{"id":19771,"date":"2025-10-15T18:19:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/?p=19771"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:16:25","slug":"major-publications-have-new-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/?p=19771","title":{"rendered":"Major Publications Have New Owner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated Thursday, October 16. There is also a new article on the Linn’s\/Scott Stamp website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Jay Bigalke, David Fritz and others have formed a new company to publish the philatelic publications formerly owned by Amos Media: Linn’s Stamp News, Scott Stamp Monthly<\/em><\/strong><\/span> \"\"<\/a>and the Scott postage stamp catalogues<\/span><\/strong>. The announcement was made Wednesday, October 15, after the close of business and Amos employees were notified.<\/p>\n

Amos Media will retain its numismatic publications and the supplies and albums operation.<\/p>\n

The new company is called “Scott Stamp LLC<\/span><\/strong>” (LLC stands for limited liability \"\"<\/a>corporation, a legal term.) The negotiations took many months. Among the investors is Mystic Stamp Co. president Don Sundman, who called it “a great day for stamp collecting.”<\/p>\n

All of the investors are themselves stamp collectors, Bigalke told The Virtual Stamp Club<\/strong> in a telephone interview, and their ages vary widely.<\/p>\n

In the story on the Linn’s<\/em> website<\/a>, Bigalke [shown left at Great American Stamp Show 2021] and Fritz are described as “passionate collectors dedicated to strengthening and modernizing philately for future generations.”<\/p>\n

Bigalke is already well-known in philately, starting with his first day cover cachetmaking while in high school, then to editorial jobs with VSC (albeit unpaid), Linn’s<\/em>, the American Philatelic Society’s journal The American Philatelist<\/em> and then back to Linn’s<\/em>. Fritz, however, is not as well-known, although he is an active member of The Collectors Club and a member of the Royal Philatelic Society.<\/p>\n

The new ownership is likely to be apparent with the November 3 issue of Linn’s, which is expected to go online this Saturday, October 18. All the philatelic editorial staff is making the move to the new company. Scott Stamp LLC’s offices will be located in Troy, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Readers had noticed the paper was shrinking, both in terms of advertising and editorial content, and Bigalke told The VSC<\/strong> he plans to reverse that trend. “The editorial content is going to increase greatly,” Bigalke said.<\/p>\n

Could Linn’s<\/em> again be available as a printed newspaper? Yes, said Bigalke. “I am studying how to do it and if it makes financial sense to do so.”<\/p>\n

When he returned to Linn’s<\/em> after the APS sojourn, he told Amos Media owner Rick Amos he wanted to run not just the weekly newspaper, but also the Scott publications. “I’m gunning for your job,” he says he told Amos. “I always thought it would be fun to own the stamp side of the business some day.”<\/p>\n

“What I want to pump back into philately is excitement,” he added. “We’re going to make heads spin here and I can’t wait.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated Thursday, October 16. There is also a new article on the Linn’s\/Scott Stamp website. Jay Bigalke, David Fritz and others have formed a new company to publish the philatelic publications formerly owned by Amos Media: Linn’s Stamp News, Scott … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stampnews","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19771"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19777,"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19771\/revisions\/19777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}