Several quilt magazines to stop hard copy publication
 

Read this on Facebook today:

Harris Publishing:

"We will be suspending print publication of Quilt magazine, Simple Quilts & Sewing and Quilt Almanac effective with the October/November 2013... With that said, we are looking towards a primarily digital relaunch in Spring 2014 and are committed to the quilt space."

how sad for everyone.

So much for that two year subscription I bought!

the only quilting magazine subscriptions i have are digital.
i love it.
i download the issues to my computer.
i have several years' worth.
they take no physical space for storage.
i can look through them any time i please.
i only print the specific pages i need.

i don't mean to imply that folks who prefer the hard copies are wrong.
just thought i'd share the "up side" to going digital.

Digital is cheap to produce. I doubt the company will lose profit if half the subscribers dropped them. I like digital. Several hundred magazines that take up no room at all, easy to see at a glance what you are looking for, and easy to print. If I'm ever in a lifestyle where no internet is available then I'll have more to worry about then no magazines. LOL

Yeah, but you'd think they'd at least give you a break in the price.

You should get some notification from the magazines with a choice of being able to get an ebook or digital. I would let them know what you've learned and for all who have subscriptions how are they going to handle the situation. Many are going paperless.

That maybe great for those with internet but there are still plenty of older quilters which I feel sorry for whom get these magazines that do not own a computer or an ebook or even smart/iphone phones. In fact I have younger friends whom can't even save or send a file to a disk/SD card.

That's odd cause I just got a letter asking me to subscribe again. No mention of it being digital only.

re magazines going digital!
 

The family member that taught me to quilt is 88 years old and still quilting and a subscriber to the printed magazines. She does not have a computer, so does not do internet either! She has made many award winning quilts and continues to do so, using ideas from her quilting magazines that she eagerly awaits every month. This will be a sad state of affairs for her.

One of my embroidery magazines (I quilt using embroidery machines) just informed me that my subscription went digital. I informed them I did not sign up for the digital (I did have the choice) because I frequently lose stuff on my computer! They are sending me the printed subscription. It will be interesting to see how long my 2 years subscription lasts in the printed page.

Digital works fr me too. Traveling half the time makes having a resource library difficult. The digital issues are portable and easy to manage.

......okay digital gurus out here........I "use" a computer, have a smart phone, and an iPad, oh, and also a Kindle, but am no way very sophisticated in any of their uses.....I do not do any personal banking, paying bills or purchasing electronically.....fear hacking, etc. Having said that, what happens to digital mags if/when there is a loss of Internet service or your device "dies"? Can info be retrieved when source is regained? Just wondering....I personally have cut back on subscriptions, but do like to sit down and flip pages and make notes on something I may be interested in...I guess I am a Luddite.

I really like my hard copies. For Christmas last year my daughter sent me several boxes of quilt magazines. She found them at an antique store. They are from the 50's and 60's and in perfect condition. One of my BEST presents, EVER.

I have a question - we own a tablet, not an Ipad. My husband says it would be hard to print from the tablet. Would I be able to email the pattern to myself, then print it out from our laptop, if I had a digital subscription??

I did too....whats going on...

Oh dang that makes me sad. I love snuggeling up with a quilt magazine on the couch with a nice cuppa. I subscribe to most of them. I am not a fan of digital magazine at all. I won't be renewing my subscriptions either.

I do that a lot from my iPad, and it should work the same from any tablet as long as you can e-mail it to yourself. Try it and see.

yes this is a sad day.... I like my hard copy of the magazines...

I didn't subscribe to any of those. But I wonder if the ones that I do get will be doing the same? If so I'll just purchase more quilting books instead.

Digital is terrific and I have each issue on my computer and print only what I need. That said you can't cuddle up in your favorite chair and thumb through a digital issue. That is one of my guilty pleasures to just sit and page through the magazine and imagine all the wonderful projects that can be done.

You said exactly what I was thinking. I have a computer and a nook and have subscribed to one online magazine and still love the hard copy, yes it is great for those who travel a lot but I am not one of those.

