CN Taps Meredith's Lagani For House & Garden

The revolving door at Condé Nast took another spin today, with the departure of House & Garden publisher Lori Burgess. Burgess will be replaced by Joseph Lagani, who until this past June had been vp, publishing director of Meredith Corp.'s Country Home and Traditional Home.

The departure of Burgess, who was with the shelter monthly since February 2003, marks the third executive to leave Condé Nast since Chuck Townsend officially took over as president/CEO in February. In April, longtime Glamour publisher Suzanne Grimes left, and most recently veteran publisher Lynn Heiler left Bon Appetit.

While the shelter category has generated more interest from publishers—with new additions like Southern Progress' Cottage Living, and the recent announcement that Condé Nast would launch home shopping title Domino next year—many of the shelter magazines, including House & Garden, have seen ad pages fall off. House & Garden through August fell 14.6 percent to 446 over the same period the year prior, according to the Mediaweek Monitor. Hearst Magazines' House Beautiful is also down 10.6 percent to 590.

Meanwhile Meredith's Country Home (published 10 times yearly) is up 1.9 percent to 562, and Traditional Home, published eight times, is up 6.7 percent to 564.