Globe Media to launch luxury home magazine

Boston Globe Media will launch a magazine featuring high-end homes and design this fall as part of a push to diversify the company's business base and tap into the market for niche publications.

The new magazine, Design New England, will debut in October and publish every other month, starting in January. It will have a ``controlled circulation" of 50,000, with about 40,000 issues mailed free to affluent households in the Boston area and about 10,000 to architects and designers.

``There's been a trend in our business to use our expertise in publishing to expand into niche markets where we know readers and advertisers will be attracted to our quality products," said Alfred S. Larkin Jr. , executive vice president of Boston Globe Media. The group includes the Boston Globe, Boston.com, GlobeDirect, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and interests in Metro Boston and NESN.

Larkin said Design New England likely will be the first in a series of niche publications to be launched by Boston Globe Media, an arm of The New York Times Co., as it continues to extend its reach beyond its core newspaper business. He said it is premature to identify what fields its other magazines might target.

Design New England, which will focus on homes and gardens, kitchens and baths, art and antiques, and design tips, will be entering a market crowded with bimonthly, quarterly, and annual publications.

Among them are New England Home; the home and garden quarterlies published by Boston Magazine; Boston Design; Southern New England Home; Accent New England out of Portsmouth, N.H.; Cape Cod & Islands Home; and Cybele, a Boston Design Center publication.

``It's a hot field," said Stephen D. Twombly , a 28-year magazine industry veteran who will be publisher of Design New England. ``But I think there are areas where we can differentiate ourselves. Editorial is one, and circulation is the other."

Twombly has worked for McGraw Hill, Reed Business Information and, most recently, International Data Group. Joining him are Design New England's editor, Jill Connors , a former senior editor at This Old House magazine, and art director Jenna Talbott , a former associate art director at IDG's Chief Marketing Officer magazine in Framingham.

While it will showcase luxurious homes throughout the region, Design New England's target audience will be high-income individuals in Boston and its North Shore, South Shore, and western suburbs who might own second homes in vacation spots from New Hampshire and Maine to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

A promotional brochure geared to would-be advertisers of Design New England promises it will feature ``lush color photographs and expert design advice" as well as articles on design elements ``from materials and surfaces to furnishings, fixtures, and appliances."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.