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Maker Media Reports Strong Growth--O'Reilly Media Alert: Big Gains in Subscriptions, Online Sales, and Online Advertising

Press release: February 2, 2009

Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 16 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.


About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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Maker Media is a division of O'Reilly Media devoted entirely to the growing community of resourceful people who believe that if you can imagine it, you can make it. Consisting of Make Magazine, Craft Magazine, Maker Faire, and the Hacks series of books, Maker Media encourages the Do-It-Yourself mentality by providing creative inspiration and instruction.

For more information about Maker Media, visit us online:
MAKE - makezine.com
CRAFT - craftzine.com
Maker Faire - makerfaire.com
Maker Shed - makershed.com
Hacks - hackszine.com