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The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Stephen Orr, Better Homes and Gardens New Editor-in-Chief -

Better Homes and Gardens: The Mother Of All Consumer Magazines Prepares For Its Next Century Under New Leadership

“Magazines to me are not the thing that people carry around in their purse or under their arm as much as they used to, but the magazine to me is a quieter activity; it’s a less hectic information experience. It’s not like going through your Twitter feed or your Instagram feed where things are coming at you from every space. It’s a highly-curated space in time that you have for yourself. Before I even came here, I thought to myself, what is the BH&G reader doing and how is he or she looking at the magazine and I think it’s like a me-time moment where he or she has a moment during the day when things are quiet, kids are in bed or there’s a quiet space in the day and she’s going to sit for a while and look through her favorite magazine. We want to be that magazine. ” Stephen Orr

Better Homes and Gardens was born in 1922 and in seven years will celebrate its 100th birthday. It is the largest paid consumer magazine in the country with 7.6 million in circulation (mainly subs) and 40 million readers.

Commanding a ship that large is a huge responsibility, but Stephen Orr is the man to do it. Combining both his art and editorial skills; he could easily be just what the doctor prescribed for the magazine as it moves into its next century. Stephen was Executive Editor of Condé Nast Traveler, and has more than 25 years of experience in content creation and design leadership across many of the media industry’s most recognizable brands.

Throughout his career, he has been very successful at developing brands across multiple channels. Prior to Condé Nast Traveler, Stephen was a VP/Editorial Director for the Martha Stewart Living brand, where he created multi-channel content with a special focus on style, food, and gardening as well as licensed product development. He has also held senior content creation leadership positions at multi-platform brands such as House & Garden, Domino, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and Epicurious. Early in his career he held senior design positions at The New York Times Magazine, W, and WWD. He is a man both experienced and passionate about the world of magazines.

I spoke with Stephen recently and we talked about this passion of his for magazines and for people. In fact, he believes wholeheartedly that magazines are people and Mr. Magazine™would have to agree with him on that. He loves the opinions and ideas of his staff and thrives on their energy and creative talent, which he feels overflows into the brand and makes it even more content-engaging and reflective of what BH&G’s audience expects from their favorite magazine.

With a few new surprises coming up down the pike from Stephen’s own creative energy and talent, the largest consumer magazine in the country can sail confidently into its 100-year-old berth, knowing that around the corner is the beginning of the next centennial which promises to be even better than the first.
And now without further ado, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Better Homes and Garden’s new Editor-In-Chief, Stephen Orr.

But first, the sound-bites:

On his feelings when he was offered the job of editor-in-chief at Better Homes and Gardens: Certainly, it was an honor. I had been working in magazines for 25+ years and I had worked at a lot of different titles, but I had never worked at Meredith before. Meredith is a very disciplined company, which I really respect. They did a lot of interviews; I met a lot of different people during the process. It was a long interview process and I was really happy when I finally got the offer.

On whether the thought ever crossed his mind that he was moving from “class” to “mass” by joining a title that had 40 million in readership from specialized titles that had a more targeted audience: I think some of my other experiences that I’ve had helped with that. For instance, I’d say two places in particular; Domino Magazine, even though that was a Condè Nast Magazine and had a very elevated level of shopping. The original idea of Domino, and I was there in the early days until it shuttered, was to bring an accessibility to design and a feeling of how to combine kind of cheap-and-cheerful and this mix of high and low, and also point out to people when they should spend a little extra money on something, while giving them tips on ways to save money at the same time. And I also think Martha Stewart where I once worked was like that. Martha is the empress of bringing a level of knowledge and visual sense to a mass market audience. That’s what Martha has done so well for the American consumer.

On his multifaceted career as a journalist/designer/editor and how he plans to bring those personas into play at Better Homes and Gardens: I think one of my strengths is, if I can say it about myself; I’m half visual and I’m half words. For half of my career I was an art director and a graphic designer and then the other half so far has been more of an editor with words and a writer. So, I definitely have those two sides of my brain and I think a magazine like Better Homes and Gardens, and in fact most magazines these days, unless you’re speaking of The New Yorker or something like that, are visually-driven. We only have the readers’ attention for such a brief span of time, so I think that my career as an art director does allow me to see things very visually.

On the February issue, which will be the first totally original issue under his guidance, and the changes readers can expect: We’ve been feeding new things into the magazine; it’s been sort of a development over time. I’ve been here since July, so when I arrived they already had October’s issue basically done; I just did a few tweaks and changes, but not much; we didn’t shoot anything new. The only thing new there was my editor’s letter and in it I wanted to make a statement, so my editor’s letters will all be shot with an iPhone; the first one was a bit of a mix, but eventually they all will be shot with an iPhone. I wanted to immediately telegraph to people that these are new days here at Better Homes and Gardens; we are a print magazine, but we’re alsoBHG.com and we have our social media channels and I interact with our readers over all of those different ways, so I’m not a hidden editor-in-chief; I want to be connected with our readers, especially through our social media.

