 edition. etc.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
here's where i am at. thanks for a list for comparison.
7th
7th
8th
46th
13th
paper world 61-25th?
paper world <60 16th
paper usa 34th
no idea offhand what the most recent editions are. just acquired these this year.
Anyone have a status update on these publications? Have new editions been published?
Numismatic News was first published in 1952 - 70 years ago. The state of so many formerly strong publications is very sad.
In an age when many people demand information for free, the net result is no information.
The 2020 Catalog (1901-2000) is now the 47th edition. This edition (if you can find it) is now $200.