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Re: Was: gator/countryliving gardener; Now: Trends


>The next change was in 2000 when marketing studies indicated that the
Gardener's Companion would sell well and pull advertising if it went to a
quarterly--which it did.  After almost three years in this mode, the
circulation decreased and advertisers were not spending as freely.
So...this magazine is going back to an annual next year.<

I wonder how much of it is indirect economics. I've been writing for them for a couple of years, now, and it always seemed to me---given their low level of promotion and  sales effort---that Yankee uses Gardener's Companion as a money pit. When things are going well (which is often, for Yankee), they push GC as a place to dump excess cash. Then, when things slow down at Yankee, they pull in their horns at the Companion.

I've heard on the grapevine, btw, that the "back to an annual" plan may be on hold, and they're now looking at either going biannual or retaining it as a quarterly.

>  Part of
this is due to the melt down at Organic Gardening--these are the same
readers---and that Mother Earth beefed up its gardening content.<


Certainly the OG meltdown contributed. But OG was on a downward slide for a long time. Trouble was, readers had no place else to go. Then, when Mother decided to reverse direction and go back to its roots, it provided that place. So, among other things, MEN is now the de facto number one organic gardening magazine in the country. And many former OG readers, who had stuck with it out of a sense of loyalty, rather than because it was providing for their needs, have jumped over to Mother.

But a lot of MEN's renewed growth has also come from its orginal readers and their spiritual heirs.  People who gave it up during the 90s when it was just another yuppie gardening magazine. So now the homesteader types, and the alternative energy types, and the alternative housing types, and so forth are coming back to it in droves.

Folks in the industry, for instance, tell me they are still getting inquiries from my double-feature on portable sawmills, which ran in December. I happened to see one of them last Saturday, and he told me they are averaging two-three inquiries a week---an incredible rate of return six months after the issue appeared.

> It would be interesting to
see what has changed, what looks promising and what is a waste of time.<


In my limited time writing for gardening magazines (I started in 1999) it seems to me that editors/publishers are much more locked-in to mix as usual, rather than trying to reflect readers' interests.

Given the state of the economy, and the low confidence level people have due to 9-11, the out-of-proportion reaction to terrorism threats, and the war in the sand, people have turned much more heavily to vegetable gardening. While this is a natural reaction (it always happens during poor economies or times of crisis), it is not being reflected in the gardening magazines, which, by and large, have not changed the amount of space they devote to veggies. Meanwhile, readers are not interested in one more rehash of The Best Perennials For (fill in the blank).


Brook

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