Time Inc, the largest magazine publisher in the US, announced Tuesday plans to shutter its four-year old Cottage Living magazine and its accompanying website, CottageLiving.com. The November/December issue will be the magazine’s last. Time officials said the magazine will be incorporated into another of its shelter magazines, although no details were immediately available.
“Since its inception, Cottage Living attracted significant advertiser support and fostered a loyal following among readers,” said Sylvia Auton, a Time executive vice-president, in a statement. “However, the economic downturn has particularly affected the shelter market, and while the brand was genuinely loved by readers and advertisers alike, the economy inhibited its ability to grow.”
Cottage Living will follow several other home-focused publications into the dark. In October, Hachette Filipacchi Media US closed down Home magazine, a 26-year-old shelter title. About a year ago, Condé Nast Publications folded House & Garden, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia shut down fledgling Blueprint just a few months later.
Even non-shelter magazines are struggling. Condé Nast recently announced plans to cut the frequency of its fledgling business pub, Portfolio, to 10 issues from 12, and reduce publication of Men’s Vogue to a meager two times a year. Hearst Magazines is also shutting down CosmoGirl magazine after its December issue,
Cottage Living launched in September 2004 with a circulation of 500,000 and peaked in January/February 2007 with a circulation of 1 million, according to Time. In 2005, it was named as part of Advertising Age’s “2005 Launch Worth Watching.”
