No More House & Garden, But Strangely, Lots of Comparable Titles Remain

Writing on The Observer's Real Estate blog, Tom Acitelli notes a Wall Street Journal story about how even though the weak housing market may have been responsible for the collapse of Condé Nast's House & Garden, the "shelter mag" genre is enjoying a moment of disproportionate prosperity.

Media buyers say the industry is overrun with so-called shelter magazines, industry parlance that includes titles focusing on home design. Along with Condé Nast's own Architectural Digest, shelter magazines include House Beautiful, Dwell, Traditional Home, Metropolitan Home, Midwest Living and Home magazine.

Six new magazines focusing on homes started up in the first quarter of 2007, according to New York-based trade group Magazine Publishers of America. ...

The glut of decorating magazines comes as the U.S. housing market faces a crisis. "It's a magazine category that will be hit by the housing issues," says Jen Neal, managing partner of Phd, a media buying unit of Omnicom Group.