Hearst Brand House Beautiful Launches Its First Podcast

When it comes to haunted houses, House Beautiful thinks the ghosts have gotten all the attention. To compensate, on Wednesday the Hearst title launched the first podcast in its 125-year history, a free, five-episode product called Dark House, which will explore the stories and architecture behind some of the spookiest homes in the country. The one-hour episodes will be free to access and have no sponsor or advertising, said Jennifer Levene Bruno, svp, group publishing director & chief revenue officer for Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Veranda. Instead, the product hopes to serve as a proof of concept for the publisher, which has lately undertaken a series of initiatives aimed at reinvigorating the oldest shelter title in the U.S. In December, House Beautiful launched its first membership program, and on Tuesday it debuted its new, nine-episode YouTube show, Blank Slate. The series follows its Next Wave designers as they transform a series of rooms within the House Beautiful Whole Home, an annual built-from-the-ground-up showcase of design products, located this year in Fredericksburg, Texas. The publisher declined to share the early numbers from its membership program or revenue. Quartz Launches ‘Obsession’ Podcast, Its First in Three Years “With the launch of Dark House, we are broadening our scope to reach people on new platforms,” Bruno told Adweek. “House Beautiful has always been about covering home stories. Not only are haunted homes trending, but home is a huge white space in the podcast industry.” The devil in the Dark House details House Beautiful chose haunted houses as the subject for its first podcast at the suggestion of director of brand strategy Alyssa Fiorentino and senior editor Hadley Mendelsohn, who pointed out the opportunity amidst the rising interest in “dark tourism.” Podcasts exploring subjects like true crime, the paranormal and forgotten history have found eager audiences, ever since Serial first captivated the country in 2014. Haunted houses like The Mount, in Massachusetts, have become destinations for fans of the occult, so Fiorentino and Mendelsohn thought House Beautiful might have an intriguing new perspective to lend to the genre. The broad appeal of the subject hopes to capture a wide audience, said editorial director Jo Saltz, which House Beautiful hopes to convert into regular readers or paying members. “We wanted to introduce a broader expanse of the world to the brand,” Saltz said. “You don’t have to love design to listen to the podcast, but if you do, you’ll find the details fascinating.” The product has no devoted headcount; Fiorentino and Mendelsohn are managing its production in addition to their regular roles, though the duo worked with The Pod People to craft its initial framework. House Beautiful hopes that its location-based approach to haunted houses will prove novel enough to attract the attention of fans of the paranormal, but its primary goal, according to Saltz, is to generate buzz and push the publication into the new medium. House Beautiful’s evolution The publisher has expanded beyond its print roots in recent years, maturing into a multimedia company with revenue streams in editorial, video, merchandise and now membership. Its Whole Home project has increased its number of sponsors year over year, rising from 16 to 24, and the revenue from its native video arm grew 196%, according to Bruno. On Oct. 5, House Beautiful will launch a holiday decor collection with retailer Frontgate. Like most publishers, Hearst has made generating membership revenue a key priority, and all of the titles in its Hearst Design Collection––Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Veranda––now have paywalls of some variety. The publisher is considering offering further tiers to its membership options, which are currently priced at $3 per month for digital, $15 per year for print and $25 per year for unlimited access. Print subscribers can also upgrade their existing subscription for $20 per year. “We are pulling a lot of levers,” Saltz said. “I can’t say that we’ll become a podcast company, but we have print issues, bookazines, videos, the website and ecommerce. We want to keep pushing our boundaries.”

Publishing News

After 125 Years, Hearst Brand House Beautiful Launches Its First Podcast

The five-episode Dark House will blend architecture, true crime and humor

Mark Stenberg

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Mark Stenberg