On whether he heard any media or reader feedback about the fact that once again a man was editor of Better Homes and Gardens, mainly a women’s magazine: I haven’t heard anything about the fact that here’s a man doing this job at all. I think women are very accepting of men in roles where we talk to them about different things. I don’t know if women care as much whether it’s a man or a woman telling them about home décor or cooking or flower arranging, as long as people seem to know what they’re talking about.

On how important the printed Better Homes and Gardens is to him: It’s all of equal importance. We talk about Omni-channel consumers, and that’s something we were discussing in a recent presentation. We have about 50 million readers, if you look at the whole audience, print and digital. It’s a gigantic number of people, and we want to appeal to them on whatever platform they’re on. And this is the way it is today with all of us; we consume information in the way that we find most convenient for us. So, magazines to me are not the thing that people carry around in their purse or under their arm as much as they used to, but the magazine to me is a quieter activity; it’s a less hectic information experience. It’s not like going through your Twitter feed or your Instagram feed where things are coming at you from every space.

On if we are talking seven years from now, on the 100th anniversary of the magazine, will the readers say it’s still they’re same Better Homes and Gardens or something totally different: No, I want them to say it’s still theirs. I was saying in a meeting the other day; we get letters where people get upset if we give them a story that doesn’t particularly pertain to them; I mean, they do feel like it’s their magazine, but it’s hard with that many readers to hit a chord with every single person. And so I do hope the readers will realize that sometimes there might be a story that’s more kid-focused and they might be empty-nesters, so they might just glance at it and keep moving. But we’re trying to offer a wide range of stories so that the majority of every issue is appealing to our established audience as well as a new audience.

On the biggest challenge that he’s faced since becoming editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens and how he overcame it: There have been more perceptual challenges, I think. Maybe perceived challenges would be a better way to describe it, ones that I thought I might have. I felt like maybe I would encounter people who were set in their ways and resistant to new ideas or change, and I have to say that what I have encountered has been the exact opposite of that perception. I had never been to Iowa before in my life and coming here I found that people are categorically open to new ideas and change. And they’re eager for something new.

On anything else he’d like to add: People might have a hard time understanding my living in Des Moines after living in New York City for so long, and people might have a hard time understanding, like you said, my coming from Condè Nast and now working at a gigantic, more mass general interest magazine, but I think what’s most exciting about working in media is it never stops changing. And I always tell people if you don’t like change, don’t work in media. (Laughs)

On what motivates him to get out of bed in the mornings: What I like is when I come to the office in the mornings, the office is humming and people are going at full-tilt. I tend to come in slightly later than they do and stay later. That gives me a nice time at the end of the day to catch up on emails and read proofs and do the more concentrated work, because with a large staff like this we do a lot of meetings during the day, so the schedule is working great for me.

On what keeps him up at night: I don’t have stress like I’ve had with other jobs. What I have isn’t stress. I guess with the responsibility of this title, I do think about the people here a lot. I’m a very people-focused editor-in-chief, so I would say that I spend time not worrying or stressing, but I spend time thinking about the people I work with and I spend time thinking about how they can be the best at their jobs.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™conversation with Stephen Orr, Editor-In-Chief, Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.

Samir Husni: Congratulations on being named editor-in-chief of the largest paid consumer magazine in the country.

Stephen Orr: Thank you.

Samir Husni: When you received the offer to take over at the helm of the mother of all consumer magazines, Better Homes and Gardens; what were your feelings at the time?

Stephen Orr: Certainly, it was an honor. I had been working in magazines for 25+ years and I had worked at a lot of different titles, but I had never worked at Meredith before. Meredith is a very disciplined company, which I really respect. They did a lot of interviews; I met a lot of different people during the process. It was a long interview process and I was really happy when I finally got the offer.

It was a real honor because I knew they didn’t take this job lightly. Their management and the executive team here know that this is their flagship brand, so they didn’t take anything about this job lightly.

Samir Husni: From all of these other titles that you’d been working with which were technically very specialized magazines to Better Homes and Gardens which has a big, mass 40 million-audience readership; did you at any given moment throughout that long interview process feel like you were moving from “class” to “mass?”

Stephen Orr: I think some of my other experiences that I’ve had helped with that. For instance, I’d say two places in particular; Domino Magazine, even though that was a Condè Nast magazine and had a very elevated level of shopping.

The original idea of Domino, and I was there in the early days until it shuttered, was to bring an accessibility to design and a feeling of how to combine kind of cheap-and-cheerful and this mix of high and low, and also point out to people when they should spend a little extra money on something, while giving them tips on ways to save money at the same time. So, Domino Magazine was very much like that.

And I also think Martha Stewart where I once worked was like that. Martha is the empress of bringing a level of knowledge and visual sense to a mass market audience. That’s what Martha has done so well for the American consumer. And she educates people.

When I think of working at Domino and Martha Stewart Living; I think I learned a lot of those lessons here too, because we’re always talking to a huge range of people.

Samir Husni: From following your career and looking at what you’ve done; you yourself are a multiplatform journalist/designer/editor. You’ve worked in design and editing positions. How are you going to bring this multifaceted Stephen Orr to Better Homes and Gardens?

