Real Living’s new editor Elle Lovelock likens the Bauer magazine to the Ikea catalogue.
“Everyone gets an idea from the Ikea catalogue even though the ideas and the photographs in them mostly come from Sweden. They tailor a Swedish brand to how we live here. Likewise, Real Living takes inspiration from everywhere around the world to help us create our own beautiful homes in Australia,” she told Mediaweek.
Lovelock joined Bauer Media as an intern back when it was ACP Magazines. She has spent her entire career with the company, much of this time working in homes publications.
“I have worked on all the homes titles up until our recent acquisition,” she said. Bauer acquired Inside Out, Country Style and HomeLife.com.au from News Corp in June 2018.
Prior to being named editor of Real Living in April 2018, Lovelock was the deputy editor of the brand under Emma Vidgen.
“It’s a brand that speaks to me. I am obsessed with shopping, interiors and design,” she said. “I have spent nearly half of my career here.”
Having spent seven years at Real Living, Lovelock knows everything there is to know about the title. “Our readers are typically the youngest out of all the home readers. They are about 25 to 49 years old and mostly females,” she said. “It doesn’t matter whether they are living in a share home, have a young family, are renting or buying their first home. The thing they have in common is that they all love to shop and decorate.
“We inspire people to decorate and create homes no matter what space they have to work with.”
The brand is about allowing its readers to execute premium-style homes on a budget. Therefore, Lovelock doesn’t mind the tag of an “accessible” homes magazine.
“What’s interesting is that our readers have money. They have one of the highest household incomes out of all of the interior magazines, yet they really love a bargain. Their income could be tied up elsewhere like a mortgage but they really want to decorate and have fun. So it needs be affordable,” Lovelock said.
The brand inspires its readers once a month through its magazine and daily via its digital presence on the Homes To Love website, as well as its social media pages, Instagram being the most important of them all.
“We just hit a quarter of a million followers and we are growing at a rate of 1,000 followers a week,” Lovelock said. “Because we are a younger brand with a younger audience, this is how they like to consume their social media. However, having said that, we have a strong Facebook following too. It’s really about delivering content to the different platforms in slightly different ways.”
Apart from producing a monthly magazine and contributing to Homes To Love, the Real Living team is also responsible for producing the annual The Block magazine. It hits the stands when the show is on-air. Lovelock has worked on the title for many years and so said the process feels natural.
“We’ve been working on The Block for a couple of months now,” she said. “We are a small, busy team in here.
“We have done a book as well – it’s a hard cover, coffee table book. It’s Real Living branded, full of 22 Australian homes that are all near the beach.” Therefore, the title of the book is Near The Beach. It will be on sale in November 2018.