Luxury Coastal Living Magazine Ocean Home Has Largest Issue to Date
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Back in September, at our Publishing Business Conference & Expo, Dr. Samir Husni passionately declared during his debate with Bo Sacks that print is not dying. In fact, he argued that it’s thriving. He offered both Bo and the audience evidence to support this claim, and at one point, he rattled off a list of magazines coming out with their biggest issues ever-certainly a notable feat.
Ocean Home, a magazine that focuses on the real estate and designs of high-end coastal living, recently attained this same achievement. Its October/November 2013 issue was its largest issue to date in terms of ad revenue and editorial page size, with a 30% increase in sales from last year. At this rate, the magazine is expected to end the year with more than 40% total growth over last year.
What was the cause of this success? A redesign to cater to reader demands, which centered on a decision to add more design elements to the magazine for consumers who are not real estate professionals. When the magazine was founded, its sole focus was the real estate industry. “We changed the magazine format in large part because we had readership input that the magazine was beautiful,” Rick Sedler, president of RMS Media Group, which publishes Ocean Home, says, “but it was perceived to be created for someone that was only interested in buying or selling an oceanfront home. The feedback from our subscribers was that they wanted more lifestyle and décor features. So, we redesigned Ocean Home to appeal to not only real estate professionals and property buyers and sellers, but also affluent consumers who have an interest in coastal home design, décor, and architecture.”
The magazine is committed to meeting the needs and wants of their readers, and this is reflected in this recent transformation. Having such a targeted audience, gathering and listening to this type of feedback is essential. “The redesign captures the essence of our magazine’s core mission of catering to our reader’s high-end lifestyle, whether they have owned a coastal home and want to accessorize it, or they are looking for a new oceanfront home” Sedler explains. “Further, the redesign brought with it more pages in which to feature new-to-market decorative objects, collectibles, furnishings, and indoor and outdoor home accessories as well as classic pieces.”
It would appear that this dedication to their readers paid off, evidenced by their successful and record-breaking October/November issue. Looking ahead, the future seems sunny for Ocean Home. “Our goal was to create an idea book,” Sedler concludes, “a resource that would help our readers further their dreams of improving their homes.”
