Sad to say Goodbye

 Last week, Jean Leinhauser, owner of the Crochet Partners website, and author of a zillion crochet, knit and craft books announced that the magazine known as Crochet Fantasy will cease to exist after it's December issue.  (let me make it clear that Jean does not own Crochet Fantasy)  This has not been publically announced on Crochet Fantasy's official website, and in fact, they're still taking subscriptions.

I inquired with Nancy Brown, the current President of the CGOA, and author of Crocheter's Companion, if this was indeed the last we'd see of this fantastic magazine. "Sadly," said Nancy, "it is true. Offinger (the CGOA's management company) received notification from the owners (American Crafters) of the magazine making the announcement."

And the apparent reason appears to be that the magazine is not profitable.

As I learned this week, magazines do not make much revenue off of our individual subscriptions. Their revenue comes from advertisers, and apparently it's not enough to keep this magazine afloat.  And this is a magazine that just recently went through an overhaul (major improvement, imho!), and that just recently added a much needed "kids corner" to inspire the next generation, that readers were very happy with.

OK, so let's say that the magazine was not profitable enough. What I don't understand is why they don't introduce more/different types of advertising, such as:
* Computer companies (after all many crocheters are online, or will be, and that means there's a need for computers, and upgrades!)
* Candy (in the latest issue of Crochet! magazine they had a pattern for crocheting with licorice, and I know many were scrambling to find a retailer/supplier of the string licorice to experiment with this.)
* Home Decorating (How many of us are searching for ways to store/display the growing stashes of yarn, hooks, and books that we're proud of?!)

Why is it that the advertisements seemingly focuses just on yarn and lights when there's more "outside of the box" revenue that they can be considering that relates to this art?

I'm not sure. But I do know it will be sad to say good-bye to another great magazine.