Shopsmith Forums

I recently shuffled around my magazine subscriptions, dropping Fine Homebuilding and Wood, renewing Woodsmith, and adding ShopNotes…I was surprised to get the following e-mail yesterday:

"Thank you for your 2 yr ShopNotes subscription. Due to business realities we have decided to cease publishing ShopNotes beginning next year. Rather than send you only one issue and then stop, we have canceled your order and your credit card will not be charged. We are sorry for any inconvenience that will be caused. We still offer all 138 back issues in our online back issue library as well as DVD, we just won't be publishing any new issues. We plan to expand Woodsmith to include some ShopNotes content beginning next year. We're sure you will like the changes in store for upcoming issues of Woodsmith magazine."

Was this old news and I'm just out of the loop? I guess I can see why ShopNotes has perhaps run it's course…you can only have so many plans and articles about a workshop and maybe it makes sense to just combine into Woodsmith, but I was still surprised…as well as wondering why they had a link for a two-year subscription on their website if they are ceasing production within a few months, presumably a decision they didn't just make yesterday.

The Internet strikes again... Just part of our rapidly changing world.
I haven't followed magazines closely but I have dropped about all of mine.
Newspapers are in a world of hurt. Here in my neighborhood only about one house in eight still takes the local paper. I believe it is fewer than that in many neighborhoods in town. It used to be near 100%. Who wants to pay $250 a year for old news that you can read while still fresh on-line. On an aside only about one out of ten here still have a land-line phone yet. I'll bet that in two more years it will be one in thirty... Or less...
As in nature the law is "adapt or perish".
Rambling off on that I watch the birds "working" the lot at Wal-Mart. They know the instant that someone drops some food item on the ground (or someone like me tosses out birdseed) and when there is nothing there they start working car grills and radiators for bugs. They have learned that very quickly. I hope we can learn to adapt as quickly...


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Wow... thats great I subscribe and on the 28th they took my money, no problem...
I havent heard anything back from them yet.

EDIT TO ADD...

Just went to their sign up page and you still can subscribe there...

I've gotten both since they started publishing. Just renewing both of them in June for 2 years.

I haven't heard anything from them about canceling or refunding the unused portion.

Too bad... I really enjoy both of them.

As stated a sign of the times and what's to come.....


Steve

dgale wrote: Was this old news and I'm just out of the loop?

FWIW, its new to me too! too bad, as I really like both content and style. ah, well...everything changes.

I just picked up a copy of the Nov/Dec 2014 issue at our local independent bookstore (who else would carry this magazine on their shelves?) and no mention in there and the issue is still full of subscription cards (you know…the pesky ones that always fall out on the floor when you're reading a magazine).

As for being a sign of the times, yes, printed media is doomed on most fronts, especially a magazine like this that contains no advertising and hence relies 100% on subscriptions and store sales…both of which likely have declined significantly. Makes me sad, as I can't really adjust to reading books and magazines online or otherwise on my computer or tablet…I like to sit in a chair or relax in bed and read real printed media the old fashioned way. I agree about newspapers - as much as I like to read the paper, nowadays it contains virtually nothing that isn't totally old news by the the time it's printed and makes it's way to the reader…I can't see how any papers are surviving these days.

I was looking forward to adding ShopNotes, as I enjoy Woodsmith, both for the content and for the lack of ads. I personally found Wood magazine mediocre at best and dropped my subscription after a couple of years. The projects in there were typically not that interesting and/or not to my taste, way too many ads, and I often was suspect of their reviews of tools and such, as they often reeked of conflict of interest with those that also advertise in the magazine.

As big of a fan of digital media that I am, I prefer physical woodworking magazines. I'd rather have a paper magazine in my dusty shop than a laptop or tablet. Plus there's just something about a tangible media in support of such a hands-on activity.

Surprise! right after I decided to stop getting Shop Notes, they quit! Sorry they depended so much on that one subscription;)

I did pay for the on-line "Woodsmith Library" Couldn't help but notice during the first couple years of publication, "Woodsmith" had a section named "Shop Notes". Guess they got many favorable feedback notes about the Shop Notes section and decided to make it a seperate publication.

In my opinion; Lately the SN mag has had only articles of jigs that are repeats of previous issues or operations that have little usefulness.

I think it actually makes a lot of sense to combine Shop Notes with Woodsmith.