Media deathwatch: Domino magazine

Since every magazine I warm to is doomed immediately thereafter -- Budget Living, Blueprint, Cottage Living -- it is not really a surprise that Domino may go on the chopping block next month. ("It Could Get Conde Nasty," NYP, Dec 26, 08)

This is a bad time to be a shelter magazine: people think "house" and do not automatically think "decorate" any more -- they think "refinance" or "crisis." So magazines that coo over spending on the home seem out-of-touch to a readership that's worried about how their home's lost 20% in value since they bought it.

There are two other items in that story that I found interesting for a media landscape at large:

"Digital accounts for only 3 percent of [Conde Nast's] total revenue," said one knowledgeable executive. "They don't make a penny on digital - and they never have."

Speaking personally: With the exception of the New Yorker, which is sui generis, Conde Nast's consumer titles have become increasingly irrelevant to me -- and I'm a fairly avid media junkie. The big reason: the magazine-supporting sites are terrible. There's no reason to go to them at all -- and there's no reason to pick up the magazine if I can't extend my engagement online. I am not particularly enamored of how the Time family of magazines has taken to the Web -- there is no announcement on the front page of Cottage Living that the company's shuttering the Web site within days, for example -- but they look like online visionaries compared to your average Conde Nast site.

(Also, it amuses me to no end that Martha Stewart's come the closest to achieving perfect cross-channel synergy via her website. Of course she has. Now if she could only revive Blueprint ...)

AHEM. On to item #2 of interest to us all:

Vogue, the biggest money maker in the company, had a poor year, sliding 9.6 percent in the ad-page count to 2,893.

And all those ads were in the September issue. Ba-da-bum! Thank you, I'll be here through the 31st.

Comments

[becky a.]

Uh...huh. Well. I'm a subscriber to Cottage Living, and this is the first I heard that it was shutting down. You'd think they might have, I don't know, sent something. Interestingly, I turned to CL after I realized Domino wasn't quite for me. I love it, but most of the features are not applicable to my style of home (1923 Colonial). The demise of CL makes me sad, as I find it difficult to find magazines geared toward the smaller home.

Oh well, we still have "This Old House"--although that means we probably will have to start doing projects rather than just looking at the pretty, pretty stuff we could buy!

[Lisa S.]

You'd think they might have, I don't know, sent something.

You'd think, huh?

It is darkly amusing that Time Warner is mishandling the CL subscriber base -- the magazine had a 1 million circulation. I can't help but contrast that with how Martha Stewart handled closing Blueprint -- by sending a note and automatically rolling over subs into Martha Stewart Living.

Even if Time Warner gets around to honoring subscribers' remaining balances, I can't see it going well. I bet I end up with "Coastal Living" -- bleah!