Stephen Orr: That’s a nice question. I work in both Des Moines and New York City, but primarily in Des Moines, and we have a very talented staff of people here. And they’ve been making a beautiful magazine for years. So, when I came in, I didn’t say: out with the old and in with the new. I wanted to build on what we had that’s really great and make it even better.

I think one of my strengths is, if I can say it about myself; I’m half visual and I’m half words. For half of my career I was an art director and a graphic designer and then the other half so far has been more of an editor with words and a writer. So, I definitely have those two sides of my brain and I think a magazine like Better Homes and Gardens, and in fact most magazines these days, unless you’re speaking of The New Yorker or something like that, are visually-driven. We only have the readers’ attention for such a brief span of time, so I think that my career as an art director does allow me to see things very visually.

We talk about things very visually and for me it’s how do we create engagement with the reader in the print page, but also how do we engage our reader at BHG.com and also our social media channels. All of those things have equal importance to me and with our staff and our editors we’re constantly talking about social media and how to get the word out about BHG and how to attract new readers, while we have our loyal audience base; we want to keep them really happy as well. That, to me, is the real challenge.

Samir Husni: It’s my understanding that February will be the first completely original issue under your leadership. Can you tell me a little about the changes you’ll be unveiling with that issue?

Stephen Orr: We’ve been feeding new things into the magazine; it’s been sort of a development over time. I’ve been here since July, so when I arrived they already had October’s issue basically done; I just did a few tweaks and changes, but not much; we didn’t shoot anything new.

The only thing new there was my editor’s letter and in it I wanted to make a statement, so my editor’s letters will all be shot with an iPhone; the first one was a bit of a mix, but eventually they all will be shot with an iPhone. I wanted to immediately telegraph to people that these are new days here at Better Homes and Gardens; we are a print magazine, but we’re also BHG.com and we have our social media channels and I interact with our readers over all of those different ways, so I’m not a hidden editor-in-chief; I want to be connected with our readers, especially through our social media.

One of our art director’s takes her iPhone and shoots my editor’s letter and then we pick up shots from either my Instagram or our staff’s Instagram’s. If it’s a food issue, we’ll have me with Nancy Hopkins, our food editor, and then we’ll have some shots from her Instagram and then another food editor’s Instagram.

People have had a very good response to it, even the editor’s letter. I think they find it very personable and they like how casual it is; it doesn’t feel staged like some do, which is why I we did it that way; I felt kind of uncomfortable just having a shot of me in a suit and tie, all posed and everything. I wanted it to show how as editors we lead the life. So for us, that was one of the first things that changed.

And then we’ve kind of loosened things up. One of the things that we’re trying to do at Better Homes and Gardens is try to loosen up the presentation a little bit, with more color and people. We’re trying to show people kind of an elevated version of real life and the best life can be in an accessible version.

And then we’re also trying to weave together some other themes: acknowledging that women have jobs at the same time that they’re trying to make a nice home that people work, but also have a home life. We’re trying to talk to new types of readers; we’re looking at young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of all ages and home-based businesses.

We’re also looking at trying to show a new type of BHG reader, but at the same time one of the things that’s very important to me is to highlight Better Homes and Gardens’ heritage because I believe if you run away from what you are; you’re denying what’s been accomplished over these almost 100 years, and the authority that Better Homes and Gardens has.

For instance, we’re doing a story on our own test kitchen to show people that we have all of these amazing resources here that sometimes get hidden just because they’ve been around the magazine for so long. Sometimes people forget how special they are because they’ve just always been there. But there are treasures here. We have an amazing test garden and test kitchen full of amazingly knowledgeable people and I want to bring that knowledge into the pages.

Samir Husni: I don’t know if you know this, but my magazine program here at the University of Mississippi was started by Meredith and Better Homes and Gardens.

Stephen Orr: That’s amazing. Meredith has so many deep community roots in so many places and that’s why it’s such a wonderful company. I’ve worked at Condè Nast primarily; I’ve also worked at The New York Times and other places, but you know, I love the culture of Meredith.

There are a lot of values at Meredith that I think we’re trying to show in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. It’s has a very democratic appeal to a wide range of people and I think I understand that because I’ve lived in New York before being in Des Moines and New York now. I lived in New York for nearly 30 years, but before that I was raised in West Texas, so I really understand how it is to be brought up in the middle of the country and the values there.

Samir Husni: I love your ideas about the test gardens and test kitchen; I’ve seen them all and they’re amazing. I’ve often thought they should be written about.

Stephen Orr: Yes, there’s so much to do with it. We’re going to have regular features on the test kitchen and test gardens, whether they’re specific lessons or other things. Before I came, I don’t know how often there was a regular meeting, but now I have regular meetings with our head test gardener and she comes and tells us seasonally what’s interesting and she’s working on what plants she’s obsessed with. She’s on the front lines of gardening, doing her thing there. I planted 1,000 bulbs this weekend myself, but I don’t have the time to garden every day with my job, as much as I’d like to.

