Great Australian Homes from Are Media’s House & Garden brand features 13 dream properties, but what might set this book apart from some of its others is a good peek inside the home of Neale Whitaker. The magazine editor turned TV star from The Block and Love It or List It has given magazine readers glimpses of certain rooms of his house in the past, but this time he has let the House & Garden cameras in for a good snoop around the property.
Are Media’s Australian House & Garden has been publishing books for a long time. Just this month it has released what could just become one of its biggest hits.
Australian House & Garden editor-in-chief Tanya Buchanan also edits Belle magazine for Are Media. It was here as a managing editor she worked as a colleague of Neale Whitaker’s when he was Belle’s editor-in-chief.
“He was my boss,” Buchanan told Mediaweek. “He left to the competition to edit Vogue Living and I replaced him as the editor. Now he is very successful on TV and has a big social media following. It was great to be able to show what he and David have created with a beautiful home near Berry.”
Although Buchanan had a good relationship that helped get the photographer inside the Neale Whitaker property, not everybody is prepared to open their house to the brand’s readers. “I’m not even sure if I had my own beautiful dream home that I would open up to share it for a magazine or book. Our sources for getting new homes include builders, architects and designers. Some people love the coverage. There are so many wonderful homes here now that we never struggle for content.
“Through the books we also publisher under the Belle brand we have found there is a real demand for content on great Australian homes,” Buchanan told Mediaweek. “When you are limited by the number of pages available to showcase in a magazine, it is a real luxury to have some extra space to show off a house in a book. It is also great to be able to print those images on wonderful stock.”
House & Garden editor-in-chief Tanya Buchanan
Top: Neale Whitaker and his partner David Novak-Piper
Buchanan noted they sometimes showcase the same house in a magazine and then a book, but the presentation will always be different, sometimes with a new photoshoot for the book.
Are Media has a real stranglehold on the biggest-selling home titles with House & Garden plus Belle, Home Beautiful, Inside Out, Country Style and Real Living. “We are all a little different and stay in our lanes. Some people might want a home in Belle but it might be more of a House & Garden story. I’m lucky that I work across both and steer projects into the right publication.”
Buchanan noted the magazines she works on have a business model that is sustainable. “We turn a profit and the company is so supportive of a sector that previously might not have been as exciting as the fashion titles were a few years ago. During the pandemic of course people’s focus was their homes with many deciding to renovate to make more of a sanctuary as they were spending so much more time there.”
Books are a big growth area for Are Media
In 2021, the Australian home and lifestyle book category saw an increase of 15% in volume and a 17% increase in value year on year. That equates to around 200,000 books sold with a retail value over $7m. Are Media has an increasing share of that category.