Thoughts on Interweave
Don't anyone be surprised to see this picture here. As I've told you many times before, I'm a big fan of Interweave so when they emailed out an abundance of promotions for their latest innovation - the e-Magazine - naturally I was intrigued. Being a sock knitter - maybe not as prolific as I'd like to be - but still, an avid sockster, I had fairly high expectations, considering all the hype; video tutorials, video interviews, sock patterns etc etc.. BUT at a price tag of $14.95 US$ for ONE issue (doesn't the term "magazine" imply a subscription???) I was in no rush to shell out for it. Instead, I headed off to my favorite Yahoo Groups and forums to ask a few questions and see what the online knitting community had to say.
I found I was not alone having high expectations, only the opinions of those who bought it were quick to say it fell far short of the hype! I think the only positive reviews I read were from rank beginner sock knitters who knew very little or had only knit a pair or two and wanted to expand on their beginnings. From the more experienced knitters there were many who wished they could get a refund! The content was very non-technical, even downright whimsical, but very short on actual sock construction techniques that went beyond several different cast-ons and cast-offs. In fact one gal said there was an interview that had nothing to do with socks at all! But the worst criticism, and in my mind, the most damning, is that Sockupied is full of advertising for Interweave products. Yup! That's why they called it an e-Magazine not an e-Book. Real "magazines" are partly funded by advertising and books, generally are ad-free thus the mis-nomer to justify their shameless self-promotion. I think that made more people mad than anything! When you are paying book price for a download, you want your money's worth on every page. I think I'd have been pretty cheesed too!
This all brings me to my next discovery that I am not alone in noticing that over the last year, Interweave has shifted into hard-core sell mode. Every second week they're having a sale or promotion - which would be nice if their stuff wasn't so overpriced to begin with. ($39.99 for a DVD??) And this is not only their knitting and spinning departments. I get e-Newsletters from about 7 of their 16 publications and they're all the same now. If there's a sale notice or book-flogging fest in one e-newsletter, it will be in all of them, in one form or another. So many other people said the same thing and added that they were dumping their e-newsletter subscriptions with Interweave because of it. Interweave e-newsletters used to be more how-to or project oriented. Now they're all just advertising, which is really too bad. I figure either they're in financial trouble or they've just gotten greedy. Considering that they're producing more episodes of their various TV series, introducing more new book titles and now developing e-mags I think it's avarice, not need, that's driving the change.
I have reached a point where I no longer buy any more of their books and have no plans to renew my subscriptions to anything but maybe Spin-Off and I am not even remotely tempted by any of their new e-mags, which, by the way, are coming out for nearly all of their 16 companion print magazines. Sorry, but this whole business is so in-your-face it has just put me right off them entirely. Their whole flavor has changed from chatty-friendly over a cuppa' to the pushy door-to-door brush salesman you don't want to open the door to! I remember a time when an Interweave sale was a rare commodity you didn't want to miss. Now, I'm thinking I'll walk away and not miss them at all! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! Cheers all!
I found I was not alone having high expectations, only the opinions of those who bought it were quick to say it fell far short of the hype! I think the only positive reviews I read were from rank beginner sock knitters who knew very little or had only knit a pair or two and wanted to expand on their beginnings. From the more experienced knitters there were many who wished they could get a refund! The content was very non-technical, even downright whimsical, but very short on actual sock construction techniques that went beyond several different cast-ons and cast-offs. In fact one gal said there was an interview that had nothing to do with socks at all! But the worst criticism, and in my mind, the most damning, is that Sockupied is full of advertising for Interweave products. Yup! That's why they called it an e-Magazine not an e-Book. Real "magazines" are partly funded by advertising and books, generally are ad-free thus the mis-nomer to justify their shameless self-promotion. I think that made more people mad than anything! When you are paying book price for a download, you want your money's worth on every page. I think I'd have been pretty cheesed too!
This all brings me to my next discovery that I am not alone in noticing that over the last year, Interweave has shifted into hard-core sell mode. Every second week they're having a sale or promotion - which would be nice if their stuff wasn't so overpriced to begin with. ($39.99 for a DVD??) And this is not only their knitting and spinning departments. I get e-Newsletters from about 7 of their 16 publications and they're all the same now. If there's a sale notice or book-flogging fest in one e-newsletter, it will be in all of them, in one form or another. So many other people said the same thing and added that they were dumping their e-newsletter subscriptions with Interweave because of it. Interweave e-newsletters used to be more how-to or project oriented. Now they're all just advertising, which is really too bad. I figure either they're in financial trouble or they've just gotten greedy. Considering that they're producing more episodes of their various TV series, introducing more new book titles and now developing e-mags I think it's avarice, not need, that's driving the change.
I have reached a point where I no longer buy any more of their books and have no plans to renew my subscriptions to anything but maybe Spin-Off and I am not even remotely tempted by any of their new e-mags, which, by the way, are coming out for nearly all of their 16 companion print magazines. Sorry, but this whole business is so in-your-face it has just put me right off them entirely. Their whole flavor has changed from chatty-friendly over a cuppa' to the pushy door-to-door brush salesman you don't want to open the door to! I remember a time when an Interweave sale was a rare commodity you didn't want to miss. Now, I'm thinking I'll walk away and not miss them at all! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! Cheers all!
Posted by Gloria Patre at 9/7/2010 10:04 PM 
Categories: Spinning, Fiber, Books, Musings
Tags: sockupied
Categories: Spinning, Fiber, Books, Musings
Tags: sockupied
It's so sad but so true. I was so excited when I saw the new e-mag but then read a plethora of reviews on ravelry ranging from mildly disappointed tocompletely outraged. I dropped my knits and spin off subscriptions already and think it may be time to unsub from the emails as well. The emails have just bcome, as you said, too pushy and a sale doesn't seem like a special event anymore. I actually hope they hear all this displeased chatter and mend their ways a little.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that Interweave is purely acommercial enterprise. The e-letters are nothing butcommercials. I'm un-subscribing from them as fast as theycome in! (Which is very fast! lol)
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My sentiments exactly. Remember that the fish stinks from the head down. Didn't they have a change in administrators? You're right, it used to be settle back and enjoy the mag. and now it's a load of ads. The book sales was something I waited for and the hurt prices have gone up as well. In this economy, I guess they think this is the way for them to survive. But for the most part, I don't think the Wall Street set are buying their magazines, etc.. Maybe they forgot their audience.
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