The Magazine Death Toll

The Grim Reaper has reaped again taking the life of Conde Nast's 106-year-old title Home & Garden.

In a article by Folio Magazine titled "Conde Nast Shutters Shelter Title," CEO Chuck Townsend partly blames Joe Lagani--H&G’s publisher who relocated to Glam Media last month—to be the lighting storm that finally contributed to the sinking of the ship.

"With the unexpected departure of the publisher of the magazine, we decided to take a serious look and re-evaluate the title," Townsend said “our investment in H&G throughout the years has been substantial and we no longer believe it is a viable business investment for the company.”

But the magazine has seen a carousel of publishers come and go since it re-launched in 1996—after going hiatus for three years when Conde Nast acquired Architectural Digest from Knapp Communications. Perhaps the lack of command from a stable publisher was a determining factor in its decay. Not to mention a shrinking housing market and hipper competitors entering the fray.

According to the Publishers Information Bureau H&G was up 9.5 percent in advertising revenue to $68.2 million, but down in ad pages by 1.4 percent. In a recent article titled “Closing up house,” by Women’s World Daily, H&G’s average monthly circulation during the first half of the year was 976,442, an increase of nearly seven percent over 2006; yet single copy sales have been less persistent with a steady annual decrease since 2003 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The Reaper, a snarky-magazine-death-determining-nostradamus-lauched the site Magazine Death Pool nearly two years ago. He, who won’t reveal his real name, was not the least bit surprised that H&G went under. An interview with Media Life Magazine revealed his forecasts for the death of a shelter magazine based on the declining housing costs and eventual advertising sales.

Thus far, he has rightfully predicted the deaths of Jane, Stuff and Premiere with his expertise derived from leads in the industry including subscription agents who’ve had their magazine subscriptions revoked by clients.

He explains in the interview that magazines fold for a number of reasons including; corporate abandonment, constantly changing editorial directions in an attempt to get anything going, key executives not being replaced, betting too heavily on newsstand sales, abnormally high turnover, or putting out a magazine that readers neither need nor want.

Next on the Reapers death list are parenting magazines, a consequence of the sprouting tech savvy young mothers who have replaced older mothers that were used to print. There’s no information that can’t be found with websites and blogs for a mother’s reference. This is definitely an affliction of many print based readers who fear for the shaky threshold of the Magazine Industry.

Old-guard designer Mario Guatta said about H&G in an article published by The Wahington Post title “House & Garden Bites the Dust Once More” “It’s a sad thing because another voice is gone. But the magazine was changing to often. I think sometimes they were trying to be too avant-garde, and it turns a lot of people off.”

Also in the article, Charlotte Moss, a designer and author who archives H&G’s on her bookshelf dating back to the 1920's says she is afraid that technology is going to obliterate print.

"The loss of a magazine is sad because, in this high-tech world. I fear that printed words are evaporating," she said. "This magazine had a shelf life. It was always open-minded and refreshing. Where are all these homes and gardens going to go now?

But ultimately, doesn’t the birth and death of a new publication lead to a better, more remarkable product? Businesses are always opening and closing around us, so what makes a magazine any different besides the obvious. Some would say that the competition keeps other on their toes. Perhaps future generations can learn from the mistakes that H&G made and eventually stabalize the industry all together. One can only hope…