F+W, (formerly F+W Publications and F+W Media), was a media and e-commerce company headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Founded in 1913, F+W published magazines,

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

s, digital products (including e-books and e-magazines), produced online video, offered online education, and owned and operated e-stores, as well as consumer and trade shows.

History

F+W was named after two of its early publications: ''Farm Quarterly'' and '' Writer's Digest''. The company grew though a series of acquisitions, including book publisher

David & Charles David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing. David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...

, Krause Publications in 2002, ''

Horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

'' magazine, and Adams Media in 2003. The private equity firm ABRY Partners purchased F+W in 2005. In August 2012 F+W Media acquired Interweave, an arts and crafts media company based in Loveland, Colorado. In 2014, F+W Media acquired New Track Media, renamed itself F+W, and was acquired by the private equity company Tinicum. In 2008, the company began to focus more on

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...

activities and offering products and services related to the content of its magazines. The e-commerce business grew from one store with $6 million in revenue in 2008 to 31 e-commerce stores with more than $65 million for 2015. In May 2017, some creditors received a 97% stake in the company in exchange for debt relief and a new line of credit.

Demise

In January 2018, with the CEO and two other top executives leaving the company, F+W slashed its workforce by 40%. F+W filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 10, 2019. The book publishing assets of the company were won by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...

at a bankruptcy auction in June 2019. The grouping of the assets drew criticism. Several properties including ''

Sky & Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...

'' were sold individually.

Overview

F+W Media was a special interest content provider and marketer of enthusiast magazines, books, conferences, trade shows, and interactive media properties. F+W's special-interest categories included

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...

mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art incl ...

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

antiques An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

and collectibles, graphic design,

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

. In 2011 the Company entered the fiction market with the acquisition of Tyrus Books. In 2012, the company launched imprints in romance (Crimson Romance) and young adult fiction (Merit Press). Publications were organized around some 20 community-based units, each of which focuses on a particular special interest category. The company also published about 600 new book titles annually, and had a library of some 4000 titles. Its brands were

, Impact Books, Krause Publications, North Light Books, '' Writer's Digest'' and Interweave Press.

Situation after dissolution

In June 2019 the assets of F+W were sold at bankruptcy auctions. Various assets of F+W were sold prior to the bankruptcy filing.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Defunct publishing companies of the United States Defunct companies based in New York City Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 Publishing companies established in 1913 American companies established in 1913 1913 establishments in Ohio 2019 disestablishments in Ohio American companies disestablished in 2019