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A mag folds, a daughter seethes, and everyone's a designer
Goodnight, HG
Everyone had heard rumors that House & Garden was in trouble, but it's since been confirmed: Conde Nast is folding the 106-year-old shelter magazine, and the website too.
I had my doubts when the magazine produced a ridiculous spread on Gwyneth Paltrow's annoyingly, cloyingly perfect Hamptons home an issue ago. Another super-rich star pays thousands of dollars for a guest bed. That's news? And where was the magazine's sense of direction? Certainly not in this smug pictorial.
Among those on-the-fly magazine grabs I make at airports, House & Garden was rarely in the pile. There was something slightly off about it: It was modern, but not progressively so; it was trendy, but not edgily so; it was trying to be younger, but not succeeding like its stablemate Domino; it was traditional as well, but not gloriously so. It was, despite best attempts, pretty middle of the road. Ad revenues were up, but ad sales were down. The publisher, Joe Lagani, flew off to ultra portal glam.com. Instead of replacing him, Conde Nast just pulled the plug.
To the staff that worked on it, happy landings. Design*sponge's marvelous Grace Bonney is certainly feeling the effect already: In a post titled, "A sad sponge," she very candidly discusses what the loss means to her (she was employed by the mag). Today, however, she's pluckily distracting herself by compiling a survey of the best chaises around. And everything she likes, I like.
Everyone had heard rumors that House & Garden was in trouble, but it's since been confirmed: Conde Nast is folding the 106-year-old shelter magazine, and the website too.
I had my doubts when the magazine produced a ridiculous spread on Gwyneth Paltrow's annoyingly, cloyingly perfect Hamptons home an issue ago. Another super-rich star pays thousands of dollars for a guest bed. That's news? And where was the magazine's sense of direction? Certainly not in this smug pictorial.
Among those on-the-fly magazine grabs I make at airports, House & Garden was rarely in the pile. There was something slightly off about it: It was modern, but not progressively so; it was trendy, but not edgily so; it was trying to be younger, but not succeeding like its stablemate Domino; it was traditional as well, but not gloriously so. It was, despite best attempts, pretty middle of the road. Ad revenues were up, but ad sales were down. The publisher, Joe Lagani, flew off to ultra portal glam.com. Instead of replacing him, Conde Nast just pulled the plug.
To the staff that worked on it, happy landings. Design*sponge's marvelous Grace Bonney is certainly feeling the effect already: In a post titled, "A sad sponge," she very candidly discusses what the loss means to her (she was employed by the mag). Today, however, she's pluckily distracting herself by compiling a survey of the best chaises around. And everything she likes, I like.
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07:17 EST, 07.Nov.07
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