Sebastopol, CA—In striking contrast to the downward trends in retail and publishing, O'Reilly's Maker Media division today announced strong second half growth in subscriptions, online retail sales, and online advertising. In December, Maker Media said it enjoyed its best holiday season and offered proof.
"We’d like to take all the credit for the growth ourselves and we do have some extremely smart folks burning the midnight oil, but we think there's something more fundamental going on here," said Dan Woods, Associate Publisher Maker Media and General Manager of MakerShed.com. "We're reaching a unique and growing audience of smart, resourceful types who derive satisfaction out of projects oriented around recycling, re-purposing and re-making things. They want to learn about science, technology as well as new hands-on skills, tools and materials. Not only has the economy failed to dim our audience's enthusiasm, it seems to be driving new makers to discover the joy of making."
For the past 4 years, Maker Media has focused on crafting a unique hybrid media model aimed at catering to and amplifying the emergent and inventive movement of "makers," the active participants in a new wave of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture that’s reshaping America.
Here are just some of Maker Media's recent gains:
- The group's Maker Shed online retail store, which specializes in project-oriented science and technology kits and tools, registered 50 percent growth in second half sales and an astonishing 79 percent growth in holiday sales over prior year.
- Q4 subscriptions to Maker Media's two DIY magazine titles, Make and Craft, we re also up 12.6 percent and 12.1 percent respectively over Q4 prior year. In fact, overall, Maker Media's subscriber count grew by 24 percent in the last quarter.
- The units online advertising and video sponsorship also posted major advances over prior year, with 2008 online revenue up just over 175% over 2007 online revenue.
Indeed, the folks at Maker Shed worked around-the-clock to fulfill kit orders over the holiday season. "Some people like to make gifts, that's not new. But increasingly people are discovering the joy of giving the gift of making," said Woods.
For more information about Maker Media, see: http://www.makezine.com.
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