Samir Husni: When I received the note that you’d been appointed editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens, I was taken back to almost 30 years ago when David Jordan was editor-in-chief of the magazine. Was there any response from the media or from readers about the fact that a man was now editor-in-chief of mainly a women’s magazine? When the first woman was hired as editor-in-chief, there were a lot of stories reflecting the sentiment that finally women’s magazines were getting women editors.

Stephen Orr: I haven’t heard anything about the fact that here’s a man doing this job at all. I think women are very accepting of men in roles where we talk to them about different things. I don’t know if women care as much whether it’s a man or a woman telling them about home décor or cooking or flower arranging, as long as people seem to know what they’re talking about.

Obviously, I’m not the only authority here, so for me when it comes to family and what a woman really thinks about something, I never tell women what they think, I always ask people who work with me, my executive editor or one of my other editors. I’ll ask then what do they think about something as a mom with young kids; what do you think we should do. From a health standpoint, Amy Brightfield will tell me what she does as a mom.

We have so many great experts here and I’m a very collaborative non-hierarchical kind of editor-in-chief, so we have a lot of talks and meetings. We’re all getting to know each other and I just want the communication to flow. That’s where I think the reader will feel that this is a team effort; it really is not just about me. It’s a team effort with people who have all kinds of expertise.

Samir Husni: You’ve emphasized the fact that you have print, BHG.com and all of your social media channels; how are you going to strike this balance between the 7.6 million subscriber/newsstand-based audiences and the website? How important is the printed Better Homes and Gardens to you?

Stephen Orr: It’s all of equal importance. We talk about Omni-channel consumers, and that’s something we were discussing in a recent presentation. We have about 50 million readers, if you look at the whole audience, print and digital. It’s a gigantic number of people, and we want to appeal to them on whatever platform they’re on. And this is the way it is today with all of us; we consume information in the way that we find most convenient for us.

Increasingly for people, it’s on their phones. We all go everywhere and we see people on their phones all of the time. You don’t see people flipping through magazines that much; you see people on their phones.

So, magazines to me are not the thing that people carry around in their purse or under their arm as much as they used to, but the magazine to me is a quieter activity; it’s a less hectic information experience. It’s not like going through your Twitter feed or your Instagram feed where things are coming at you from every space. It’s a highly-curated space in time that you have for yourself. Before I even came here, I thought to myself, what is the BHG reader doing and how is he or she looking at the magazine and I think it’s like a me-time moment where he or she has a moment during the day when things are quiet, kids are in bed or there’s a quiet space in the day and she’s going to sit for a while and look through her favorite magazine. We want to be that magazine.

It’s interesting that we get a lot of letters that say that and the other day we actually got a wonderful phone call from a woman, I believe in Tennessee, and she just talked about that she’d been going through some family trouble, health problems with relatives or something, she didn’t go into details, but she just left us a long phone message that was forwarded to me. She said that she loved Better Homes and Gardens and she was so excited by the new direction and she wanted to call and tell me that, because she’d walked in the door from a challenging week and she sat down with her magazine and she said it was almost like a healing moment for her, to sit there and look at all the beautiful images and flip through it at her own pace.

And that’s what I think we offer as a printed magazine. But we also offer people engagement on social media, which we’re trying to continually improve, and also quick and easy solutions and tips that they might encounter through their Facebook feeds and on BHG.com and videos. We all live in this multifaceted information world and I don’t think one aspect is better than another. I’m grateful that the printed page is still there for people because I do think that it offers them a respite during the day.

Samir Husni: If I’m talking with you seven years from now and you’re launching the Centennial edition, the 100th anniversary issue of Better Homes and Gardens; do you think the readers who have been with the magazine for 20 or 30 years and the new readers too, will say wow, it’s still my same Better Homes and Gardens or they’ll see a drastically different magazine?

Stephen Orr: No, I want them to say it’s still theirs. I was saying in a meeting the other day; we get letters where people get upset if we give them a story that doesn’t particularly pertain to them; I mean, they do feel like it’s their magazine, but it’s hard with that many readers to hit a chord with every single person. And so I do hope the readers will realize that sometimes there might be a story that’s more kid-focused and they might be empty-nesters, so they might just glance at it and keep moving.

But we’re trying to offer a wide range of stories so that the majority of every issue is appealing to our established audience as well as a new audience. I’ve worked at magazines before where they kind of discounted their existing audience and were rushing after a new audience and I didn’t want to do that here. I am very conscious of the fact that I want our magazine to appeal to people of all ages, of multi-generations; I’m a GNX, but barely. I’m on the cusp of Baby-Boomer.

I’m not a millennial at all, but I have the millennial mindset; I really follow what millennials are doing. I’m the type of person who is on their phone and Instagram all of the time. I read my news off of Twitter a lot, both in-depth news and looking through to primary news sources. I also get inspiration from Twitter and people who are doing interesting things. I get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram every day. And so that’s how I get my information, but also when one of my favorite magazines comes through the door, I stop and I read that magazine.

I feel like I exist at the point where people that are older than me are less computer native in many ways and people younger than me are more computer native and information-technology native. And I feel very much at my age and my experience level, and how I started working with computers in college, I feel I’m very much a good representative of both groups. I’m neither too much of one nor not enough of the other. And I want to try and be that divining rod or whatever phrase might be used, to try and speak to all of the different audiences that we have.

