F&W Media Files For Bankruptcy
 

They are the owners (or were because I have not read an SCD for quite a while) of Sports Collectors Digest and their Standard Catalog,

I've written quite a bit about this in the past for my old Sports Collectors Daily column and don't want to say anything more right now. I'll probably save any comments for an upcoming GTS column

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysil.../#63b1af5b4355


Regards
Rich

It’s a sad day indeed.


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Thanks, Rich
 

Read the Forbes column, folks. It is a true stunner. I'm a retired trade press journalist so this naturally caught my eye. I also read Writers Digest regularly. It's one of F+W's pubs.
What blew me away was the fact that F+W spent $6 million in its crafts business and generated only $3 million in business. Oh. My. Goodness. Talk about mismanagement and someone at F+W simply not knowing what they were doing. It also sounds like companies they dealt with F+W took advantage of them. Sad story. But it is all too common in journalism nowadays. Thank you.

Tough times for print media in general. My wife somehow got on someone's mailing list and she's been receiving 7 or 8 magazines every month for the past year. None of which she ordered or even had ever read. As far as I know they haven't even tried to get us to be paid subscribers. I guess they just want copies out there in people's hands.

I signed up for SCD about a year ago. I did so because I missed having a hobby publication to page through. Back in the day I received all of them and loved it. I've already decided not to renew SCD when my sub comes up because, frankly, there's not a lot to read in each issue. Too much of it is auction recaps which really don't interest me. MAYBE every other issue has something worth the cover price.

Almost all print is having a tough time.

$2 million on hand, $105 million in debt. What a mess. I don’t know how people keep extending credit to a company that upside down and I feel for all those who did and are going to lose through no fault of their own.
I’m sure everyone here has had a subscription to scd at some point. I think my first subscribed back in 1987 or so when I was in high school. Or sucks to lose an institution and hobby mainstay. This was obviously a small piece of this companies media catalogue but it meant much more than that to us.

Here's another short article from eCOMbytes:

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2019/...ine-publisher/

There's a enormous amount of opportunity there if one wanted to pick up where they left off. An entrepreneur could do so without the weight of the legacy structure.

I still wish Old Cardboard did their print magazine. But it is the way of the day, I guess. Everything is online and on a cellphone (yuck). Here is some print....

http://luckeycards.com/club.jpg

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An Update
 

One of my old hobby friends, who is an attorney, just posted a link to a Bankruptcy Court update on Facebook.

There is nothing apparently positive in the current bankruptcy situation for F&W (No Buyers)

It's a sad day in hobby history and hopefully a buyer will be found for F&W

Regards
Rich

Do we know what it would take to acquire it? I assume the outstanding debt is what is scaring people away in a situation like this.


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It's in the Delaware District Case # 19-10479. I'm sure any one with enough money can buy them out at this point.

Rich

If you have access to PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) you can look at the case. PACER is available to anyone, you just need to register and provide a credit card. The charge 10¢ per search and the same per page to view a document, i.e. a 20 page document would be $2.00. I use it every day for my job and it is quite handy.

The correct docket entry is 1:2019bk10484 under the name F & W Media International Limited.

Truth be told, I believe my wife has access. I will check with her this evening. Thank you.


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A failed company in an industry (print media, not the hobby) with a bleak future? No surprise that there aren't folks lining up with a check.

At the risk of sounding like an old man yelling at clouds, I'm really sad over the state of the printed word these days. I remember when we got a morning paper delivered (Newark Star-Ledger), I threw an afternoon paper (Newark Evening News), and most days my father brought home one or two late editions of NY papers he'd read on his commute (Daily News and/or Herald Tribune).

Back on topic...as mentioned above, I really hope there is room for a well-done hobby publication. But I'm not very optimistic.

I'm a print guy but the world has changed.

Recently I saw a 1991 copy of the Dallas Morning News and it had something like 17 sections on a Sunday and I think Saturday had like 10 and weekdays like 12.

I noticed that because while having lunch on a recent Saturday at Cowboy Chicken. the Metro (DFW) and Business section were combined. There were like 3-4 total sections. Period, end of sentence.

I think in a couple of years we'll have 2 sections: 1) News (Local, National and International with Business Included)
2) Sports

Many daily papers in small areas. if they still exist. are down to ONE section

The printed word is diminishing every day.

If they start selling off remaining assets, someone could buy the Standard Catalog rights and database I assume.

It would be great if someone would buy the database rights but I am not sure it's a winning proposition for anyone. Kids (and too many adults) are too addicted to their phones to pick up a book.

Onething SCD did not do, which I wished they had, was to digitize all their weekly papers they did from the 90s. Bob Lemke was frustrated about this I know too, as I wanted to read some old articles he did. I recall there was no way to see them in any archives.

The database would be the thing to buy, as it could be used for an online catalog.

It seems strange that they filed this as a Chapter 11 (reorganization) with such a dire financial situation. At least they seem hopeful that there is a path to continue operation. But if they convert to a Chapter 7 (liquidation), it is game over. All assets will be sold at that point.

A last gasp of air? It is too bad too. I like some print stuff and it is just becoming a dinosaur. Even my car magazines I have taken forever, Road and Track and Motor Trend, are skeletons of their former size.