We run Gardening Australia and Burke’s Backyard magazine head to head and have done for ages. Over the last few months we have been taking more interest in the results as the two magazines have undergone changes – Gardening Australia first and Burke’s Backyard more recently.
In three of our newsagencies, Gardening Australia is winning. That said, the consistent display of the titles next to each helps achieve sales of both titles. They are a natural fit next to each other.
While I am no magazine design expert, Gardening Australia has a bit of a feel like the now closed Notebook magazine in that it goes beyond what you expect for its genre. Take their use of a chef for a cover shot for example. I think that i the gardening space shoppers are looking to read about diverse interests. I suspect that this is one of the reasons Better Homes and Gardens is so popular.