I just got a letter to resubscribe too....seems inappropriate. I'd already decided I wouldn't renew so this isn't a loss for me. I decided I like F&P and McCall's Quilting better. I enjoy looking at the new magazines when they arrive but going through my old ones is satisfying too. As is the binder of my 'favorite patterns' filed. How many patterns will I really use in a lifetime??

I've been thinking of going digital anyway. Running out of storage space for my quilt mags and can't seem to part with any of them.

Just more hours sitting in front of a computer.

I like paging through the magazines. Don't care for digital. Glad to hear this since I was about to renew.

A sad sign of the times. The good news... I already own more quilting magazines and books than I could ever exhaust all the projects from. I also don't like digital and won't subscribe to anything that way. If I'm going to use the internet, there are enough free patterns and projects, not to mention enough pictures for inspiration, that I don't need to pay for any of it.

Ladies, our world is changing so fast! We older folks have to keep learning new things and it's not always easy for some of us.. but life has always been about change, hasn't it?

I grew up in a time when some of us still had outdoor toilets! Never dreamed of living in a nice home, flying hither and yon, having a dishwasher that wasn't one of the kids! And now everybody has their OWN car! Lots of changes...

And I LOVE MY LIFE IN TODAY'S WORLD! Sure, we'll miss our hard copies of the magazines, but we'll adapt...
Just my thoughts on the subject...

I have to agree with BrendaY, our world is changing and we must adapt. Personally I like the digital. We travel and it gives me access to my mags without worrying about how to store them all.

Just this week I got a renewal notice from Quilt. Glad I decided not to do it. While the reasons stated above for preferring digital mags make sense I enjoy curling up with a "real" magazine" and turning the pages.

Does anyone else's library offer Zinio? It's a free service that lets you read magazines digitally, even if they are published in hard copy. I love it and peruse several mags each month. You can print right from the computer page. You could print the entire mag, I suppose, if you wanted to use up all your printer ink.

I mention this to assure you it is different to read a mag online, but not worse. Perhaps I am in the minority. I read books on my Kindle and in hard copy and they each work perfectly for me. Digital is the wave of the future. Ink and paper and postage are only getting more expensive. I expect to see many more mags (Newsweek anyone?) going all-digital.

I'm not against digital magazines and regularly read several online but not quilting mags. I hope this isn't a trend. Can you imagine your power is out and you want to read? Forget it. Or your computer is corrupt and you lose everything?

This makes me sad, as I love to relax in the evenings and really enjoy the printed copy.

That is so, so sad and it makes me angry. I subscribe to two of those magazines, and I am now re- thinking whether I will renew my subscription or not. I like to hold the magazines in my hands and not be forced to sit at the computer to read them.

I love digital magazines. I started scanning articles and patterns I wanted to keep from all the magazines that are taking up space in my sewing room, so digital subscriptions are perfect for me.

The subscription prices should fall drastically - no files to be sent to the printer, no printer, no paper, no shipping, no tracking of consignments to stores, no handling of return copies...WoW!...should be less than half of the subscription price!!!! Hope it happens.

I bought two external hard drives....use one for backups of my PC, and on the other I copy things from my PC that I want to look at/read on my laptop. So I can take the LT to my recliner and look through the mags and watch videos too. DS loaned me the LT to use to watch netflix movies in the lvg rm (before I got a Roku). With the 2 ext hd's for backup and etc. I feel pretty well covered.

While there is a place for digital media, I don't see quilt patterns, etc as one

My husband makes paper for a living so I love it when people buy magazines!!! I live in a rural area and a lot of people don't have access to high speed internet. I like both forms of magazines but prefer the paper copy. The price of a digital copy won't drop because they still have to pay advertising

I to like the hard copy to sit and read, but the other thing I don't like about the digital copy is that I have to use my paper and ink to print out the directions for the pattern even after paying the full subscription rate. This doesn't seem right to me. I'm glad I have so many magazines because I definitely won't be going digital.

Too bad - I like to hold the magazines and look through them over and over again...