| Creative COW | |
| Logo Alt: | Creative Cow logo |
| Screenshot Alt: | Screenshot of the Creative Cow forums |
| Website Type: | --> |
| Predecessor: | Media 100 Worldwide Users Group |
| Location: | --> |
| Country: | --> |
| Owners: | --> |
| Author: | Kathlyn and Ron Lindeboom |
| Editors: | --> |
| Rev: | --> |
| Intl: | --> |
| Num Employees: | --> |
| Subsid: | --> |
| Reg: | --> |
| Users: | --> |
| Launch Date: | [1] |
| Current Status: | active |
| Content Licence: | --> |
Creative COW is a website of support communities for digital video, video editing, and media production professionals in broadcasting, motion graphics, visual effects and film.
It provides over 60 online support discussion forums spanning a wide range of professional video tools and software.[2]
Additionally, Creative Cow offers over 1,000 free text and video tutorials,[3] [4] has nearly two dozen different podcasts, as well as other resources for video professionals. Creative COW is funded by advertising and sponsorship from manufacturers.
COW is a backronym for "Communities of the World".[5]
Creative COW was founded in April 2001 by Kathlyn and Ron Lindeboom,[6] a married couple.[7]
The website evolved from the couple's earlier Media 100 Worldwide Users Group (WWUG),[5] which began in 1995, and was sold to Digital Media Net in January 2000.[7]
After the sale of WWUG, the Lindebooms decided to create another website. Initially, Kathlyn Lindeboom was Creative COW's director and chief officer, while Ron shifted roles from a developer to operations. In late 2002, Ron took over as the company's CEO, while Kathlyn shifted to operations and Human Resources.[7] [8]
Over the years, Creative COW grew to be one of the largest and longest-running online communities for multimedia professionals. As of 2021, 71% of the site's visitors (5.3 million annual visitors) were Gen Z and Millennials, while 25% (1.9 million annual visitors) were mid-career professionals.[9]
In 2022, Creative COW LLC was dissolved[10] and Creative COW's trademarks, assets, and intellectual property were reassigned from Ronald Lindeboom to Brielyn Clayton.[11] The Creative COW website and forums are still in operation.[2]
In 2006 Creative COW launched a quarterly trade magazine, the Creative COW Magazine,[12] which grew in 2008 to become a bimonthly, and in 2011 was cited by a trade journal which reports on issues and trends related to the magazine printing trade, who named Creative COW Magazine as one of the for 2011.[13] [14]
The magazine was discontinued by 2013.[15] [11]