Metropolitan Home magazine becomes latest recession victim
Filed under: Media
The good news: Magazine ad pages are actually up in the fourth quarter for the first time in a dog's age. The bad news: Metropolitan Home won't be around to enjoy it. Hachette Filipacchi Media just announced that it's shutting down the shelter title following publication of its December issue, choosing to focus its limited resources on Elle Decor, its last remaining home-design magazine. A company spokeswoman says 13 editorial staffers have been let go, including editor-in-chief Donna Warner, along with a yet-to-be-determined number of business-side employees. Shelter publications have been hit especially hard by the advertising downturn of the past couple years -- not surprisingly, considering that the recession was precipitated by the collapse of the housing bubble. Preceding Met Home into extinction were Home, another Hachette Filipacchi title, Conde Nast's Domino and House & Garden, and Hearst's O at Home, a spinoff of O, The Oprah Magazine.
Founded in 1981, according to its Facebook page, Met Home had a circulation of 550,000 and an audience of 2.7 million. Its ad pages were down 34% in 2009, a steep drop, but somewhat shallower than some surviving shelter titles, including Architectural Digest (49.1%) and Dwell (44.8%).
In a press release, president and CEO Alain Lemarchand said, "It is with a feeling of sadness that I make the announcement to close one of our magazines. However, we believe the best strategy in the upscale shelter segment is to boldly focus our resources and investment on Elle Decor, which is the ad-page leader within the U.S. market. Despite the downturn in ad pages that has affected all magazines, the Elle Decor brand has multiple opportunities for growth across all platforms."
For the full announcement from HFM, see here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-09-2009 @ 8:22PM
Chuckster said...
Gourmet is about the only thing worth saving from that list....
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11-09-2009 @ 8:23PM
SUSAN said...
What will happen to those of us with subscriptions to "Metropolitan Home"?
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11-09-2009 @ 8:39PM
KAS said...
Usually they offer a subscription to you fromone of the other mag's they own.
Metro home.. never heard of it!
11-10-2009 @ 8:57PM
Bud said...
Usually, if they give you a choice, it's from a number of magazines you don't want at all. Or they simply replace the subscription with a magazine that you don't want at all. Been there. Done that.
Wasn't this magazine called Apartment Life, back in another lifetime? If they'd left it alone back then, we might still have it today.
11-09-2009 @ 9:29PM
Roger said...
It's easy for businesses to cop out with the statement that the economy made them go under! And in some cases, that is true! But, in other cases, it could be poor management and poor marketing and not looking to make any changes! All of sudden .. UH OH !!! We are in trouble! This is a case where they could have changed as far as I'm concerned!
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11-09-2009 @ 9:49PM
deblockrol said...
this is very sad. there is nothing like a beautifully photographed and laid out mag to excite your eyes!
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11-09-2009 @ 11:57PM
GinaY said...
Shrinking advertisers due to the economy, changes in direct marketing, and failure of management to embrace the new media are the top three reasons publications don't survive. Advertising agencies are redirecting their traditional advertising (print, radio and television) to the internet. They can reach their target audience for less money, compared to the old ways of advertising. Advertising agencies are turning to Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Constant Contact, I-Contact, Cinchcast,blogging, Internet radio and podcasting, and other new media to reach out to the consumer.
My business is online and I do use social media to reach out to consumers and other businesses. By the way, I highly recommend it to small business owners who don't have a large advertising budget.
www.onestopgeneral.com
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11-10-2009 @ 12:22AM
Cheryl said...
i stopped buying themagazine because it was so full of ads. More ads than articles.
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11-10-2009 @ 6:46AM
kris said...
I have cut back on expensive magazines that offer products I cannot afford.
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11-13-2009 @ 9:22PM
Lilly said...
I am very disappointed. Metropolitan Home was a beautiful magazine and provided lots of ideas and looks that you can aspire to for your home. It was my favorite.
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11-15-2009 @ 5:38PM
Dave said...
We just received the December issue in the mail along with a notice asking us to renew our subscription. It said that if we renew now for a year we can "gift" a subscription to a friend as well. There was no mention of the magazine closing. They were more than willing to take our money to renew. WHAT A SCAM.
We heard about the magazine closing because we asked a friend if they would like the gift subscription and they told us that the magazine was closing. LAME.
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