The story
Founded by Edward Rosenthal in 1913.1
F+W was named after two of its early publications: Farm Quarterly and Writer's Digest. The company grew though a series of acquisitions, including book publisher David & Charles, Krause Publications in 2002, Horticulture magazine, and Adams Media in 2003. The private equity firm ABRY Partners purchased F+W in 2005. In August 2012 F+W Media acquired Interweave, an arts and crafts media company based in Loveland, Colorado. In 2014, F+W Media acquired New Track Media, renamed itself F+W, and was acquired by the private equity company Tinicum. David Nussbaum, CEO, departed the company to become the CEO of America’s Test Kitchen, a year after the acquisition.
In 2008, the company began to focus more on e-commerce activities and offering products and services related to the content of its magazines. The e-commerce business grew from one store with $6 million in revenue in 2008 to 31 e-commerce stores with more than $65 million for 2015, when Tinicum purchased the company.
In May 2017, some creditors received a 97% stake in the company in exchange for debt relief and a new line of credit.
From Wikipedia’s article on F+W, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3