WE’re in the information business

I keep hearing that the publishing industry is rough and that can certainly be the case, especially in some of the markets we serve but here’s how we survive.

I keep reminding the staff that we are not in the publishing business … we are in the information business.  So we are focusing on creating the best possible website that will attract the most viewers.

How do we plan to do that?  Visit one of our websites and find out what we’re doing.  Check dollsmag.com, thecraftsreport.com, cessnaowner.org or piperowner.org.

If you have ideas on how we can make them even better, tell me.  I want to hear from you.

Calling all dollmakers

Just finished a meeting with our Dollcrafter magazine group.  At one time, this publication did over $120,000 worth of business every month.  Now we struggle to reach $12,000, just one tenth of the sales of five years ago.  What happened?

The answer is the death of the porcelain market.  At the peak, there were hundreds of doll studios with teachers holding classes and producing thousands of new doll makers every week.  Advertising was supported by tens of national mold makers creating and selling new molds almost daily.  It was the hayday of porcelain dol making.

But in just a little more than a year, the entire market crashed.  Studios closed, mold makers pourchased mold makers until we ended up with just three left standing and those struggling to survive.

But what of the doll makers themselves?  What happened to all those doll enthusiasts who enjoyed creating their own collectible dolls?  Actually, they never went away.  They are still out there and they are still enthusiastically making dolls.  You’ll find many of them in the reborn and makeover groups.  Others began working in polymer clay, felt or other media and a small core of dedicated enthusasts remain in the porcelain market.

At Dollcrafter & Costuming, we are dedicated to the doll makers of today and tomorrow.  Doll makers have been around for thousands of years and will be around thousands of years from now.  We’ll be there to serve them while we’re still around.

What do they want?  How can we reach them?  Where is the ad base to support the publication?  Those are the easy qustions.  The answers are considerably more difficult.  In that regard, I need your help.  I want to form a focus group that will help us answer those questions and point us in the right direction.

If you have ideas to help Dollcrafter, we’d love to hear from you.  We need your help.

Grow or die

If we don’t grow, we die.  It’s just common sense.  Every business needs new customers because people die, move, change priorities, lose interest or find some other reason not do do business with us.

The publishing business is like any other in that way.  For a special interest publisher, aa 50% renewal rate is critical to the life of the publication and 65% is considered extremely successful.  In our DOLLS and Teddy Bear Review magazines, we are proud to claim that we are consistantly over 60% and have reach over 70% in many months, a healthy sign that we are providing a viable publication. But that also means that we need to replace 30 to 40% of our subscribers every year just to stay even.

The same is true for every retailer, manufacturer and one-of-a-kind artist who is attempting to make a living by producing and selling dolls or bears.  Unless we are in hot market that has been created by some factor that is beyond our control, we need to work to create new collectors.  We can’t just sit back and wait for collectors to discover us.  We need to create a demand.

How is that done?  More ways than I can think of.  Many people became collectors for nostalgia sake.  Others were shown a presentation that caught their interst.  Some were captured by reading an article, picking up a garage sale find, being given a gift, etc.  The list goes on and on.

The point is that we in the industry have to act if we want the indsutry to grow.  It everyones responsibility to create new customers.  What are you doing to create new customers for your business?

Look to tomorrow

A lot of people in the doll and bear industries are nervous about the state of the market.  Interestingly, people feel that way about nearly every aspect of our economy but often, we see only what is around us. Of course the market is soft, but then, so is nearly every other non-essential market today.

The important thing is to keep focused on the big picture.  People have been collecting dolls for thousands of years and Teddy Bears have been with us for over 100 years.  Is this market dead?  Is this a market without a future?  Of course not.

Keep in mind that collecting, like every non-essential is a luxury that waxes and wanes with the state of the economy.  Currently, there are opportunities.  For collectors, there are bargains galore.  For artists, it is a time to create, especially for those who work in the one of a kind mode.  Rebuild your stock now and prepare for the next heyday for as sure as you are reading these words, the next boom market will appear before you know it.  For manufacturers, this is the time to establish brand awareness.   Use this time to establish your reputation, create the quality and develop the collector base of tomorrow.

It’s no time to look back and lament about what has been.  Look forward and say this is what will be for the forward lookers of today will be the leaders of tomorrow.  It is in this type of market that fortunes are made.  Prepare now and reap the benefits that today’s leadership will provide for tomorrow.

A new era in publishing.

