Comments on: Editorial Comment

By: Paula Grace

Paula Grace — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:04:45 +0000

So true. I posted about it myself. I can’t believe it. It was such a high quality magazine. I do dream of being published in a national magazine. I have only been published in regional ones. Fortunately there are wonderful regional ones out there!

By: Cococozy

Cococozy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:43:42 +0000

As an interior design blogger, I was very sad to hear about Metropolitan Home. It was one of my favorite magazines and one of the great sources for interior design inspiration for me. I hope though that designers do not get completely despondent…where there is a will, there is a way!

By: andrea blanch

andrea blanch — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:34:20 +0000

Editor At Large might just be the answer for designers to be
noticed & published. The conceit is timely & original, an alternative
to traditional ways of exposing ones work. I hope it succeeds &
wish them the best of luck.

By: Gary Nelling

Gary Nelling — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:12:19 +0000

I am saddened to read that Metropolitan Home is closing. It was one of my very favorites and a marvelous advocate for modern design in urban, suburban and country settings and across all income strata. Like your other bloggers, I have a tactile fondness for design magazines. I understand from my friends in the print media that magazines and newspapers of all stripes are now challenged, especially in this current deep recession. I think we should not give up hope that a new group of investors may pick up the Met Home artistic flag and make it a financial success as well. I understand that retailers who serve affluent customers like Nordstrom and Coach are doing well in the recent quarter and perhaps that will carry over to design publications as well, though it may be my wishful thinking.

I thought that House and Garden was a terrific magazine from the mid-1970s through mid-or-late-1980s when I believe it lost its focus on bringing the reader inside the spaces it featured and the design process that gave them form. It closed and re-opened once with different image changes before and after. I was sad but not surprised when it closed a few years ago. I think Veranda has grown into a magazine of design substance that features a spectrum of modern to traditional design, though I wasn’t reading it until 3 or 4 years ago so I’m not sure of its original focus. Some magazines may emerge while others recede. I know that these changes involved personal pain for friends of yours and the other bloggers and I don’t discount that one bit.

My college-age and young-adult children remind me, however, that their generation looks first and second to on-line publications with print a distant third. Perhaps we all need to adjust to this new reality. Your web site is stunning, by the way!

I think we who are in the design professions are fortunate to have some control over our own destinies and be able to re-invent ourselves for the times to some degree without giving up our core values, unlike so many in the 10% unemployed who may have more limited prospects. I was truly scared last year as the retail and investment banks and insurers collapsed, but I have been impressed by the way our government salvaged the remaining ones and the way US business reorganized itself. Time will tell how long it takes for Main Street to heal with less help, but I think in time we will all be fine.

By: margot

margot — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:47:32 +0000

Vicente, your point is well taken about a designer’s mentality adjusting to the venues for publication. As long as client and designer are pleased with the results, then it shouldn’t be a problem to tweak here and there to fit a magazine’s editorial mandate. It’s a win, win, win, I say!

As for the whole church-state thing – I am well-versed in this. I’ve been a magazine journalist in Canada for 19 years. Yes, and editor’s job is to survey the market, filter and deliver great content to readers, whose eyes are then delivered back to advertisers. However, advertisers aren’t as attracted to magazine readers as they once were. The business model fails when the readers or the environment (the edit mandate) ceases to be attractive to advertisers with money to spend on print, or when advertisers decide to reach these people through media other than print. These are the 2 main challenges facing magazine publishing. Oh, then there’s the wild card: where a giant corp may simply decide to kill certain books as sacrificial lambs in order to prop up other brands they see as having more future earning potential. There’s a lot of that going on too!

We all love the luxury of the printed page and the colour and the tactile experience. However, one of the most sage observations I’ve read on this topic was made by Stephen Drucker at a conference this year. He said: “You can’t get hung up on paper as a delivery system. When House Beautiful launched in 1896, there wasn’t big, beautiful photography like we have today. It’s not just about paper and photographs. It’s about reading.” This is extracted from an article on foliomag.com. I LOVE IT!

By: Vicente

Vicente — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:37:04 +0000

Newell – I never said that the magazine was led by the advertisers, as I’m very aware of the separation between church and state. And I understand, as a business person, the bottom line. But I can’t fail to feel, as a creative person, that the reduction of publications reduces the possibilities of exposure. That is not to say that ones work cannot appear in all of these magazines, but to be a successful magazine, you have to have a very clear brand personality, and hence, the designer’s work has to fit into what that image is – whether it is a very minimal magazine or a more traditionally oriented publication. And it doesn’t mean that the editors of those magazines won’t do a mixed bag of different points of views, but it is still upsetting, without thinking of the bottom line, to see friends and publications that have been important in one’s career as a mode of inspiration, like House & Garden, Met Home or even Domino, to leave the marketplace. We are in tough times, I think everybody is aware of it and we all are feeling it at different degrees, but it can’t stop me from missing from old friends.

By: Vicente

Vicente — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:25:02 +0000

Margot, there is a separation between advertising and editorial. In most magazines it’s a separation of church and state. It has to do with the principals of the magazine. If it’s a traditional magazine, it will only publish traditional spaces, and a contemporary designer – as I mentioned in the post – is limited now by the amount of publications that could show his work. It doesn’t mean that if a contemporary client comes in you’re going to do a traditional design, but one’s mentality starts to adjust to the venues that are out there. Clients, many times, are open to different approaches to situations, so you start to, maybe even unconsciously, start to adjust. The client is the ultimate person you work for, but the creativity is coming from your mind and we all get influenced by trends in general – whether you’re in fashion, interiors or fine arts.

By: Max T

Max T — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:54:50 +0000

I’m so very saddened by this piece of news. I’ve only been reading Met Home for the past couple of years but it has consistently been one of my “Must-buys” at the newstand. Here in Singapore, we are very lucky to get plenty of international ID mags to feed my addiction and
spotting a new issue of Met Home on the rack always brings some excitement to my day!

The closing of Met Home feels like the passing of a good friend/companion……something feels empty inside, somehow………sigh……..

By: LIBERTY POST EDITOR

LIBERTY POST EDITOR — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:20:14 +0000

Now is the time for Designers to dig down deep to stand their ground in authenticity. We must draw the line and say ‘NO’, we will not compromise our creative integrity. Magazines need to showcase ‘real true honest’ spaces. They owe it to their readers, the industry and future creatives. I too am so sad by this announcement. This magazine was a brilliant star. The internet is our addiction and our poison Vicente. What are we all to do?

By: Newell

Newell — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:04:16 +0000

Vicente, It’s disappointing that you and others posting here think that we in the magazine publishing business manipulate designers and are in turn manipulated by our advertisers. It’s simply not true. We put together every issue based on the reporting of what we see happening in the world. And we’re hoping to tap into reader numbers (number of magazines bought) that in turn attracts advertisers who want to reach them. It’s a little more complicated, but the magazines that are closing are WAY down in magazine sales on the newsstands (translates as losing readers) followed by advertisers who can’t justify spending on those falling numbers…but again it’s a little different and more complicated in every case. As you know, I started my career at Met Home 25 years ago and I have friends there today…so I sad to see them go. Same for HG. And although I never worked at Domino, I had many friends who worked hard to make it work as a business. We’re living through a very interesting time of change in communicatios. I think it’s just starting, but I also see a future for magazines…along with all the other brilliant digital and electronic mediums we have to enjoy today.
-Newell-
House Beautiful