By Alyson Fixter
Channel 4 is to launch its first branded magazine into the crowded
homes market, where it will seek to make a splash with contributions
from a raft of TV talent.
4Homes, which will feature stars such as Kevin McCloud of Grand
Designs and Naomi Cleaver of Honey I Ruined the House, will hit news
stands on 2 March, taking on high-end titles Livingetc and Elle Deco.
Editor
Lucy Searle, former associate editor at market leader Ideal Home,
admitted the market was crowded, but insisted there was still room at
the top end. She said: “The magazine will be unconventional,
opinionated, sexy and stylish, like Channel 4 viewers, and like the
best of Channel 4 programming.
“We won’t be afraid to say things that perhaps the other homes titles would be afraid to say.”
Details
of the magazine’s content are being kept under wraps, with no dummies
available, but Searle said the magazine would differ from existing
titles by including a “wellbeing slant” running right through its
editorial.
The title is being contract published by Media 10.
Fellow contract publisher Brooklands already produces three Channel 4
spin-off titles, including Location Location Location, and A Place In
The Sun, but these are not Channel 4- branded and are produced in
collaboration with the programme-makers rather than the broadcaster.
4Homes
will be priced at £3 with an initial print run of 250,000. The
editorial team includes Clare Steel, former style editor of NatMags’
House Beautiful, as deputy editor and Darren Holdway, launch art editor
of Olive, as art director.
The homes sector currently has about 15 titles following a series of closures last year.
The
last ABCs in August, showed that the majority of titles had lost
readers year on year, with notable exceptions in BBC Good Homes and
IPC’s Livingetc, which saw decent circulation increases.
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