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Topic: R.I.P. House and Garden
| Author | Message |
| westsidestory | Posted – 11/5/2007 12:17:28 PM | show profile Just saw Hearst pulled the plug...crazy people, but always a class act, and $3 per word rate...I'll miss them. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 11/5/2007 1:55:20 PM | show profile that would be Conde Nast, not Hearst. |
| westsidestory | Posted – 11/5/2007 10:32:33 PM | show profile Yes, thanks for the correction. It was indeed a CN - I don't think Hearst has every paid $3 a word for anything! On the bright side, Victoria came back - just picked up the new one at the newsstand. |
| arewrites | Posted – 11/6/2007 7:29:58 AM | show profile Hearst? $3/word? yes, they do. |
| pamelabeth | Posted – 11/6/2007 12:38:05 PM | show profile makes me sad though i hadn't looked at the magazine in i don't know how long (did i ever look at it?), i'm sorry to hear that it's gone. points up the insecurity of the mag. industry, at every level. it was one of those mags i figured i'd "age into" pitching in later years. i know someone who was on staff there, and i'm pretty sure he figured he'd retire from there. |
| _tundrah_ | Posted – 11/6/2007 12:41:32 PM | show profile SAD! I loved this magazine. By the sounds of it, no one internally saw it coming. Compared to comparable pubs though (Domino, Elle Decor) it was on the thin side. But the writing was lovely, especially the editorials by Dominique Browning. So goes the way of print... quality is far secondary to revenues, at least under the big umbrellas. :( |
| catlondon | Posted – 11/6/2007 1:47:04 PM | show profile westsidestory: How did the recent Victoria compare to the former--which has a strong cult following? |
| PRgirl | Posted – 11/6/2007 5:22:39 PM | show profile View from a former advertiser... I did some business with them a couple years ago. They had a top-notch editorial staff and some really strong people on the pub side. But rumors have been circulating for some time - Conde moved them out of the building a couple years back with the lame excuse that it was to put the staff closer to the D&D Building on the UES and therefore closer to potential advertisers. And that Conde Holiday Lunch Seating Chart they run in the NY Post didn't bode well for them last year. Finally, Conde appears to be putting a lot of $ into Domino, though it has limited appeal to high-end/luxury/to-the-trade home furnishings advertisers, and into Vogue Living, which reaches many of the same readers as H&G but which also has the Vogue brand, which carries a lot of weight with advertisers as more fashion companies move into home design/home furnishings. In short, House & Garden - loved though it was - appeals to a narrow slice of the advertising market for home furnishings design, a slice which is having its own financial problems. Domino and VL represent greater potential return on investment in terms of courting advertisers, and the advertisers they are likely to actually land. House & Garden was focused mostly on to-the-trade and luxury, while Domino and VL seem to be going after more of a mix of t-t-t, luxury and retail. (Wow, I really need to get a life!) |
| recovering_jersey_girl | Posted – 11/6/2007 7:17:02 PM | show profile | email poster Hi PRGirl, can you please drop me a line? I'm a freelancer on the edit side and I'd like to find out if your niche might dovetail with some of the areas I cover. Thanks! |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 11/6/2007 9:11:28 PM | show profile While Domino is a fine magazine, it's never going to be House & Garden, in tone, content or style. And, yes, Dominique Browning's editorials were fantastic. Sigh. |
| Metro Writer | Posted – 11/7/2007 1:04:31 PM | show profile It's not surprising that the home furnishings market is down. Look at new construction. People don't need as much furniture because they prefer huge closets with lots of customization and drawers for ties, scarves, and jewelry. I've noticed that several large antiques stores in Stamford went out of business and I think this is the reason why. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 11/7/2007 3:56:18 PM | show profile Yeah. kinda pointless to (re)decorate your home when you could lose it. |
| westsidestory | Posted – 11/7/2007 7:26:58 PM | show profile interesting thoughts on the home decor industry Thanks the great points and updates (PR girl especially) I've been out of that market area for some time but like I said recall HG with much fondness. There does seem to be a lot of shifting, for a number of reasons. For example, I'd guess the reason why a bunch of antique stores in a certain area would fold might be linked to the current trend to modern (or mid-century modern) furniture, the kind of stuff that goes with the loft-type interiors we see in the city and even suburban homes now. Recession is an issue too; although that's usually good for home renovation - people who can't get a mortgage for a new home because they didn't jump for it two years ago usually resort to paint and trim and doodads as a way to freshen up a home. If that's so, perhaps we'll see more of a rise in home crafts again. Isn't knitting popular now? Re Victoria: the new version was a little thin and full of the usual suspects: Tasha Tudor, Tovah Martin, etc. But promising, with some good recipes and that lovely come-and-have-a-cup-of-tea editorial tone. I actually had an urge for gold-rimmed wineglasses after I finished the first issue - but (probably like a lot of today's readers) will be looking for a set of them at the flea market, not Horchow's. Also - good to hear Hearst is ponying up some dough these days. For all rights, I assume? (I'd love to be surprised otherwise.....) |
| damngoodidea | Posted – 11/7/2007 10:15:26 PM | show profile Sad to hear The home decor/furnishings market has been taking a nosedive the past 2 years or so. Pier 1 is continuing to fall in its profits. The Bombay Company is going out of business. I guess it will all pick up when the housing market picks back up. Though, as someone mentioned above, sometimes there is the opposite effect when housing market is slow--people want to freshen up their homes. |
| PRgirl | Posted – 11/8/2007 10:04:35 AM | show profile More thoughts on the home furnishings industry The home furnishings industry is sort of like the fashion industry, in that when times get tough, the really high end does well and the low end does well, but brands in the middle feel the pinch. In 2001-2002, the to-the-trade makret (companies that sell wholesale to interior designers and architects) didn't feel the pain the way mid-market companies with muddled brand identities (such as Pier One and Linens-n-Things) did. More inside baseball: a lot of the companies that H&G courted as advertisers are those to-the-trade companies, and that segment is going through a tough spot. While the segment seems to be coming out of its slump, we're talking about some family-owned companies that are transitioning between generations, which causes "growing pains" in any industry, but which get amplified in a small, tight-knit and (frankly) kind of gossipy industry. And without the ad $, I imagine it was hard to justify all the money Conde was investing in H&G. Anyway, the staff is talented and well-liked, and I hear that some are already being snapped up by other publications eager for their expertise... |
