Last Thursday was the last day of the HOME Section of the New York Times; there are many of us who lament this change, remembering when the section was a very important source of news about the world of design.
I look back with great appreciation for the countless things I learned from this section, never mind that my first real media exposure was in the HOME section in February of 1989 – just two years after I opened Glenn Gissler Design.
I was introduced to the most important and the most influential HOME section writer, Suzanne Slesin, at an opening at Furniture of the Twentieth Century. I contacted her a few days later with hopes of showing her a few recently completed projects.
Suzi came to see three projects, and literally days later “A Designer Test His Wings; Maximal Style for Minimalist Tastes” appeared on the front page of the HOME Section! Including the jump page the story covered five square feet (!) of New York Times ‘real estate’ including seven photographs, three of which included me.
I nearly died!
The HOME Section has been a mere shadow of itself for many years; there are few people who would argue that. Some even see this change as a death knoll for design coverage in the New York Times.
At least for the moment I am looking at the glass as ‘half-full’, and I am hopeful that the nay-sayers will be proven wrong.