The cover of Cottage Living's final issue, November/December 2008.
The latest is Cottage Living, which Time Inc. is shutting down. It becomes the fourth major shelter magazine to fold in the past 12 months. News reports say most of the magazine’s 47 staffers will be laid off.
In announcing the closure of the magazine November 17, a Time Inc. spokesperson said the economy had inhibited Cottage Living’s ability to grow.
Aimed at rustic-minded homeowners, Cottage Living launched four years ago and had a rate base of 1 million in 2007. It was published eight times a year and had a cover price of $3.99.
The publication had its main editorial office in Birmingham, Alabama. Its most recent masthead lists three staffers in the art/photography department: Photography director Jean Herr and senior designers Erynn Hedrick Hassinger and Dit Rutland.
The final issue of Cottage Living is the November/December issue on newsstands now, featuring a Christmas tree cover photographed by Monica Buck. Time Inc. is also closing the CottageLiving.com Web site.
With the economy in a downturn, Time Inc. is going through a round of cuts that are expected to reduce the magazine publisher’s workforce by 600.
Other magazine publishers facing similar market challenges have dropped their shelter magazines already.
Condé Nast folded House & Garden in November 2007, Hachette Filipacchi Media shut Home in August and Hearst Magazines said last week it would stop publishing O at Home.
Cottage Living was named AdWeek’s 2005 Startup of the Year. However, the magazine remained small in terms of ad pages, which declined 5.1 percent to 514 this year, according to the Mediaweek Monitor.
With reporting by Lucia Moses of Mediaweek.
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