I was looking through Moleskine’s Fall 2019 catalog and noticed something I found quite shocking: it seems that Moleskine is discontinuing the pocket sketchbook.

“While stocks last“?? Meaning there won’t be any more stock of the classic black pocket size Moleskine Sketchbook? (Or any other color in pocket size.) They have a bazillion products and the one they decide to discontinue is a long-standing favorite of so many creative types? I know a lot of people use the larger size. And I know that nowadays there are other pocket sketchbook options out there with better paper, like Stillman and Birn. And as I myself have complained, the quality and construction just aren’t as good as they used to be. But really?? Really, Moleskine??

I find this absolutely baffling. Even if sales have declined a lot from Moleskine’s heyday, I find it hard to believe that the pocket size Sketchbook is unprofitable or somehow not worth it for them to produce. I looked back at some figures I was able to get from the Bookscan system that tracks publishing industry sales– it only captures numbers from book retailers (including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Target, and independent bookstores, but not art supply stores, gift stores, etc.) but should be relatively indicative of overall market trends. While the pocket sketchbook sells less than half what the large sketchbook sells in that channel, and way, way less than what lined notebooks sell, there are many other Moleskine items that sell a fraction of the pocket sketchbook quantity and still seem to be active in their catalog. And at least in the book channel, sales for the pocket sketchbook had been increasing year on year from 2015 through 2018. I would guess they are selling at least 20,000 a year in the USA alone. Is that really not enough?

They seem to be pushing the newer Medium size (4.5 x 7″) in various products and as you can see in the image above, they’ve just introduced medium size sketchbooks in 3 colors (black, red and sapphire blue. That’s nice. I think the medium size is attractive, even though it’s not going to fit in many pockets. But I’ve been using the 3.5 x 5.5″ format for decades, so I’m not going to just switch. I’m sure a lot of other people would feel the same way. I have such a nice collection going of journals and sketchbooks in this size– it already includes some non-Moleskine notebooks, and I’d much rather mix in other brands than try to squeeze a different size into these boxes!

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet discovered an alternative to the Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook that offers a similar heavy but smooth paper in a hardcover. The closest I’ve found was Art Alternatives’ heavy weight Pen & Ink sketchbook but they’ve changed it to a diagonal elastic closure. Leuchtturm makes a sketchbook with nice heavy paper but the texture is different, and of course it is 3.5 x 6″. Stillman and Birn makes great sketchbooks with so many options, but if you want a 3.5 x 5.5″ size, they only offer softcover. HandBook and Hahnemuhle have nice pocket sketchbooks with hardcovers, elastic closure and back pockets, but the paper isn’t smooth. So I guess I’ll still just hope to spot some old Moleskine sketchbooks on eBay, though the supply seems to be drying up. I hadn’t been actively buying the recently manufactured ones anyway, but if I didn’t have a pretty good stash of spares, I would be buying them, grumpily.

You would think Moleskine would do some sort of analysis and realize that they have a product that doesn’t really have any direct competition with all the same features– so if they weren’t able to sell enough to make it profitable, they could just raise the price and some of us would be crazy enough to keep buying them!

As for other new products from Moleskine, the bullet journal-intended notebook that they showed off in Japan is finally being launched in the US. Instead of calling it the “Bullet Notebook,” they’re calling it the “Logbook,” which I guess is their way of trying to seem different, or not get sued, or something. If you want a dotted notebook with somewhat heavier pages, in the 5×8″ format, it might be worth a try.

There are also some new larger format Watercolor Blocks. I’m not sure why they are expanding their watercolor paper offerings so much lately, as this is definitely an area with a lot of competition from well-established art supply brands.

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall in Moleskine’s strategic planning meetings… smh…