Back Home magazine closing?

Cash · #1 08/16/14, 12:48 PM

I just saw mention on another site that Back Home magazine was closing. Subscribers are reportedly receiving a British permaculture magazine to fill out their subscriptions. Neither the BH website nor its Facebook page mention it, although the last post on Facebook was back in June. Has anyone else heard this or received a notice if you're a subscriber? Always liked the magazine, which was founded in 1990 by former Mother Earth News staffers when MEN was bought by a New York outfit.

kentuckyhippie · #2 08/16/14, 12:56 PM

I just got a notice to renew mine. wouldn't think they would send that if they were fixing to quit publishing

Tommyice · #3 08/16/14, 01:28 PM

Something similar happened with Hobby Farms Home. They're finishing out the open subscriptions with Urban Farm.

Hadn't heard about BWH yet and I was just thinking about about re-subscribing (I had let me go for a few years).

Vosey · #4 08/16/14, 02:22 PM

Backwoods Home Magazine had a post on their Facebook page that it isn't them closing, but Back Home Magazine. They said Back Home had been bought out by someone else and they were closing it down. It's a common venture capital thing to buy magazines and run them into the ground. Or maybe a competitor bought them.

LonghornGardens · #5 08/16/14, 10:49 PM

Thank you Vosey.

Cash · #6 08/17/14, 10:45 AM

Thanks, Vosey. I appreciate the clarification.

Cash · #7 08/19/14, 01:50 PM

Very strange. Except for the comment at BWH and the website where I originally found the news, there is no other notice or explanation that I can find. The Back Home website still doesn't say anything about the closure and in fact is promoting new subscriptions.

ldc · #8 08/19/14, 03:19 PM

FYI, Andrew on Barkerhill.com mentioned they sent him a notice that Back Home mag was no more, and he will get the British mag "Permaculture" in it's place.

unregistered353870 · #9 08/19/14, 05:11 PM

Magazine publishing is a chaotic business. The decision to quit publishing probably happened very quickly without everyone within the company knowing it was coming. If you receive a renewal offer, it's either a scam (quite common for country magazines) or the wheels were already in motion before they decided to stop publishing. Sometimes they use an outside company to send them out and bulk rate mail that can take a month or more to be delivered. The website just hasn't been updated yet...probably won't be anytime soon if ever.

blny · #10 08/21/14, 07:20 AM

I saw it on Backwoods home magazine statement the rumor is NOT true and I am not sure if I am allowed to post website here so here's short comment what they said:

It's NOT True!!!
We've received a few calls asking if it's true that Backwoods Home Magazine is going out of business.

It is NOT true!

Back Home magazine is going out of business, NOT Backwoods Home.
If you're a subscriber to Backwoods Home, rest assured your issues will continue to arrive in your mailbox every other month.

Sorry I havent post here often but I drop here once a while when I get a chance.

Bellyman · #11 08/21/14, 07:47 AM

I do enjoy reading some of those magazines. But I'm not sure I really get a whole lot out of them that's useful.

I think my subscriptions to Backwoods Home, Countryside and Small Stock Journal, and Small Farmers Journal are all run out now as I think I've just gotten the last of them recently.

I did pick up a copy of Grit magazine a month or so ago, and maybe Mother Earth News, can't remember exactly. But it kinda seemed like the same kinds of stuff getting rehashed over and over and over.

While I might occasionally find a tip of some kind that is useful, I think I'm going to allow the magazine subscriptions to go quietly into that good-night. They're almost like my watching Jeopardy on tv once in a while. I kinda enjoy it, but it's not much more than entertainment and do just fine without it.

(Oh, and there's no point in putting it in the "throne room" either. I don't even go in there until it's... "time"... so I wouldn't get through a paragraph before I was done.)

siletz · #12 08/21/14, 07:04 PM

I was a current subscriber to Back Home magazine and recently received the quarterly magazine Permaculture out of the UK to finish out my subscription. It was sent with a letter stating that they were going out of business. Back Home magazine is different than Backwoods Home magazine which I also have a subscription to and they are very much going on strong. FWIW I did not enjoy the Permaculture magazine I received and threw it away before finishing it, but always enjoy receiving my Backwoods Home magazine.