And I feel like people in this day and age, especially marketers, put people into these groups and talk about how different we all are; I tend to focus more on how similar we are.

Samir Husni: I think your role at your age; you’re the two-lane bridge that connects both sides of the spectrum. I’m a little bit older than you and having grown up during the print platform and having adapted to the digital platform; to me that’s more powerful than just being a digital native or a print native.

Stephen Orr: I’m very happy with my position. I’m happy that I love print and I love books and magazines and I love the visual appeal of those things and I also love digital. I love being online.

But like most people and maybe younger people don’t feel this way, I actually look for ways to not be online. So a magazine is a way for me not to have to be connected. I don’t have to be connected all of the time; I’m the kind of person who might say, OK – I’m putting my phone in the drawer and I’m going outside. And that’s why I love gardening, because I can go outside and if I bring my phone with me, it’s too expensive to replace should I drop it…(Laughs)

Samir Husni: What has been the biggest challenge that you’ve had to face since you became editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens and how did you overcome it?

Stephen Orr: There have been more perceptual challenges, I think. Maybe perceived challenges would be a better way to describe it, ones that I thought I might have. I felt like maybe I would encounter people who were set in their ways and resistant to new ideas or change, and I have to say that what I have encountered has been the exact opposite of that perception.

I had never been to Iowa before in my life and coming here I found that people are categorically open to new ideas and change. And they’re eager for something new. So, the wide range of people that I’m working with here on a day-to-day basis are open to change and everybody is willing to try something new; people are quick to get onboard.

They really know what they’re about and I value their expertise, because for me I don’t want to come in as a change agent and not listen to the people who have been doing it for a long time. I always want to hear: why did we do it that way and when did we last change it and what was the reaction? I don’t just blithely discard the past. For me it’s a combination of the past and the future. I’m a dual person; I love both.

But I don’t think I’ve encountered any enormous challenges. The things that I wondered might be challenges turned out not to be problems. The Meredith Corporation has been very supportive. We had a presentation a couple of weeks ago where they saw some of the ideas for some of the changes and they couldn’t have been happier and more supportive.

Samir Husni: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Stephen Orr: People might have a hard time understanding my living in Des Moines after living in New York City for so long, and people might have a hard time understanding, like you said, my coming from Condè Nast and now working at a gigantic, more mass general interest magazine, but I think what’s most exciting about working in media is it never stops changing. And I always tell people if you don’t like change, don’t work in media. (Laughs)

Our world, because of technology and everything that’s happening, everything changes all of the time. And I think as editors our job is to be nimble. People overuse that word, but it’s such a nice word to think about because it implies that you’re able to skate over the surface and keep nimbly moving no matter what to make it all work. And I think that’s’ what’s exciting about what we’re doing in this day and age with media. The changes, even though they’re challenges, are what offer the most excitement.

Samir Husni: What motivates you to get out of bed in the mornings, especially now that you’re out of the City and in the Midwest? Does farm life get you out of bed any earlier these days? (Laughs)

Stephen Orr: (Laughs too) It does. They work on an earlier schedule and that took some getting used to. But there’s no commute here. In my last job, my commute was an hour. And that was killing me, an hour each way. Now my commute is five minutes, so I don’t have much to complain about.

What I like is when I come to the office in the mornings, the office is humming and people are going at full-tilt. I tend to come in slightly later than they do and stay later. That gives me a nice time at the end of the day to catch up on emails and read proofs and do the more concentrated work, because with a large staff like this we do a lot of meetings during the day, so the schedule is working great for me.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Stephen Orr: I don’t have stress like I’ve had with other jobs. What I have isn’t stress. I guess with the responsibility of this title, I do think about the people here a lot. I’m a very people-focused editor-in-chief, so I would say that I spend time not worrying or stressing, but I spend time thinking about the people I work with and I spend time thinking about how they can be the best at their jobs.

So, that’s basically it. I’m just thinking about the people I work with a lot. I hope that doesn’t sound insincere, but that’s what I believe. I believe magazines are people and so for me all of the people that we work with here at Better Homes and Gardens are all friends, including digital and social media and our special issues. It’s thinking about everybody’s strengths and how to get everybody super-excited about making this product over all its platforms.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

 

Interview with Julia Zaetta, Editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens

Meet the incredible Julia Zaetta, Editor-in-chief of Better Homes and Gardens. Julia talks about why the magazine is still so popular, what's in store for Christmas and what's inspired her over 30 years with the magazine.

Julia, Better Homes and Gardens is one of Australia’s top selling magazines, what’s its distinct appeal?

We wrestle for the top position with the Australian Women’s Weekly, particularly in supermarkets, some months we are the top selling magazine, other months we’re just underneath, but we’re certainly up there which is an amazingly wonderful place to be.

I think fundamentally the intention of Better Homes and Gardens is always to create content so the user is able to do something with it that makes their life better. Ultimately, I think we give people the wherewithal to have a happier life. And I think if you can do that, you can really believe in what you do and you love it!

