Friday, January 30, 2009

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

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.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I care:(

I've been a subscriber for a little over a year and was really enjoying the freshness and vitality of Domino. This past November I gave a gift subscription to my 19 year old friend who is looking forward to having her own place soon (uh, no, I myself am nowhere near 19). I helped her re-decorate her bedroom 3 years ago, and we had a blast. I knew Domino would be a perfect inspiration for her as she thought about the future. We're both sorry to see it disappear.

Thank you to those who made the magazine so special. All the best as you each move forward.

Unknown said...

Yes it is a shame that Dominio is closing their doors as they certainly had a nice niche in the market place happening.

corine said...

I'm sad for those who lost their jobs and worried one day I won't get my newspaper delivered.

Linda@ Lime in the Coconut said...

yeah.... I think just about every decor blogger cares! Sad. I s'pose we are all so house/deco porn obsessed that we assume everyone else is. 26% decline is pretty darn substantial.

Sacheverelle said...

I care too. :(
Really gonna miss it.
Been subscribed since Day 1.

angelo said...

Yes, I care and it's very unfortunate. I will miss it.

h. m. settoon said...

Yes and no. I originally loved the magazine, and still read it monthly (unfortunately, I even asked and received a subscription for christmas as a gift). However, issues liked the one pictured in the post had started to leave me cold. I don't know if I had just become bored with the whole domino "look" or the increasingly c-list celebrity covers (if you have to look the cover girl up on imdb, she's not an asset to the magazine) or the insane amount of inbreeding--it was to the point that several articles in each issue involved the staff's own apartments. Anyway, i'll miss it, because magzaines are my crack and the supply is drying up, but honestly, I think they jumped the shark with the green issue and green themes a while back and never quite recovered. And I wonder if having so many editoral articles that included the shopping information made selling ads more difficult?

Velvet and Linen said...

I will miss Domino.
I think I'm feeling a cumulative sadness for all of the publications that have gone away in the past year or so.

xo
Brooke

Visual Vamp said...

Here are two links to two other posts with some great Domino eye candy.
Whether you like Domino or not, you cannot dispute the great body of work they produced, and that we bloggers, home decorators, and professionals benefit from daily.
Too bad we bloggers are not rich enough to be Domino advertisers.
xo xo

http://www.sensationalcolor.com/livein
fullcolor/farewell-my-sweet-domino/


http://parisapartment.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/whats-so-great-about-domino-magazine/

Live In Full Color said...

Thanks for the link to my post! I have linked back and added you to my favorite blogs list!!!!

I love New Orleans so much... my bro is there right now on a late minute weekend away and I literally mapped out directions to The Napoleon House for him yesterday as he strolled through the French Quarter... with instructions to order a Pimms Cup upon arrival.

He rubbed the beautiful southern weather in my face, knowing that I was wrapped in a sweater in my house avoiding the sheet of ice that is New York right now.

Anyway, just love your site! Will visit often!!!!

*moggit girls said...

We are soooo going to miss them!

*moggit girls said...

We added your link in our post about this. :)

joy and janet

Sacheverelle said...

The design crack really has dried up! Literally only a handful of American magazines left now.
I couldn't believe it when 'House and Garden' folded & since then most of the big ones have fallen one after another. I finally shelled out the $70 & subscribed to 'World of Interiors' but it's just not the same. Very sad.

Visual Vamp said...

Thanks for the links girls!
Hope to see you in New Orleans one day sooner than later!
xo xo

s. said...

I care. Their style was definitely not my style, but I appreciated their fresh, colourful point of view and always looked forward to its arrival in the mail.