F+W Media, Inc. has made two deals in the last week that strengthen its presence in what the company calls the craft and sewing vertical. In an acquisition announced Wednesday morning, F+W agree to buy the Sewing Studio and LoveSewing.com. The Sewing Studio deal is set to close May 1 and its founder, Denise Wild, has been named content director for F+W’s new BurdaStyle USA business. Last week, F+W reached a licensing agreement with Germany-based Hubert Burda Media for the Burda Style brand and burdastyle.com Web site for distribution in the U.S. and Canada. According to F+W, Burda Style USA will be developed as an integrated business model, encompassing the print magazine and the Web site and community, as well as e-commerce, in-person and online education services, video content, events, books and e-books.
The BurdaStyle USA book program will launch in spring 2014 with two initial titles planned. Sara Domville, president and F+W Media editorial lead, will be traveling to meet the Munich-based Burda team next week to begin work on future releases and planning for the program. “We will marry the rich portfolio from Burda, with the digital-publishing expertise of F+W, to make the very best content available in an exclusive package for the first time in the US,” she said.
