New Track Media Sold To F+W Media

F+W Media, the former publisher of now-defunct MemoryMakers Magazine, has announced that it has acquired New Track Media LLC, the publisher of the new Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking digital magazine, which was created out of the combination of Creating Keepsakes and Papercrafts magazines.

The two companies have something of a history between them - New Track Media was founded in 2006 by Stephen J. Kent, the former president and CEO of F+W, and New Track's upper management is populated with many former F+W executives. Folio is reporting that Kent and CFO Mark Arnett will be leaving New Track as part of the acquisition.

Although they are known to scrapbookers for their magazines and events that were part of the former CK Media that they acquired in 2009, the New Track acquisition brings to F+W Media a total of 8 ecommerce storefronts, 3 consumer catalog brands, 13 magazines, 45 SIPs, 37 consumer events (with more than 100,000 attendees), 3 affinity clubs, and 2 retail shops to the Company’s portfolio. New Track operates from 8 offices and two retail locations.

F+W has been in an acquiring mode of late, acquiring three crafts-related companies (Interweave, Martha Pullen Company, and Love Sewing) in the past 18 months. The company now identifies more than 60% of its income as coming from craft verticals, and quotes craft industry reports that indicate 66 Million U.S. households identify a member as a crafter and that in total these crafters spend upward of $31 Billion annually on supplies, online and in-store. “The craft market is sizeable – and growing,” says David Nussbaum, Chairman & CEO, F+W Media.

According to Folio, New Track had been for sale since last summer and F+W was the buyer of last resort.

“In addition to aggressively expanding our strength in the arts and crafts sector,  this acquisition further solidifies F+W Media as a leading brand using content to build a large ecommerce business. Also, New Track Media, like F+W Media has been transitioning its business from print and by the end of 2015, we expect our company will have more than 60% its revenues in digital/ecommerce/product and events, and 40% in print driven revenues,” Nussbaum added.

Terms of the deal were not released.