Kikkerland Design acquires Moleskinerie.com
Kikkerland Design, Inc, an award-winning design company who introduced Moleskine notebooks to the United States and Canada in 2000 has acquired Moleskinerie.com, a premier fan site for Moleskine notebooks, Jan van der Lande, Kikkerland CEO announced recently.
Moleskinerie.com was started on January 12, 2004 by Armand Frasco, an award winning photographer and journalist, and has since become a hub of Moleskine users from around the globe. It has been mentioned in the New York Times, Washington Post, Telerama in France, among others. The blog has also been mentioned in at least 2 books, the latest being "Citizen Marketers" by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. The popularity of the site became so time-consuming, Mr. Frasco needed a partner to keep the project alive so he approached Kikkerland Design, the official Moleskine US and Canada distributor.
Kikkerland believes that by making its support of Moleskinerie.com permanent it will encourage and keep a conversation going between the products' users and the company on issues such as quality control, product development and design trends in general.
With this acquisition, Moleskine aficionados are reassured that the thriving worldwide community it has fostered will remain a vital gathering place to share the latest news and tips about their beloved notebook.
Other than previously planned events and product releases there are no changes in the management and operations. The blog will essentially remain the same, down to its trademark offbeat items and tangential posts mirroring Kikkerland’s offbeat and cool design philosophy.
Photo: the3robbers on FLICKR
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Congratulations Armand! This is excellent news! This is, I think every fan-blogger's dream. I hope that this keeps Moleskinerie strong and well for another 3X years.
Posted by: lessherger | January 12, 2007 at 04:41 AM
Congrats Armand! Will you still be involved in running the blog? Or are you turning everything over?
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl | January 12, 2007 at 05:58 AM
Armand, this is fabulous news for YOU and all of us! Congratulations!
Posted by: Nita | January 12, 2007 at 07:43 AM
Wow! What a nice way to start a Friday — congratulations Armand on getting the support of Kikkerland! hardcore Moleskinierie fans all know how tough it was this year, so this is surely good news for everyone involved.
It would be interesting to see a personal post by you, explaining the deal and what it means from your perspective, to go along with the nice press release. :-)
Posted by: Mike Rohde | January 12, 2007 at 10:27 AM
Uber-congrats! You deserve all your successes; you really do:)
Posted by: Johnny | January 12, 2007 at 10:57 AM
Wow! Congrats, Armand! I guess this is a first for a blog to be acquirred. Let us know what your plans are for the future, ok? Will you still be in charge of the blog?
Again, Congrats!
Posted by: Alice de Sturler | January 12, 2007 at 11:47 AM
Thanks everyone.
Chris: Yes, yours truly will be here for the foreseeable future.
Mike: I'll post about this next week.
Alice: We may be a novelty for journaling sites but more blogs are now being acquired by companies, especially in the gaming industry. I believe this is the best way to go for Moleskinerie. Now I won't have to bother y'all for donations and such:)
Posted by: Armand | January 12, 2007 at 12:02 PM
Congrats, Armand!!!
Posted by: Ricardo | January 12, 2007 at 01:14 PM
Congrats, Armand. As long as we are not losing you and things are staying pretty much the same, I am pleased for you. Quite an accomplishment indeed.
Posted by: Tina Chaulk | January 12, 2007 at 01:45 PM
Contratulations, Armand! Onward and upward!
Posted by: Sylvia | January 12, 2007 at 07:29 PM
Congratulations, Armand!
Posted by: Heather | January 12, 2007 at 08:13 PM
Armand,
Congratulations on 3 years on the Internet. And congratulations on the assured permanency of Moleskinerie. May it remain the most interesting blog one can read.
Thanks for the most fascinating - what? - pointers - magazine - whatever you call it, it's great. I trust Jan van der Lande keeps it that way.
Posted by: Stephen Shelley | January 13, 2007 at 06:23 AM
Way to go!
Posted by: L. S. Russell | January 13, 2007 at 04:21 PM
Wow, Armand, congratulations!
Posted by: Shanon | January 13, 2007 at 08:57 PM
That's fantastic news, Armand!! Congratulations!!
Posted by: Kisane | January 14, 2007 at 03:08 AM
congrats armand.......now do we get a discount?
Posted by: jgodsey | January 14, 2007 at 09:32 PM
wow! does that mean i can officially petition for a large format storyboard moleskine??!
PLEASE?!?!
:-)
Posted by: Michael Ian Bateson | January 15, 2007 at 01:30 AM
i'm glad the pressure if off you Armande. Thanks for all your hard work, now hopefully it won't be so hard.
Posted by: kate | January 15, 2007 at 06:10 AM
Congrats Armand
This is one of my first go-to's each morning,so I'm glad to see it will be around for a while longer. Now if I could just get my hands on a couple of those city notebooks......
Posted by: Jeffrey | January 15, 2007 at 08:16 AM
Congratulations! I love seeing real-life examples of one of my favorite mantras: "Hard work always pays off.":)
Posted by: KG | January 17, 2007 at 12:21 AM
My comments have been posted at Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba's site:
http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/2007/01/what_does_it_me.html
Posted by: Armand | January 17, 2007 at 07:24 AM