It was recently reported that Maker Media, the company behind MAKE: magazine as well as the Maker Faires, has laid off all of its 22 employees and pausing all operations. Now, I’m no business man, but this is almost incredible to me. According to reports MAKE: has more than 125,000 subscribers (and subscriptions aren’t cheap) and the Maker Faires drew nearly 1.5 million attendees last year. How can they not make a profit with those kind of numbers?
All I can think of is that the business operations must have been incredibly wasteful. It’s a shame, too, because MAKE: magazine really was the voice of the “maker movement.” Dale Dougherty, the head of Maker Media said, “It works for people but it doesn’t necessarily work as a business today, at least under my oversight.”
In its report, SparkFun noted that the Maker Faires had recently lost major sponsors, including Intel, Microsoft, and Disney. That’s definitely not a good thing, but these aren’t the only companies that would be interested in sponsoring maker faires.
I can’t imagine that this is the end for MAKE: magazine or the Maker Faires. Any products with such a devoted following and the numbers they have is likely to continue in some fashion, and indeed, in an update to their story, TechCrunch reports on some interest by the head of Oculus. Stay tuned.
Rob w4zng says
The connections between the maker movement and ham radio, while kind of out of sight to many in both communities, run so deep that it would be a shame for hams not to know about the demise of MAKE. Thanks for posting this, Dan.