Country Home Gets Remodeled, Not Re-Built

Don't suggest to Country Home publisher Mark Josephson that recent changes at the 24-year-old title constitute a redesign. "The word 'redesign' makes it sound like we did something drastic," he argues. "Really, it's just a step in the continuing evolution of the magazine."

He may be splitting hairs - the changes don't extend much beyond an overall airier feel and a handful of new editorial features - but it's understandable that Josephson would object to the "redesign" tag. Comprehensive redesigns, after all, are often the desperate last step of a floundering publication, and Country Home hardly shows signs of being on its deathbed.

In fact, having been around since 1979, Country Home is one of the grande dames of the home-and-lifestyle set. With a rate base and frequency that have climbed steadily over the last few years (from one million/eight issues in 2001 to 1.2 million/ten issues in 2003), the magazine has done as well as any publication not named Real Simple in tapping into the lifestyle and design sensibilities of its readers.

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"It's a very accessible magazine - there's no frustration level with Country Home," Josephson explains. "We don't just give decorating and design advice; we give it in the context of real people who have applied that advice to their homes. Everything in the magazine is attainable."

A few of Country Home's recent editorial tweaks seem more inspired by thriving reality-TV tactics than by a desire to reflect its new "A More Modern Country" tagline - for example, "How They Really Live" chronicles how celebrities shop, decorate and collect. Nonetheless, Josephson believes that Country Home is the only title that "is really reflective of the way people are living now. It's not the dark, rustic New England you used to see in magazines like this."

Clearly Josephson and the Country Home team are eager to distinguish themselves within the brutally competitive home/lifestyle category. In recent years, as evinced by the well-received circulation and frequency boosts, they've clearly been successful. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, in the first seven months of 2003 Country Home has outpaced a few of its competitors in terms of ad-page growth: the mag is up 12.4% in pages over the year-ago period. By comparison, Country Living is up 9.4%, Real Simple is up 62.4% and Martha Stewart Living is down 30.6%.

Overall, however, Country Home still lags behind in total ad pages. Between January and July, it ran 459 pages; the other three titles, respectively, ran 628, 562 and 692. Similarly, some of Country Home's percentage growth can be attributed to the magazine's increased frequency.

Even so, it's hard to dispute Josephson's contention that advertisers are responding to County Home more enthusiastically now than in the recent past. In its last few issues, the title has remained strong in its endemic home category (Kohler, GE appliances, Sherwin-Williams) and retail (JCPenney Home Collection, Lowe's, Target). Food continues to improve (Kraft, Kellogg's) and Josephson is optimistic that Country Home will grow its pages from beauty and fashion advertisers.

"We already have Olay and Nivea, but there's certainly more we can be doing in that segment," he says. "I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only publisher in this category that's trying to do more with beauty and fashion."

Not surprisingly, Josephson's main concern moving forward is the U.S. economy. While he has sensed less hesitancy among advertisers in recent months, he repeats the oft-uttered sentiment that "we're not out of the woods yet." As for Country Home, he thinks the magazine has thrived during difficult economic times due to the fact that it does not rely on a single ad category.

"We're not at risk if a category goes bad, like travel has over the last few years, and we've been fortunate that home has been so strong," he explains. "Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I don't see any red flags for us."

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