Pop Woodworking

[Woodenskye (Bryan)]

Thread transferred from previous forum - Original Post by Kev

Original Post:

Anyone know what's up with Pop Woodworking?

They haven't posted a video in over a month, just curious.

Follow Up Posts:

1)  Chris Schwarz had a post in his blog at Lost Art Press a couple of months back talking about the changes when they were recently sold. The new owners had laid of a lot of good people and hired some new young people that didn't really have a woodworking back ground, crammed the operation in to the corner of one building and sold off a lot of the other properties. He was pretty much predicting their demise because of the near impossiblities to survive under those conditions.

I was going to post it here but I couldn't find it on his blog. I wonder if the new owners got wind of it and took legal action to have him take it down. It was very well written, not mean spirited but it wasn't a plus article for the new owners.

2)  Saw this in my feed today.. Might explain a little..

blog.lostartpress.com/2019/06/19/popular-woodworking-acquired-by-woodsmiths-parent-company/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1d57FT1-irNLZfaQaZIDnk8jM0MzVEOsXXZOHQYjDyUIf6asL2SQItpoE

3)  It will be interesting to see where this goes. One mil doesn't seem like a lot to pay for something like this so maybe the new owners are thinking if we fan the coals a little and get a fire great, if all we get is smoke and ash thats okay because we hardly paid anything for the it anyway.

4)  Interesting video on this subject

 

 

5)  This was in the comments below the video. -

"Popular Woodworking did not go bankrupt, our parent company, F&W did, we exceeded our revenue budget every issue. It seems odd that most comments are critiquing Popular Woodworking on its own, it was a heathy business unit with a failing parent company."

Thew gentleman in the video made a comment toward the end that we have all heard before and I am sure you Kev, have heard it more then the rest of us because you post content. "I could make that if I had a shop like yours" This got me to thinking, I, on occasion watch the Woodsmith program on PBS and something I noticed about their program, even thought they have all the tools and equipment they need it isn't on display. No big wall of clamps, no jointer or planer, you don't see a bunch of routers. I think all they have setting out is a table saw, Band Saw and Drill Press. It occurred to me while watching one episode that this can be a good way to go about things.  Yes, a  lot of their projects are simple or beginner in nature but they are probably keeping newbs watching because they are not over whelming them with these perfect shop setups. They only have out what they are using at the time.  Just an observation and now back to the regularly scheduled discussion.

6) I watch some of their stuff from time to time.  I think what they have is a "video set" because all the footage is pretty much from the same spot.  We'd probably all chuckle if we saw the rest of the shop.

7)   I'm not buying that PW was that strong on its own. If it was, it would have been sold privately and not part of an auction.

8  Yea, who knows?  His info isn't exactly insider good info..

9)  I didn’t renew my subscription on the last magazine this month. I probably ending my fw online mag soon to. I have learned so much more thru online forums and YouTube. So what I’m doing is just sending my mag subscription money to them to keep the info coming out

10)  Really cool!
I haven't created a Patreon account and not sure that I'm going to but, I'm super excited by your personal choice!

11)  Yea one of the other forums I follow moved to a subscription base format and for $6 a year. I’ve learned more on there than in 3 years worth of magazines. Same with patron I have like 4 YouTube guys I sent up to send a couple dollars to a month. I haven’t added it up but I’m spending about the same as I was sending to the magazines

12)  I see that they put out a video today.. Anyone heard an update?
Wow, they put up another last night as well..  Interesting!

13)  They seem to be back to posting on Instagram.