apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ouch! I just picked up the Gwyneth issue and it's really not bad. I usually pass up the mag but this issue seemed like they were just hitting their stride--good variety on homes featured and more mini articles.

Oh wells.

omg i was just going to subscribe because of the gwyneth issue, good thing i didnt...

so bummed :(

oh well, one less magazine i have to clip!

It seems as though Conde Nast is cutting down a bit this year as I heard they cancelled a different magazine earlier this year as well.

I really liked that Gwyneth Paltrow issue too!

I remember in the early 90's this magazine (then called HG) was my favorite. I regret that I threw away the complete magazines, but I have many articles in my style files. They covered funky people like Todd Oldhams' assistant Angel Dormer, textile designer Gene Meyer, and Isabella Rossellini's apartment. These are the ones I kept and I wish I had all the others. I would buy those few years on eBay if I had the money, they were so good.

However, when the magazine hired Anna Wintour (yes, Vogue's editor) in 1989 to revamp it, they lost me and lots of other subscribers, effectively killing the magazine back in 1993. So this isn't the first time it has died. FYI They had purchased Architectural Digest the day before they canceled HG.

What will they do with design*sponge or will they let her go? Not that she necessarily needs them, but still.

Another thing, they just opened the House&Garden store, celebrating the long history of the magazine and now they're just going to brush it under the rug. Huh?

Not really too sad about this. LONG LIVE DOMINO!

I actually am quite bummed - the last several issues were great. I had clipped and saved their article on Rome from April, and spent an amazing two days there a month ago following their "insider's tour" of the city. It was the highlight of my trip!

What are I infinitely dread are the interior magazines like Vogue Living or In Style's version. I despise how they tend to focus on the celebrity and less on the home.

Plus, the "stuff to get" items at the end of the articles are like product placement orgies. All magazines tend to do this but it's annoying when a celebrity is doing it AND they're there to hype a new movie/CD/personal line of clothes/perfume.

I agree completely about InStyle Home and Vogue Living ....however, I just received my Bazaar and their home decorating supplement this month rocks! It had great features on Kelly Wearstler and the inside of J.Crew's design director's Brooklyn home. It was heaven. They should have sold it on newsstands.

I'm disappointed when any shelter mag especially one with this kind of history folds but I always found it a little too 'out of reach' which is probably the niche that Vogue Living will fill for Conde Nast.

I feel bad for those who are losing their jobs though...especially Grace at Design Sponge.

If it is about survival, my highly subjective view is, that if American magazines took a look at some, well rather most European magazines, they would see a clear difference. The content. Quantity and quality and lay-out.

Editorial stuff is not totally swamped by advertising. Homes gets up to 8 spreads... Often followed by "get the look"...And there is more than one home. And there might be page after page on a theme... Beautiful shots of fabrics, or vases, or wood, or gray or Moroccan bath or... Like Vogue, but on home furnishing design/style. Sure, product placement, but still done by stylists, photographers and journalists with integrity.

To survive, a magazine actually have to GIVE the reader something, and something relevant. A stars home every now and then might be OK too, but... Rich does not equal taste, or
style, or interesting from a design p.o.w.

Take a look at World of Interiors, ELLE UK edition, VT Vohnen,
Italian Maison de Marie Claire... and you might get my point.