Where stories are made by hand.
In 1983, Phyllis Hoffman started a cross-stitch magazine with her sister and her neighbor. Today her sons, Eric and Brian, carry that work forward: eight magazine brands, a growing book imprint, and retreats all over the world, all still made in our Birmingham home.
Our Brands
Each of our magazines began the way our company did: with something we loved and wanted to share. Bake from Scratch started with Brian’s own love of baking.
A family business with a lasting legacy.
In 1983, Phyllis Hoffman turned a love of cross-stitch into Just CrossStitch magazine, planting the seeds of what would become Hoffman Media.
Years later, when the company’s new owners planned to move the business away from Birmingham, Phyllis chose a different path. Rather than uproot her family, she took a second mortgage and bought the brands back in 1998. Birmingham stayed home.
In 2007, her twin sons, Eric and Brian, left their own careers to join her. Today, Eric leads Hoffman Media as CEO and Brian as Chief Creative Officer, carrying forward the company—and the legacy—their mother began.
“It really has been a journey—a real journey of faith and stepping out.”
— PHYLLIS HOFFMAN DePIANO, FOUNDER
Ever wondered what our retreats are really like?
From hands-on baking retreats in our Birmingham test kitchen to destination trips along the Amalfi Coast and down the Danube.
83 Press: A better way to publish
Named for 1983, the year Phyllis started it all.
Reach your audience where they already are.
From print and digital advertising to branded content, event sponsorship, and custom publishing, every partnership is backed by our in-house StoryMaker studio: a state-of-the-art test kitchen, stylists, chefs, photographers, and video producers.
Inside the Hoffice on 2nd
Every recipe we publish gets made—and remade—by hand in our Birmingham test kitchen. It’s also where we host retreats, media days, and the occasional very good mess.
Twelve stations, one rule: if it doesn’t work here, it doesn’t go in the magazines.
When we moved downtown in 2021, we kept the building’s original spiral staircase as a reminder that we’re still building on what came before.
