apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

yikes. it feels like The Langoliers. everything is disappearing. Blueprint too, yes?

There are lots of smart, crafty, innovative people in Des Moines. In fact, they read Apartment Therapy! Gasp, noooooooo....Yes, its true. The world does not end in middle America.

It sucks that great magazines we all like are folding. I heart Cottage Living. But at least those ReadyMade and parents.com folks have jobs and hey, they'll even be able to afford a home in this great state!

And pssst. Don't tell anyone, but I'm a Masshole who chooses to live here! Oh yes, I do.

Wow did a girl from Des Moines beat you up one time?

MsAmanda, high-five for being a Masshole! (I'm one too.)

ReadyMade might not shrivel up and die "out there," but there will probably be a slow change to the publication. And whether that's a good or a bad change... well, we'll see. :)

Ouch.

I read AT, and ReadyMade... and I live in Des Moines. Don't hate the no-coasters!

Also, if I'm not mistaken, Blueprint has been long gone for a while.

While the ReadyMade folks might not love the move (if any of them actually opted to go), the Meredith digs in Des Moines are nothing to sniff at. The resources will be better. have you SEEN the WOOD magazine workshop? Screw hacking simple Ikea pieces--they can really step up their game in that space. and, you know, most trendoid crafty coastal types are middle Americans who wanted to prove they were destined for "better" things.

Creativity does not live solely in NY, SF and LA.

That came out snarkier than I meant, but not sure how to tone it down. Hell, I was part of the CH wreckage. I'd be happy to still have a job, people, DSM or otherwise.

There's more of an arts and design scene in Des Moines than you coastal hicks might think. I grew up there and now live in DC but am always pleasantly surprised at how a cool design sensibility flourishes there. Plus there are tons of folks from the more "important" metro areas that move to DSM to work for Meredith (bonus: they can afford a much larger home and the public schools are excellent). Better Homes and Gardens is based there any no one seems to have a problem with it.

I am still in denial and hope that Cottage Living will come back someday.

Until then, I've been buying the UK mags to tide me over.

Pouts.

(P.S. I lived in Des Moines for quite awhile but now live in Kansas. It gets so old with the snarky little comments about the Midwest sometimes. Yeah... We hope to be gettin' 'lectricity and one of those indoor crappers real soon!)

i loved working at readymade. until yesterday.

unfortunately, meredith's decision to move the editorial production of readymade to des moines didn't quite translate into moving the staff there as well. although some of us were given the choice to move, no one has opted to do so. the entire staff will be changing, which means the magazine will too.

for all of us who were laid off yesterday, one of the biggest disappointments is that we were just about to unveil a big redesign. what readymade ends up looking like when the april/may issue hits newsstands may or may not be the readymade we once knew {and helped create}.

while it's true that the move to meredith HQ will allow readymade to cut costs and to take advantage of resources like an in-house photo studio, it will be interesting to see what happens to the mag under the new management.

in the meantime, if anybody needs a magazine or web editor in the bay area, i'm all ears!

i should add: most us wouldn't have moved no matter *where* we were asked to go, due to family obligations, a significant other's employment, etc.

jeffur, thank you for offering your perspective on the ReadyMade situation. I'm very sorry to hear that so many of you lost your jobs, and that the magazine will (undoubtedly) be changing so drastically as a result.

I've been reading ReadyMade since the first issue, and as a big fan, this is a little bit heartbreaking.

My condolences to you, jeffur, and to any other ReadyMade staff members who might stop by to read this thread.

I, too, as a Midwesterner, think that it can be a good place to be. Never been to Des Moines, but I've been to a bunch of cities.

It might even be good for the Midwest to get Ready Made, that way some of their ideas can get out to the coasts. The biggest cities don't have a lock on hipness and style.

Also, it will allow those creative types in the Midwest a voice, and a place to foster their vision.

I am, however, really sorry that so many people were laid off, and I completely understand not wanting to move for family, etc. That, to me, is the sad part.

As a Nyer in the Fall to Winter and a Minneapolian in the summer, I say sorry to the Sf people but life does exist and is more managable in the Midwest. Minneapolis much to my surprise is very hip and happening, and because of the lower cost of living allows people to really get creative. Life is so much easier, as you can browse so many stores by car, in one day. in NYC and Sf everthing is a struggle decorating renovating wise. I can see why the mag left for Ia. Yes we even have the original BLue Dot here and DWR...and an huge IKEa, a full disign bldg, IMS etc. And the best tile sources I have ever seen. Since Mn has Original 50's Ramblers, hip mod midcentury renos abound on real 50's homes, not fake lookalikes.
Oh Well, I think the mag will be fine in Ia, and for the SF people, I myself was downsized after a 20 year Wall street career. It's time to reinvent yourself, even if the Mag world dries up. On Wall street too many laid off people vie for the same piece of the smaller pie, a no win situation, reconsider your future and you will be happy.
Best of Luck

I'd love to know if the honchos at Meredith got their performance bonuses for 2008.

