Does Anyone Really Care?

I've been busy for the past few days, and sadly haven't been able to read the daily blogs, so I'm sure this is old news by now ha ha. Does anyone care that Domino is kaput?

The Paris Apartment does. Read more HERE and see a great selection of Domino eye candy. And so does Live In Full Color HERE

What will happen to my 25 year subscription ha ha? And no wonder my e-mails to them checking some facts for a posting I've been working on, and keeping on hold, haven't been answered.

from The New York Times reprinted for you right here:

Domino, Shopping and Decorating Magazine, Closes

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: January 28, 2009

Domino, a three-year-old shopping and home décor magazine, will stop publishing with its March issue, Condé Nast Publications announced Wednesday.

The publisher, Beth Fuchs Brenner, and the editor, Deborah Needleman, will leave Condé Nast, a company spokeswoman, Maurie Perl, said. A handful of staff members will be placed in open Condé Nast positions, but most of the staff of about 80 will be dismissed and will leave the company within a week.

“We tried to create a marriage between the beautiful image magazines and the useful service magazines,” Ms. Needleman said in an interview. “Editorially, we did what we set out to do, and in this economy, sadly, that’s not enough.”

Domino was not profitable, and its ad pages were falling — they dropped 26 percent in the December/January 2008 from the December/January 2007 issue, according to Media Industry Newsletter.

In a recession and a housing market crash, finding advertisers to promote furniture and housewares was difficult, despite Domino’s popularity — its circulation was a sturdy 800,000.

“The current model is built so that advertising keeps magazines afloat,” said Robin Steinberg, director of print investment and activation for the media-buying firm MediaVest. “It’s unfortunate, because the consumer loses out in the end.”

As of two weeks ago, Condé Nast was publicly supporting the magazine, announcing an organizational change that had Domino reporting to a top executive and discussing “the brand’s vitality in the marketplace.”

Ms. Perl said recent economic news had changed that opinion.

“In hindsight, in continued evaluation, perhaps we would have asked to take the last two weeks back,” she said. “The economy just drove the decision to discontinue the publication.”

The home design category has suffered at almost every major publisher in just over a year. Time Inc. closed InStyle Home and Cottage Living, Martha Stewart Omnimedia closed Blueprint, Meredith closed Country Home, Hearst closed O at Home and Hachette Filipacchi Media closed Home.

Domino had a lively feel, with affordable products and do-it-yourself projects.

“What Domino did that none of the other higher-end magazines did was to make décor more accessible,” said Cassandra LaValle, who runs the home décor blog Coco+Kelley (cocokelley.blogspot.com).

Domino, which began publishing in April 2005, is the third Condé Nast magazine about home décor to go under in about a year. Condé Nast closed Vogue Living, a supplement to Vogue, in August and House and Garden in November 2007.

These were not the only steps the company took to cut costs. In October, it asked each magazine to reduce its payroll and budget by 5 percent, which resulted in a handful of layoffs at almost every publication. At that time, the company also folded Men’s Vogue into Vogue and reduced the number of issues of Condé Nast Portfolio.

Ms. Perl said other Condé Nast magazines with ad-page declines, including Portfolio, were still stable.