Sports Collectors Digest was one of a group of 50 magazines sold in a bankruptcy auction last month. Publisher F+W Media filed for Chapter 11 earlier this year and the company’s assets, including magazine titles from various hobby and collectible realms, went on the block.
The buyer for SCD and five other collectible-oriented publications was Cruz Bay Publishing, a division of Active Interest Media based in Boulder, CO. The cost for all of them according to FolioMag.com was a modest $350,000. Cruz Bay won 14 publications in all including Popular Woodworking for $1 million and Writer’s Digest for $200,000.
F+W’s books division was sold to Penguin-Random House in May but there’s been no immediate word on the future of sports collecting-related books such as the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, once published annually under the realm of the late SCD executive Bob Lemke.
“We’re thrilled to welcome all 67 staff dedicated to these brands to the AIM family,” said Andy Clurman, AIM’s president and CEO. “We will maintain the existing operations and teams in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Stevens Point, Wisconsin.”
SCD was founded in 1973 by Michigan collector John Stommen and his family. It was purchased by Krause Publications in 1981 where it grew into a large, weekly magazine. Cincinnati-based F+W bought the title in 2002 but had run into financial problems in recent years and filed for Chapter 11 in March.
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