Often times people ask: why don’t you put people in the magazine? Why don’t you put people on the cover?

In fact, when we were talking about putting a Christmas tree on our Christmas cover someone suggested - why don’t we get a celebrity to design it? Those of us who have been here for ages went - no no no no! Because the whole intention of this magazine is that we give the information and the ideas and the inspiration so the readers can be the celebrities, they’re the achievers. We love our readers, we really love them, they’re an army of amazing doers who are just terrific.

Better Homes and Gardens is known for terrific recipes and mouth-watering food photography. The last issue paid tribute to the humble takeaway chook. Why is it such an Aussie standby?

If you can get the right chook and it tastes succulent and fabulous and wonderful, you can actually turn it into something spectacular without too much effort, and I think that’s the issue for today. Taste is critical in anything you cook – and roast chook is usually a pretty tasty number. You can just do amazing things with it without too much effort and without too much time and without too much cost.

What’s coming up in your Christmas issue (on sale 15th October)?

This year in the December we have a bonus fold-out colouring-in book with handmade ideas for projects with what you have coloured. And we have handmade ideas for the pages from the fold-out also, if you choose to leave them uncoloured in black and white! Sooooo sophisticated!

In this issue we also feature a whopping mix and match festive food section, so you choose what you want for you splendiferous Christmas day feast.

And not to be missed are the big finale show-stopping desserts so the foodster becomes the star on the day. And along with this are wonderful Christmas trees to bake in all manner of shapes and uses!

The Christmas issue has another fold out, this time a selection of beautiful images showing you how to make little food gifts, with their recipes and as a bonus, how to wrap them – and the wrap paper comes with the issue – to wit is provided in the mag! Gorgeous paper it is too!

Plus there are something like 40 pages of the Big Family Christmas Feast with budget, healthy, kids, easy and twists as variations with the recipes. It’s fabulous!

How important is reader feedback to you, how do you communicate with your readers?

I can just give you two quick little examples that I give people often: during the bushfire times when we’ve asked readers to send in knitted squares we’ve received so many we don’t know where to put them. They came in in droves, with letters from readers thanking us for enabling them to do something to help. And a last little one - an assistant I had a while ago said the fairy penguins in Victoria, they pick at their feathers if they get any oil on them and one of the things people can do to help is knit little woollen vests, they put the little woollen vests on the penguins and it stops them from picking their feathers. So we did a weeny little story at the back of the magazine, it was only half a page with a little knitting pattern. Oh, I think 3000 or 5000 knitted vests later, the penguin people in Victoria said please stop sending them! There’s not enough penguins on the planet!

You’ve had an amazing career at the helm of some of Australia’s favourite magazines, can you share some of the high points with us?

Look, you can’t go past editing The Women’s Weekly, that was amazing and wonderful although I only did it for a short time because we changed publishers and editors, but being responsible for the most iconic magazine brand in Australia is extraordinary. You have such a great sense of responsibility that it’s unbelievable. Although, you had to let your ego go every so often – Ita Buttrose had been gone from the magazine for 20 years but I think something like 20% of the readers still thought she was the editor! Another high point was launching New Woman Magazine in 1989 when the notion of feminism was just beginning to reach the suburbs in earnest. We moved the idea of the magazine away from feminism to being womanly and the most important aspect was that it didn’t matter what you chose to do, it was the fact that you could choose that was important.

I think Better Homes and Gardens going to a television program 20 years ago was just masterful and amazing from the marketing people at the time. Working for Matt Handbury at Murdoch Magazines has been extraordinary. That was a wonderful period for magazine production and if I could compare it to anything it would be like a sparkler in the industry just continuing to burn with excitement and thrills. It was a lovely time, loopy but fabulous! My son is probably another one, I ended up with the publisher of Better Homes and so he is the result of Better Homes and Gardens! We decided not to call him Better, we didn’t think it was appropriate! So that’s another high point. There’ve been so many, so many.

The low points?

Low points have been wonderful people moving through the industry and then going. Work issues, circulation problems and all those sorts of things, they’re just part and parcel of the excitement of working with magazines. But I think the people have been extraordinary, and saying goodbye to them … and particularly those who’ve unfortunately died well before their time, they’ve been the low points.

Can you nominate a magazine that you loved, or that particularly inspired or influenced you growing up?

I have to say House & Garden which is how I ended up here. I come from Melbourne and I had a boyfriend whose father worked in the advertising industry and he would bring House & Garden home all the time, I couldn’t get enough of it. I would read it and read it and read it. I much more enjoyed driving around neighbourhoods looking at gardens, and going to kitchen shops, than anything to do with fashion or beauty or whatever. One day when I was reading it voraciously like I always did, he said why don’t you apply for a job with House & Garden? I said, Oh, and why would they employ me? And he said – why don’t you write to them, all you’ve got to lose is a stamp (way back then) which I thought was a really interesting life-changing sentence. So I did write to them and the stamp paid off! I came to Sydney and I ended up working for Home Journal magazine, it’s now gone but that was the most heavenly experience ever. After 6 months a whole bunch of us were retrenched, and of course that was the worst thing that ever happened in my life which transpired to be the best thing because that’s how I got to Better Homes.

