Tuesday 20 March 2007

When your favourite magazines go downhill.

I've been reading a thread on the Country Living magazine website about the number of adverts that are in the magazine now, and also the fact that they only feature one house each issue, sometimes featuring homes that they had in the magazine a few years ago. A lot of readers are unhappy and are cancelling their subscriptions.

I share their disappointment. If I buy a home magazine, I want to see homes, plural. Not just one home that has already been in the magazine.

However, CL isn't the only magazine that I loved that changed for the worse (in my opinion). I bought Inspirations every month from the first issue. I loved the homes they featured, but I bought it mainly for the craft articles and freebies. Then a few years ago, it disappeared for a couple of months, then came back with a new publisher. They'd pretty much stripped out the crafts and started featuring homes that were *modern* and *chic* instead of the funky and quirky homes that were often featured. I lost interest, and thinking about it, I don't remember seeing it on the shelves for a long time.

Another magazine that has changed is the BBC Good Homes magazine. The homes it would feature were great. Often small terraced houses, decorated on a budget with wit and originality. I loved seeing how people made use of things they'd found in skips or at car boot sales, and how they'd made the best of small rooms and tiny gardens.
Flicking through the magazine now though, you'd think everybody lived in houses that cost upwards of half a million pounds, own their own interior design/event management/PR business, and buy their stuff from Laura Ashley and Fired Earth, and their huge kitchens are from Mark Wilkinson.
Where has the originality gone? Where have the *normal* people gone? Are there any magazines that still inspire?

2 comments:

florence100 said...

I agree with every word.A couple of years ago a friend gave me a massive pile of old BBC Good Homes magazines and I could not put them down. I bought it for a few months, but not any more.
Yes, Inspirations does seem to have vanished. I,too, bought that religiously from issue 1 before it went downhill!
It seems amazing that with all the talent out there in "regular" homes, that magazines give us the same stuff!

Gill said...

How I agree, there seem to be no magazines in the UK that feature real vintage style homes with a bit of character and inspiration. I don't want to look at designer homes or "staged" rooms filled with furniture from the high street.
There's a real gap in the market, Country Living is one long advert now, as are most of the others I've looked at recently. Good job we've got fantastic blogs to inspire us!