Living the Lonny Way

Recently, I got some advice from Irene Edwards about how to decorate the window seats in my house in a way that's unique and expresses my personality. I feel very fortunate to have received these personalized tips from the new Executive Editor of the digital shelter magazine Lonny. As far as readers of shelter magazines, I fit pretty squarely in Lonny's demo, which is 71% female and 36% design professionals, with the rest of us home décor-obsessed civilians making up the difference. Lonny was founded in 2009 by Michelle Adams, a young alumnae of the now-defunct and much-beloved Domino. In July of 2012, Lonny was purchased by Livingly Media; Adams left in the end of March. I had the chance to hear about Edwards's vision for Lonny's future and to have a sneak peek at May, her first post-transition issue (pictured here). When Edwards and I spoke, she was only three weeks into the job, and was starting to put her imprint on the next issue. She was thrilled to be joining a publication she had admired since its inception. Edwards thinks Lonny has something special: "It's groundbreaking to marry that kind of content with the digital format, in terms of being able to provide that visual richness and shelter coverage in a way that makes it more accessible to a lot of people. What appeals to me is the freshness and the unique voice in the industry. It has appeal for everyone from the most revered design professional to the brand new home owner to the design-obsessed blogger to someone trying to figure out what kind of sofa they need to go out and buy this weekend." Lonny, says Edwards, makes design look "friendly and attainable" and yet still magazine-pages beautiful. Edwards intends to maintain what makes Lonny successful: "Any editor who comes into to a publication aspires to carry on and remain true to the core of the brand: to showcase high quality content in the form of inspirational and yet accessible homes." That said, she plans to make the publication "more of a lifestyle read." She plans to "experiment with new design possibility. It could take the form of a font style to tweaking the pacing of the magazine to planning for a fuller redesign at some point in the near future." As for Lonny's digital-only format, Edwards strongly believes that's greatly in their favor. "Page count is one of Lonny's assets — the ability to … be able to run those 40 page features." Another asset is the multi-platform approach: the issue, the tablet edition and the dot com. "My goal is to scale up coverage on all three," Edwards says, by developing new tools and putting out more content, more frequently, as well as by building more interactivity with readers and building up the e-commerce aspects of the brand. In addition, each platform will have a slightly different tone, what Edwards describes as "a subtle difference in terms of the voice of the issue," with the issue being "more elegant, polished, considered," while the dot com will be "conversational, off the cuff, immediate." Edwards was previously with Travel & Leisure and, prior to that, with Sunset, which has, she says, " a huge shelter aspect," and which was "pioneering in many ways, [featuring] the indoor-outdoor flow and solar power. It was a big training ground for me." Now on new turf and following up the founding editor, Edwards plans to be true to the brand. "As we look toward scale it will be an interesting balance to maintain, [with] readers who are consumers and design professionals . . . It has a devoted following. At the same time there's such an opportunity to build on its audience without alienating the core. I see it as not a challenge but I'm curious and interested in it from an intellectual perspective. It's . . . a goal I've always wanted to tackle as an editor. As an editor this is one of the meatiest things you get to do."

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Living the Lonny Way

Lynn Rosen

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Lynn Rosen