Gruner + Jahr closing HomeStyle

Gruner + Jahr
closing HomeStyle

Tumble in ad pages, despite a major redesign

By Jeff Bercovici

    To paraphrase Dorothy, there's no place like HomeStyle. At least there won’t be after next month, now that publisher Gruner + Jahr has decided to pull the plug on the money-losing title.
    HomeStyle’s March issue will be its last. A spokeswoman says Gruner + Jahr will try to find places for HomeStyle staffers at the company’s other magazines, but those who can’t be placed will be laid off.
     With the advertising economy stuck in a deep ditch, HomeStyle is sure to be the first of many magazines to go out of business this year, and it’s not the only shelter title to shut down in recent months.
    Hearst shuttered Classic American Home last fall, citing circulation problems. Also, One, a new San Francisco-based design title, folded last July after only a few issues.
    But HomeStyle’s death nevertheless came as a surprise as Gruner + Jahr only last year put considerable resources into repositioning the magazine for a hipper, more affluent crowd.
    Suzanne Slesin left her job as design editor of Condé Nast’s House & Garden to become editor in chief of HomeStyle, which had recently changed its name from the stodgier American Homestyle & Gardening.
    In October she unveiled a redesign aimed at moving HomeStyle away from the likes of Meredith’s Traditional Home and Hearst’s House Beautiful and into the company of more cutting-edge, urban titles such as Elle Décor.
     In a statement announcing the closure, G+J CEO Dan Brewster indicated that HomeStyle publisher William Li had had some success parlaying the magazine’s new look into stronger ad sales.
    The reason for pulling the plug so soon after the makeover, said Brewster, was so that the company could "concentrate our resources in areas that are central to G+J USA's portfolio"–those being, apparently, women’s magazines and business.
     If G+J is feeling strapped for cash these days, it’s no wonder.
    The company, which is owned by the European media giant Bertelsmann, spent more than $500 million to acquire Fast Company and Inc. in 2000, only to watch both titles go into an advertising nosedive, along with virtually every other business magazine, last year.
Relative to other publishing categories, shelter magazines made it through last year with relatively little pain.
     But HomeStyle was a big exception. Ad pages in the 850,000-circulation magazine were off 26.9 percent to 436.1 year-to-date through November, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
    Ad revenue was down 30.1 percent from the previous year to $24.5 million.
     In comparison, House & Garden’s ad pages were basically flat last year, Elle Décor’s were off 8.5 percent, Architectural Digest’s were down 4.5 percent, and House Beautiful’s were down 15.8 percent. Only Home suffered similar losses in 2001, with ad pages falling 26.3 percent to 713.2.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.

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