Can you give us a sneak peak of what’s new for Better Homes and Gardens, the magazine and the TV show?

Readers are very special to us; we think we might start to get them to be editors a little more, so they are creators as well as recipients of the content. We’re excited about that! We’re also going to be talking to them in a much broader way and we’re creating a special Better Homes and Gardens family that anyone can become part of, we talk to them and they talk back to us. We’re just beginning to develop this and we’re so excited about it because it does give us the opportunity to actually speak as opposed to just through the magazine.

The television show goes travelling a little bit, taking the presenters around Australia, which is lovely. So we possibly will incorporate how you travel around Australia in Better Homes as well, because we forget how amazing this place is where we live. Families are so different now, it’s just not two parents and two kids any longer, it’s lots of amazing mixes. But fundamentally what people want remains the same, they just want a good house that becomes a home for them, they want it to be a happy place for the people who matter.

And one final question with Christmas gifts in mind – what are the benefits for subscribers? Why subscribe?

I always think that the magazine arriving at your place is a surprise and a bit of a gift when it comes like that. Matt Handbury used to say remember when you were little and you collected stamps like we all did way back then and the packet of stamps would arrive and it would be the most amazing thing on the planet. We think the same with Better Homes! Of course it’s cheaper when you subscribe, and upcoming we will be adding more content for subscribers and including them in that Better Homes and Gardens family that I was talking about earlier. I’m a big subscriber to subscriptions! I think subscriptions are a whopping future for us.

 

 

"The garden as a point of self-reassembly": what are the main trends in landscape design

In the summer of 2022, an unprecedented demand from summer residents is expected. Due to the difficulties with traveling abroad, Russians are increasingly investing in their country houses and plots. Gazeta.Ru decided to ask the leading designers in the landscape industry what trends should be followed this year and which ones to be wary of.

Trends in garden design

The chief architect of L.BURO landscape studio Petr Lari outlined the main trends in landscape design.

“The global trend is the new purpose of the garden. In times of uncertainty and stress, we look for sources of replenishment. The garden becomes a very important place where we have to regenerate, the garden as a point of self-reassembly,” Lari explained.

Among the trends, he also singled out minimalism, the forest trend, manufacturability and a practical garden.

“Minimalism came to us from architecture. Clean and geometric lines in paving and monoculture plantings of shrubs and conifers. And the trend towards the forest is the maximum preservation of existing trees on the site or planting new conifers,” the expert explained.

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The architect notes that now people are increasingly willing to see the pristine nature on the site, which they have already learned to recreate. This includes seedlings of cover in the form of moss, blueberries and lingonberries.

“Technology is now solving two problems: simplifying maintenance and creating visual beauty in the garden. This includes scenic landscape lighting, automatic irrigation systems, paving heating, fogging, a robotic lawn mower and expandable terraces,” Lari said.

As for practicality, the garden should be properly zoned: a wide terrace, a decorative vegetable garden, a seating area with a barbecue fire and, as a new element of the garden, a gazebo-remote office. Competent logistics is also important: the main and secondary directions are highlighted, snow removal is thought out.

“A priori, a practical garden should be low-maintenance. In our understanding, this service is 1-2 times a month,” the architect concluded.

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Olga Maksimova, head of the SunnyHouse interior and exterior studio, also notes that naturalness, the use of local plants, restrained landscape groups, and laconic one-color mixborders are still in fashion.

“In the garden, you need to organize a party area with a hearth and a barbecue. It is more practical to do this in a covered terrace or a large gazebo to extend the season. It is also worth organizing an outdoor kitchen. You can also make luxurious minimalist kitchens from stainless steel and wood, or make your own from brick, concrete with stone countertops and wooden additions in the form of doors and shelves,” Maksimova advised.

She also advised to immediately think over the garden for the winter season: evergreen trees, shrubs and an all-season mixborder.

“Mix small and dwarf plants in the foreground, large and medium plants at the most distant points. It is also worth noting that landscape groups should be beautifully viewed from the windows,” Maksimova concluded.

Among the anti-trends, Lari singled out the "vinaigrette" of plants, the creation of a garden without a project, paths made of torn stone, plastic garden furniture and lamps.

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Land care trends

According to the expert of the online hypermarket VseInstrumenty. ru Maxim Sokolov, in landscape design in the last few years there has been an increase in interest in battery garden equipment.

“Lawn mowers, trimmers, saws and other tools are no longer noisy, bulky and difficult to use. The user does not want unnecessary trouble, as is the case when working with gasoline vehicles. Battery models in this regard are simpler, cleaner and more environmentally friendly. And many more manufacturers offer a series of tools that work with one universal battery. The summer resident buys one battery and separately the so-called carcasses - tools without batteries. Thus, he saves, ”Sokolov explained.

Another trend in gardening is the reduction of human involvement in the process. Robotic lawn mowers and automatic watering systems help with this. You only need to program them once for a certain algorithm of actions, and they will do all the work for the gardener at the set time.

