Announcing Make: Community

As many of you probably saw on the stories a few weeks ago, Maker Media ceased operations. Our founder Dale Dougherty and a small team of us have joined together to rebuild in service of the community with a new company called, appropriately, Make Community. You can read Dale’s announcement to see what the future of the company holds; much of that is in your hands as we need your support to get this new endeavor airborne. Please sign up for your Make: Community membership to help us keep this whole thing going!

You’re probably wondering about the magazine and blog, right? To speak to some of that, here are some thoughts from Executive Editor Mike Senese and Senior Editor Caleb Kraft.

Mike:

With a big part of my daily focus going into producing Make: magazine, I’m really looking forward to the shifts that we’re implementing, starting with the upcoming issue.

Make: launched in 2005 and instantly became a favorite with its diverse DIY content mix and its journal-sized page format. In 2013, we moved from that small size to a full-size print magazine. Many readers expressed their desire for us to go back to that original size over the next few years. Well, good news: We’re going back! Starting with the upcoming issue of Make:, we’ll be putting our content in that beloved package. We’ll also be moving back to a quarterly frequency, albeit with a higher page count, so the stories and profile in each issue will get more curated attention — nothing but excellent content for our readers and subscribers. (Also, a request for you to grab a subscription so you don’t miss anything.)

Moving forward, new issues of Make: will still feature inspiring DIY projects and how-tos, but we’ll be bringing new voices, more profiles of motivating makers, and more guides to resources and locales that can serve your needs. We’re thrilled.

Caleb:

Hey everyone! This has been tough and crazy, but I have to admit that I’m really excited about the changes coming to Make:, and to our website. I’d like to outline a few changes in store for the blog, though we’re still brainstorming even more.

• TONS of maker spotlights. I’m reaching out to every makerspace, hackerspace, FabLab,  and gathering place I can, in order to uncover and expose as many makers as possible.
• Live video tours of makerspaces, hackerspaces, FabLabs, etc! (contact me if you run a space, we will promote you!)
• Maker business spotlights, where we promote makers who are trying to make a living with their craft.

A huge part of all of this is making your voices heard. I need to talk with as many of you as possible to ensure that there is diversity in all aspects of this process. I’ll need your help finding cool projects and makers. I want to hear how your community is struggling or winning. Please email me or DM me on social media or wherever else you can find me and let’s talk about what is happening in your local community and how we can best work together!