Conde Nast Mercy-Kills 'House & Garden'

The guessing game over when Conde Nast would finally shutter House & Garden is over. It just happened. The 106-year-old shelter title will suspend publication with its December issue, reports FishbowlNY.

In a press release announcing the decision, CEO Chuck Townsend for some reason blames it on the departure of Joe Lagani, H&G's publisher, who fled to Glam Media last month. "With the unexpected departure of the publisher of the magazine, we decided to take a serious look and re-evaluate the title," Townsend says in a statement. "Our investment in House & Garden throughout the years has been substantial and we no longer believe it is a viable business investment for the company."

This is odd, because rumors about House & Garden have been simmering for years, boiling up every time there was an executive change or floor reassignment. While Lagani's exit may have been a precipitating factor, I suspect the decision had more to do with the relatively quick success of Domino, the company's shelter-shopping title. It's clearly a better investment in a publishing environment that's bad and getting worse.

UPDATE, 12:50 p.m.: My Portfolio stablemate Gabe Sherman called it -- way back in April 2005:

Around 4 Times Square, staffers are wondering whether Domino is going to squeeze out its centenarian cousin. House and Garden has already fallen victim to intramural competition once before: Conde Nast shuttered it after acquiring Architectural Digest from Knapp Communications in 1993, saying the market couldn't support a pair of similar shelter titles. But in 1996 the company revived it, tapping Dominique Browning as editor.

Ms. Browning said that she doesn't see Domino impinging on what House and Garden does. "They're entry-level," she said, "and we're for more serious decorating."