Playthings and Gifts & Decorative Accessories magazines merge
Starting with the September/October 2010 issue, Playthings will be a dedicated section within Gifts & Dec
Nancy Wolkow -- Gifts and Dec, 8/10/2010 12:00:00 PM
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To our Playthings Family,
What is a toy? What is a gift? In today's world, the lines are more and more blurred. A growing number of successful gift retailers are dedicating a portion of their floor space to a wide array of toys, puzzles, games and children's books. And conversely, the smart independent toy retailers are adding giftables such as ‘tween jewelry and accessories, baby clothes and juvenile room décor, in an effort to encourage additional sales.
For more than 100 years Playthings has been the primary source for the news, trends and products of the toy industry. For 93 years, our sister publication, Gifts & Decorative Accessories, has done the same for the gift industry. Each has a loyal audience and has earned the respect of their industries.
As experts in these industries, and in light of many changes in the business climate, we spent some time this year taking a close look at our business models in both areas. The answer seems clear. It makes good business sense to combine the Playthings and Gifts & Decorative Accessories readership and offer our audience one publication - dedicated to both the gift and toy businesses.
So, starting with the September/October 2010 print issue, Gifts & Decorative Accessories will be include a dedicated section within the magazine called Playthings. It will open with its own heavier stock cover and contain all of the regular Playthings content. We will follow the industry with the same insight and expertise that our readers have learned to expect. We will flag the new section on the cover of Gifts & Decorative Accessories, just to make sure every reader understands where to find the toy industry coverage. The new combined publication will boast a circulation of over 26,000.
And as we are doing with the print products, we will do the same with the websites and other electronic products - rolling the www.playthings.com site into its own dedicated section on www.giftsanddec.com. We will continue to publish the Playthings electronic newsletters (Playthings Extra, Breaking News, and Playthings Buzz) with content focused exclusively on the toy industry. At this time, you don't need to do anything to continue to receive your weekly issues of the newsletters. More details on this merger will follow soon.
In the last several weeks, I have had a chance talk to many store owners about the coming changes. The response has been positive. Both gift and toy retailers are looking forward to having all the news they need, in one easy read.
The manufacturers are also enthusiastic. Toy companies seem anxious to add more gift stores to their customer list, seeing the strong growth potential of the category. Gift manufacturers, producing products that could be a perfect addition to an independent toy store, say they will welcome this new category of potential customers. This combined Gifts & Decorative Accessories and Playthings will allow manufacturers to reach both gift and toy retailers with one efficient ad buy.
All of us here at Sandow Media, are excited about this coming change. We think it is the right thing, at the right time. Like all new things, it will be a work in progress. We hope to get most of it right the first time, but we know there will be "tweaks" along the way. We hope that you will share your thoughts on our plans and let us know how you like the new product when it lands on your desk.
All of us here at Playthings, thank you for your loyal support of our brand. We look forward to continuing to bring you all the latest news on the toy industry.
Best regards,
Nancy Wolkow
Publisher
Gifts & Decorative Accessories
Playthings
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