People from the Midwest rock and I would like to tip my hat to this part of the country where values and congeniality still are of importance.

If RM does "shrivel up and die," is it because of the location or because it's now controlled by a major publisher instead of its original creators?

I am also pretty sick of the snarky digs at the Midwest. That said, I am really going to miss Country Home!

Maxwell, you're a close-minded bigot and a snob.

I don't know if we remember this one from a couple months ago, where Maxwell is scared of people with Italian heritage:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/look/look-beautiful-ceiling-illumination-from-pendants-at-da-silvano-071162

It just really irritates me that someone who depends on a very broad readership should snipe at Iowa and really a whole region as if it's death. I'm so glad you're amazed at things only New Yorkers can understand, like a makeshift sloppy looking sofa and how ordinary stopper bottles are probably from IKEA, and your beloved Lorina juice so you can wash your hands in a debranded Euro-fantasy. How about being genuinely sophisticated for a change, having some real class?

First, I'm very sorry to hear about more job losses. I hope the people from these publications find new jobs quickly.

Up to a couple months ago, I had been a subscriber of ReadyMade. I decided not to renew my subscription because I was finding the content of the magazine pretty light, and the subject matter almost stale compared to the blogs I read which cover most of the same subjects. More than once, AT had already shown a home tour (with more, larger pictures), that was later featured in ReadyMade.

In addition, at least some of their how-tos were a little too light on detail (I can only speak for the ones I've tried) - not enough pictures, usually.

I don't think they allowed themselves to focus on any one thing enough - and by missing that detail, they let other publications (print and online) surpass them in quality.

Hopefully they can reinvent themselves, and find the right formula for continued success. I'll be watching to see what they do - I'm willing to consider re-subscribing to them in the future, but only if I'm confident they will last the term of subscription. I'm still upset about Budget Living folding just after I renewed. Grrr.

I feel for the staff at Readymade but Maxwell's comments are completely rude. I have lived in Iowa all my life and I love it! The cost of living is low but there are many fabulous restaurants, parks, galleries, and locally owned shops to enjoy. I am proud to be able to enjoy a high quality of living surrounded by people who are honest, polite, and hardworking.

What a nasty little post. I did a double-take when I saw who wrote it and I was really disappointed. Perhaps this was written in haste and the author will be issuing an apology for his remarks shortly.

Sid78: "and, you know, most trendoid crafty coastal types are middle Americans who wanted to prove they were destined for "better" things." BRILLIANT!

KTG: Right on!

Maxwell: You really need to keep yourself and your "staff" in order. How can you NOT KNOW that a huge part of your readership is NOT located on either coast??????

Living in NYC of L.A. and having a pretentious hyphenated name doesn't qualify you to be a design critic.

www.thebitterfoodie.blogspot.com

Another thing: the Midwest rocks.

If it weren't for MICHIGAN which is located in the MIDWEST, all you pretentious Mid Century furniture snobs wouldn't have anything to covet.

Dear Carissa,

My apologies above. I was too off the cuff, but didn't intend to slight Des Moines or the midwest in general.

The midwest has been one of the most vibrant new sources for home design inspiration in this country during the past five years in particular.

My point, poorly made, was simply that these are very different places and ReadyMade - I've always felt - was a uniquely Bay Area creation.

All of that aside, however, I've often heard of magazines moving their staff to their corporate headquarters in order to save money, but I've never heard of the staff's liking it. Moves like these are often very hard on morale.

Maxwell is on point when he states that ReadyMade is a bay area creation and derives inspiration from it's surroundings.

A short quote from an interview with Shoshana Berger says the same.
http://www.charlesandhudson.com/archives/2008/03/shoshana-berger-founder-and-editor-in-chief-of-readymade-magazine.htm

CH: As a bay-area resident are you enamored by your beautiful surroundings and does this natural beauty influence the “soul” of the magazine? If so how does that manifest onto the pages of ReadyMade?

SB: We’re equidistant between the mountains and the ocean, so our engagement with nature (and the congested, highway-tangled matrix that carves a path through it), are everpresent. The bay area has a long legacy of do-it-yourself mavericks, too. From the turn-of-the-century Craftsman movement in architecture to the 1970s Whole Earth Access catalogs to the garage entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs who built up Silicon Valley.