AD History

March 16, 2008 at 5:33 pm (Architectural Digest)

Architectural Digest’s history:
1920 The Architectural Digest is founded as a Southern California annual.

1970 Paige Rense and AD’s first art director are hired by owner Bud Knapp to join the magazine’s three-person editorial staff.

1971 Editor Bradley Little dies in a robbery attempt and Paige Rense is subsequently named editorial director

1973 Architectural Digest publishes an Angelo Donghia-designed home and begins its tradition of being the first magazine to publish a particular home.

1975 Paige Rense named editor-in-chief and sets out to remake the magazine in the tradition of European art books with a focus on decorating, decorators and their clients. Circulation: 50,000

1976 Inception of Architectural Digest Visits, featuring stories on celebrities and their homes. The first of such articles includes Gore Vidal in Italy, Truman Capote in Bridgehampton, Julia Child in Cambridge, Joan Crawford in New York, Ingrid Bergman in France and Robert Redford in New York. Circulation: 200,000.

1978 Architectural Digest: Celebrity Homes, the first anthology-style book related to the magazine, is published. To date, Paige Rense has edited 11 additional books related to the magazine.

1981 Circulation: 500,000

Dec. 1981 An 18-page cover story on President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan at the White House is published. AD Italy, Architectural Digest’s first international issue, is published. Other foreign editions follow, including AD France, AD Germany, AD Russia, AD Japan and AD Mexico.

June 1985 The first themed issue, “The English Country House,” is published.

1985 Inception of literary contributors writing for the magazine, including John Fowles, George Plimpton, William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut, Truman Capote and John Updike.

Late 1980s Inception of “AD Architecture” as an annual supplement.

1988 “AD-at-Large” first introduced as a supplement. It later becomes a regular feature and is renamed “Discoveries by Designers.”

  • 1990 The AD 100, Architectural Digest’s international directory of top designers and architects, is published for the first time.
  • 1991 The AD 100: Architects, Architectural Digest’s international directory of top architects, is published for the first time. Circulation: 653,000.
  • 1993 Architectural Digest, along with Bon Appetit (of which Paige Rense was founding editor) bought by Condé Nast from Knapp Publishing.
  • 1990s Additional themed issues are introduced, including Country Houses, Exotic, Before & After, 100 Years of Design, Designers’ Own Homes and Hollywood at Home (née Academy Awards issue).
  • 2000 Circulation: 831,453
  • January 2005 “Deans of Design,” a special section celebrating legendary designers and architects, is published.
  • 2005 Architectural Digest: Hollywood At Home, a book edited by Paige Rense, is published.
  • January 2007 The latest AD 100 Issue is published.

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    Architectural Digest Cover

    March 16, 2008 at 5:17 pm (Architectural Digest)


    Architectural Digest Barbra Full Cover    Originally uploaded by hughes1953

    Architectural Digest is a glossy American lifestyle magazine. Its subject area is around interior design mostly, a little bit about architecture, not as the name of the magazine may suggest, and generally about design. Its is published by Conte Nast Publications and it was founded in 1920. Architectural Digest is aimed at an upmarket audience, wealthy with a high conscious readership. It names it self as the “International Magazine of Interior Design”. Each issue criticise and analyse the trends and fashions in Interior Design, full of advertisements, and overall it works the same way as Vogue Magazine does, another Conte Nast publication.

    CIRCULATION AND FREQUENCY

    Annual Circulation: 9,600,000
    Unduplicated Circulation: 800,000
    Frequency: 12 times a year

    DEMOGRAPHICS

    Average Income: 143,850
    Average Age: 51
    Genre of Consumers buying it: 58% female, 42% male

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