“It is also worth noting the trend towards aesthetics. Unsightly compost pits are becoming a thing of the past - instead of them, modern plastic composters appear on the plots. A rickety old barn can also be easily replaced without being a builder. Now prefabricated outbuildings are being sold - beautiful, comfortable and easy to assemble," Sokolov said.

He also noted that more and more people prefer products made from natural materials. Rattan garden furniture is very popular. It is quite unpretentious and durable, while it looks much better than plastic.

“And if you need to store a lot of small things that are needed on the site or in the recreation area, a chest will do. It can also serve as a seat - place it on the terrace or in the recreation area, put pillows on top. And no one will know that a bunch of everything is hidden inside that could previously create chaos and chaos, ”advised Maxim Sokolov, an expert at the VseInstrumenty.ru online hypermarket.

Houses in IZhS, SNT, LPH and DNP. We explain what these letters are and where it is better to live

Land for a house or garden

The Land Code of the Russian Federation divides land into several types depending on location and purpose. Individuals can use only two of them: agricultural land and land in settlements, and each type is for specific purposes.

In settlements - cities, villages, urban-type settlements, villages, cottage settlements - any construction is allowed. And on agricultural land, you can only build a garden house, and even then not always. Their main purpose is farming, gardening and agricultural production.

IZhS, LPH, DNP, SNT. We explain what it means

IZHS - individual housing construction. Such sites are always located in settlements and are intended for the construction of houses no higher than 3 floors or 12 meters. Suitable for those who want a house outside the city with ready-made infrastructure.

Private household plot - personal subsidiary plot. On such a plot, you can raise livestock and grow crops. It is allowed to build a house only if the plot is located in a settlement. Suitable for those who plan to run a business.

DNP - dacha non-profit partnership. This is an association of summer cottages, which must necessarily have small houses and, if desired, a vegetable garden or a garden. Summer cottages can be located in a settlement or outside it, on agricultural land. Suitable for lovers of countryside holidays without a bias in agriculture.

SNT - garden non-profit partnership. This is also an association of plots, but for agriculture, and not for recreation. SNTs are always located outside settlements and occupy more fertile lands. Suitable for those who plan to seriously engage in agriculture and do not exclude the possibility of building a country house.

House for permanent residence (IZHS)

Capital construction is allowed only on IZHS plots, and it is considered their main purpose. Capital buildings are buildings with a foundation, load-bearing walls, utilities and fencing. Such houses are built for living throughout the year.

Benefits:

Disadvantages:

House and household plots (PSF)

PSF plots are always located outside the city, it is recommended to use them for personal farming - breeding animals or birds, growing agricultural products. Private plots located within the boundaries of settlements are called personal plots. It is possible to build houses on them, including for permanent residence, sheds or other outbuildings, but only after agreement with the local administration and in compliance with all building placement standards. Private household plots outside settlements are called field plots. They are used exclusively for growing agricultural products, any construction on them is prohibited.

Benefits:

Disadvantage: nothing can be built on private household plots that are outside settlements.

Dacha (DNP)

The main purpose of such plots is recreation, but it is necessary to build a house on them. And you can also set up a garden and a vegetable garden, but this is optional. Until recently, DNPs had to be located on agricultural lands, now the legislation allows them to be created inside settlements as well.

Benefits:

Drawbacks:

Dacha and garden (SNT)

SNT plots are intended primarily for growing crops, everything else is secondary. It is allowed to build houses, premises for growing crops on them, but this is not necessary. SNTs are always located outside the boundaries of settlements, but often not far from them, and land owners can freely use the existing infrastructure.

Benefits:

Disadvantages:

Garden and dacha non-profit partnerships - what's the difference?

DNP and SNT are associations of people who together solve the problems of their “commune”. On behalf of a common legal entity, they are engaged in the construction and maintenance of roads, communications, security, and other organizational issues. Both forms are funded by contributions from their members and are usually small but regular.

It would seem that there are no differences between DNP and SNT: in most cases, this is a garden or vegetable garden with a house. But everything is not so simple: the owners of the DNP sites are obliged to build houses, but not in the SNT, the main thing is to grow something. The land on DNP plots is usually not very fertile - you need to rest right there, and not think about the harvest, therefore their cadastral value is lower.

Why is it so difficult to register in SNT and DNP houses?

The law does not prohibit registration in houses on these plots, but this is not easy. To obtain a residence permit, you need an address, and small garden houses located outside the boundaries of settlements simply do not have one. If there is an address, everything becomes easier, otherwise you have to conduct an examination of the house and get a court decision on its suitability for living - this is the only way to register in it.

What to choose?

The choice depends on the purpose of the land use. IZHS is the best option for the construction of a capital country house. Although it will cost more, it will be possible to sell it at a high price. If the main purpose of buying a plot is a summer house with a garden or vegetable garden, it is more profitable to choose DNP. Such land costs less, a house can be built for year-round use, but most likely it will not be possible to register in it.

But the savings from buying land in the DNP and SNT for permanent residence can be doubtful. At the IZHS sections, the administration is in charge of communications, roads and infrastructure, while in gardening and dacha partnerships, all this will have to be done at their own expense.

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