Letter to Mr. Townsend at Conde Nast

Dear Mr. Townsend,

I have just learned of the decision to cease publication of Domino Magazine. More accurately, I read the news yesterday and it has taken me a full day to process. My understanding is that this is due to a drop in advertising dollars, and not a drop in readership.

I wonder if your advertisers fully understand the market and demographic they will be losing with the close of Domino. I am sure they feel they have done their due diligence to determine where their advertising dollars are best spent, but we all know that there can be error and misinterpretation in even the most thorough study.

To illustrate my point, I am a 33 year old married mother of 2 young girls. I live in an affluent neighborhood in a suburb of Seattle and my husband is in management at a large, well known software company in the area. We just built our home and are in what seems to be the never ending process of decorating.

My friends are young, affluent mothers, business owners and executives. For the most part our sensibilities are neither fully modern, traditional, bohemian nor country. Until Domino came around we didn’t have a design publication that spoke to our needs. We are not outfitting faux Tuscan style spec houses or uber-modern modular prairie homes. We have between us, a variety of architectural tastes and design aesthetics, yet we all are able to find inspiration (and purchasing resources) from the pages of your magazine.

Economic times are tough, and we are all feeling the weight of it, but our lives are not stopping. People are still remodeling, building, decorating and purchasing. Thank goodness they are, for the sake of those who make a living in the construction industry. Certainly there are those whose financial situation has put these activities on hold. However, they are spending their time and energy planning and waiting for the moment they can bring their dreams to life by turning their space into the home they imagine for themselves and their families.

There is no other publication that can fill the void left by the absence of Domino. I truly believe your magazine spoke to the future of design, whereas the other publications available are directed at the past. We will be left with no choice but to move online, and try to find wherever your creative and talented contributors take up residence in cyberspace (Grace Bonney, I’m talking to you!) However useful the internet is to further research a product once I have discovered it, it is in no way as compelling as seeing it in print.

This brings me to my self-serving reason for writing this letter. I know this will come off as being overly dramatic, but it is the truth, none the less. Receiving Domino Magazine in the mail is the best part of my month. I wait for it. I get jealous if my friends get it in the mail before I do. I have every issue ever printed and reference them constantly. I carve out a special time, where I can’t be interrupted and I melt into the pages. It is the equivalent of daytime champagne, chocolate and manicures all in one, with absolutely none of the guilt.

Additionally, I would like to add that I received a survey request in my inbox from Domino. It asked me to list every item of value in my home from number of flat screen tvs to prada bags and jimmy choos. It then proceeded to ask for my home address. I would be thrilled to help Domino in any way possible and would have happily given you all the requested information if I felt it was secure and not sent by a very design savvy criminal that was casing my house.

In conclusion, I beg you to reconsider. I beg you to educate your advertisers on this lost opportunity to reach the exact demographic that has the resources to, and interest in, purchasing their products. I beg you to not throw away the value that comes with an extremely loyal customer base of 850,000 readers. You have a captive audience, with nowhere else to go, it seems financially prudent to hold onto that base and sell us your products. Lastly, I beg of you, to not take away my only guiltless pleasure.

I appreciate your time and energy, and I hope this is not the only letter of this nature that you receive on behalf of your wonderful and successful product, Domino Magazine.

Best wishes,
Dana Haveson