Bye, Bye, Domino!
I don’t know if you’ve heard the news but Domino Magazine has announced that the March 2009 issue will be their last. The three-year-old magazine can no longer attract enough advertising dollars to pay the bills. While subscriptions are important for any magazine, advertising is the main source of income. And in this economy, advertisers are pulling back a bit. But that’s not the only reason that magazines are fading away.
I have to admit, I was never a fan of Domino, nor did I understand the attraction. I would pick it up in the airport every once in a while with high hopes for this $4.50 magazine (that I honestly thought was a bit thin). From what I could tell, their basic premise was to share design projects with the readers that included detailed information about the sources. The idea was nothing new because magazines have included a “Sources” or “Resources” sections in the back of their magazine for as far back as I can remember. Domino just made it a little more convenient by including the information right in the photo spread.
But the thing that really turned me off was that more than 50% of the items they included were “To the Trade Only.” I am a designer who has access to all these sources and I thought it was ridiculous so I cannot imagine h0w you felt! Fabric is one of the most important elements of a decorating project and time after time they sourced fabrics from which only decorators had access. This is not help, it’s a big tease. Furthermore, their projects did not enthrall me. If I’ve seen one pseudo-bohemian apartment that just happens to be owned by an actress who had a movie coming out, I’ve seen them all.
Many home -related magazines have folded in the last couple of years (InStyle Home, Martha Stewart’s Blueprint, Country Home, O at Home & Cottage Living to name a few). It’s not easy to compete with the Internet these days. Home magazines plan issues and photo shoots months in advance, while websites and bloggers like me can publish at a moment’s notice. But just like everything else in the world, it comes down to survival of the fittest and print publications are just not cutting it anymore. They are not efficient, nor do they have the ability to quickly respond to the what’s going on in the real world. Design is always evolving so the Internet is a much more logical place to keep the design conversation flowing and evolving, not the printed page.
So, let me know what you think about the fact that design magazines are fading away and if you have any favorites that you truly cannot live without. I would really be interested in hearing what you have to say.
~Lorrie
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February 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I’m actually really going to miss Domino. The content may not have been anything new, but it was presented in a fresh, modern way that appeals to younger designers and homeowners in a way that magazines like Southern Homes and Gardens and other more traditional publications couldn’t. I also really liked Blueprint, and I still have a couple of issues of O at Home. A few of my current favorites are Metropolitan Home, Dwell and Natural Home. Funny enough, I never even noticed that most of the products in Domino were to the trade only. I guess I used the book more for inspiration than for finding specific products.
Good magazines are a dying breed, and understandably so. Advertisers are shunning the expensive print spreads and putting their dollars where the readers are — online. But still, as much as I love reading home blogs and magazines online (after all, I did start one), nothing can beat a printed book where I can dog-ear pages with ideas and tear out a photo for inspiration. It helps, of course, that we recycle all these magazines when we’re done with them
For now, I’ll just try to make my shelter blog as great as it can be and hope that in a few years, there will still be some great print magazines left.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 pm
My frustration with Domino Magazine was that it was supposed to be decorating “for the rest of us”… which is a great premise if someone would like to publish it; however, that means you don’t recommend using a $300 sofa table from West Elm under a tablecloth as a faux radiator cover when a $30 Lack table from IKEA would do the same thing.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:49 am
You know, as much as I agree with you about the Internet being the next logical step of evolution, to me, there is nothing more exciting than flipping through the glossy pages of a new issue of a favorite magazine! Don’t get me wrong, I stay connected to the Internet as well, and it’s definitely a lot more efficient, but I do hope that some of the magazines will survive. I don’t know if I would want to live in a totally virtual world…=) We are physical beings after all, and to me the feeling of being able to hold and feel something in your hands, cannot be replaced…
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Thanks for all your comments. You presented points of view that I had not considered. I also like to flip through certain magazines: Metropolitan Home, House Beautiful and Elle Decor but so many of them have way more advertisements then content. I think that eventually it will come down to a few very good quality magazines and that would work for me!
~Lorrie
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I wasn’t a Domino reader, but Leyla, I agree with you. I enjoy actually looking through the pages of a real magazine, but can appreciate the internet as a way to have access to so much info. and pictures that would be too difficult to store at home. I get a lot of other home magazines and once I’m finished looking through them I will sometimes use certain ones for collage projects.
February 3rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Hi Lorrie It’s me again. I am very sad that design mags are going by the wayside. I am a designer and I like nothing more than to take a magazine to the pool, on the airplane or in a hot bath. You cant do that with the internet. It is also a great resource when creating a color board for clients. Oh well…..
I am also a writer who writes a great deal of web content for those magazines that have chosen to enlarge their online presence. So I am torn between loyalties. I must admit it is easier to get a writing gig online than to submit queries and hope for the best.
However, I do believe that print is not going to become totally obsolete any time soon. And, hopefully, as the economy improves (which it will) people and advertisers will begin supporting print again.
Take care
diane
February 19th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
[...] by Edwin Meredith in 1922. That’s 87 years, folks. Pretty impressive given the number of home magazines that have folded in the last couple of [...]