House Beautiful turned in an impressive 7.1 per cent year-on-year increase to 182,025, following a successful relaunch under editor Kerryn Harper.
The public’s appetite for home improvement continued, as the sector grew by more than 10 per cent overall.
The National Magazine Company concentrated its efforts on House Beautiful, which revealed a new look in November after the closure of sister title Your Home last year.
IPC’s Ideal Home, which continued to lead the market by more than 90,000, was only 0.9 per cent down year-on-year, a result that publishing director Yvonne Ramsden described as “a rock solid ABC performance in the context of that market”.
“Our key competitor is House Beautiful – great performance and turnaround, I wouldn’t expect anything less from it after several years of ABC decline. It had to do something and fight back,” she said of the NatMags rival.
BBC Good Homes lost 8.8 per cent of sales year-on-year, but grew by 0.2 per cent in the past six months after an autumn redesign under editor Lisa Allen.
Inspirations For Your Home, bought by Highbury Leisure two years ago, suffered the biggest fall, down 19.9 per cent, a figure that was expected by publisher Matt Warne.
“Last year for us was a year of consolidation,” he said. “We’ve redesigned and refocused it as of the December issue. There will be a very healthy ABC increase this time next year. It’s not a situation I’m worried about.”
By Sarah Boden
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