In my 40 years of publishing experience, I have often said there is a publication for everything and I find it to be mostly true.  It’s difficult to come up with a catagory that does not have at least one publication serving it and often you’ll find multiple titles.

On the other hand, as markets shrink, one title absorbs another until there is one title standing.  If that market ceases to exist, the publication is gone and the market is generally considered dead.

We’ve seen this same trend in every industry.  The auto industry, for example, had hundreds of manufacturers when it began but as one absorbed another, the industry ultimately ended up with the big five, which became the big four and now the big three and it’s possible that it could become just Ford and GM in the very near future.Of course, they are becoming eclipsed by the Hondas of the future.  It’s the way of the industry. We’ve seen it happen in the radio industry, the RV market, electronics, long distance carriers etc.  The list goes on and on.

The publishing industry is no exception and we are certainly in challenging times.  Titles fold and merge nearly daily.  Staff reductions are nearly a daily occurrence.  But there is a bright spot.  Some specialty titles are enjoying the best times they have ever experienced. That could be due to increased interest in their specific niche, excellent management or industry growth.  But it is likely that successful growth publications are experiencing their heyday due to an increased web presence.

We’ve taken a lesson from that group and we’re moving solidly forward with an internet program that’s the most exciting thing we’ve done in over a decade.  Does that mean we’re abandoning print?  Of course not.  Print publications are the cockroaches of the industry and will be with us no matter what competes for their attention.

We believe this new presence will make us stronger, larger and more attractive to all ages.  This new web presence will also be good for the DOLL and Teddy Bear industries that we serve.  It’s the beginning of a brand new era and a great time to get in on the ground floor of a collecting revival.  Great time to get on board and join the fun.

The voice of the industry

As the publishers of DOLLS magazine and Teddy Bear Review, it’s our job to be the voice of the industry, to be the connection, the network where collectors, artists, manufacturers and retailers unite to share information.  In that regard, we have been at the forfront of print publishing to provide that voice for the entire industry.

Now we are on the brink of a new era.  We no longer consider ourselves publishers but the information desemination media.  Information is our product and we plan to connect the public in every way that is practical.  In that regard, we have recently focused on producing a great interactive website, loaded with free stuff and ready to serve.  Even our print edition will be posted in a very on-line user friendly way.

It’s coming soon.  In just a few weeks the doll and teddy bear voice of the industry is about to get a whole lot louder.  I’ll post the “live” date as soon as we get the word.  If you love dolls and bears, this is something you’ll definately appreciate.

Bring it back home

It’s time to encourage manufacturers to bring the production of their collectible dolls and teddy bears back to the USA.  For the past two decades, and especially in the past ten years, manufacturers have been closing down US manufacturing plants and producing their collectible teddy bears and dolls in China as a cost savings measure which has allowed them to cope with the declining interest in new issue collectibles.  This short term savings is now producing long term problems which can be resolved by bringing the manufacturing process back home.

This overseas production has resulted in the following problems:

1.   Loss of quality control. While there are certainly quality pieces produced throughout the world, the overall mass production has resulted in a loss of the high quality finishing that collectors have come to expect.  Steiff, the permiere collector Teddy Bear company has recently pulled all their manufacturing out of China and back to Germany because of this issue.  Astute collectors know quality, demand quality, expect quality and are willing to pay for it.

2.   Loss of American jobs. When dolls and bears are manufactured outside of the U.S., jobs that would normally be filled by Americans are being performed by others and while there may be a cost savings in the short run, it is Americans in general who are the losers in the long run.  Today nearly two thirds of those manufacturing jobs have been lost to China in the past decade.

3.   Loss of collectible appeal. American collectors prefer Amercian made products and new issue material produced in China does not attract the same enthusiasm that the U.S. made products will produce.

4.   Loss of the ability to generate new collectors. When a company employs a large staff, those working in the plant create collector interest just by their pass-along comments.  Each American touches hundreds of other lives and nearly all their contacts are aware of their job status.  Just by working in a doll or Teddy Bear factory, the word spreads and new collectors are created.

In addition, the cost savings factor which drove these manufacturers overseas originially has dwindled to the point that it is not a major factor for survival in today’s economy.  Yes, there may be some savings but the problems created from this move as listed above clearly trump the decision to continue overseas manufacturing.

The Doll and Teddy Bear collector market is a market with a future.  It’s time the U.S. doll companies consider returning to manufacturing their products at home.  It’s a better future for everyone.