BAD NEWS ON THE BRITISH BEADING FRONT!!!!!

Well, call me gobsmacked. Kick in the teeth doesn't sum it up. We'd just received our advertising contract, from discussions with someone on Tuesday, the day you've shown as receiving the info. I cannot believe that they would send out contracts for ads for a magazine that isn't being published.

I called and got Ben's voicemail, apparently saying to the operator that I was trying to find out the truth of this statement wasn't enough to get a real person. I called the production office, no answer, I called our advertising person direct, got sent to voicemail.

Needless to say, we're NOT impressed and will not be advertising unless this gets cleared up PDQ.

Colour me disgusted.

-Su

ps, can you forward the email to me? Thanks.

snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com will do nicely.

Apologies for the error in dates in this message. Today IS the 30th, all day.

-Su

Oh, that's terrible! You guys over there *need* a magazine. :( I'm sorry to hear this.

I know. I had an advertising contract in hand to fill out this morning and WHAM, no magazine.

It's a shame as beading is really growing here in the UK but they seem to not be worried. What concerns me is that they also had a big 'Beading and Jewellery-Making Show' scheduled for July in London but we've not had the courtesy of any comment on it going on or not so that's another contract to tear up.

-Su

~~~~~~~~~~ Su -- I'm sure the staff is disgusted too. And there go their jobs. I'm sure none of them are too happy about it either.

The staff have not been answering their phones all day. I thought of that, how awful for them too, all the work that goes into producing a magazine's first issue. And then WHAM.

We were booked for an advert, contract ready to sign and return and a

And we've yet to have the courtesy of any notification, I had to hear it from a newsgroup.

-Su

Hate to say this, but, if there's no assets left (they may have spent the money) there may not be refund checks.

Sucks either way.

Maren Palms, Etc.: Tr> > The staff have not been answering their phones all day. I thought of

That's true too!

Damn. I h> Kalera wrote:

That's really weird. I wonder what's going on?

Quarto Publishing is being 'restructured'.

-Su

This is the next email that i received when I asked what does Restructuring mean? Karen,

As it stands, the future of the magazine is very uncertain, at the moment it would appear that the magazine does not have a future with Quarto. I really don't know anymore than this to be honest, however the Editor, Emma Foa, is passionate about the project and will do all she can to see that it is published, either here or elsewhere

It sounds to me that another company may be buying Quarto, much the same way Kalmbach Publishing bought Bead & Button a few years ago. If that is the case, all their ongoing projects will be put on hold until the new owners decide in which direction they want to take the company. You may recall that Bead & Button used to be published on the East Coast, but when Kalmbach bought it, they moved it to their headquarters. The editors had the choice of moving or leaving to find another job. Just my guess.

Patti

Totally.

keep us updated when you find out! (I just had some experience with a (completely un-bead-related) magazine renewal where it took them 2 months to process the check - they had just moved subscription processing as it turns out - sometimes things just go on as if nothing had happened after some hickup. I hope this is the case here too).

Maren Palms, Etc.: Tropical Plant Seeds - Hand-made Jewelry - Plants & Lilikoi

Yup. I think it's Borg time for the bead magazine.

-Su

only a matter of time before some other mag steps in to take its place in the bead world. It's NEEDED over there. And it's about time UK beadmakers had some print venues to promote themselves in. ~~~~~~~~~ Yeah. IMO, it's just a matter of time. It'll happen.