''Better Homes and Gardens'' is the fourth best selling

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The editor in chief is Stephen Orr. ''Better Homes and Gardens'' focuses on interests regarding homes,

cooking Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...

gardening Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits ...

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...

, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining. The magazine is published 12 times per year by

Dotdash Meredith Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

. It was founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith, who had previously been the

United States Secretary of Agriculture The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments. The department includes several organi ...

under

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

. The original name was Fruit, Garden and Home from 1922 to 1924. The name was changed to Better Homes and Gardens beginning with the August 1924 issue. ''Better Homes and Gardens'' is one of the " Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.

Brand extension

The Meredith Corporation publishes a number of books on

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

and gardening under the BH&G brand, the best known of which is the ''Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book'', colloquially known as the "''Red Plaid''" book. Now in its 15th edition (published in August 2010), the ''Red Plaid'' was originally published in 1930. Meredith also publishes the ''New Junior Cookbook'' for children learning to cook. The magazine's title was used by Meredith's

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

arm, which was sold and then called

GMAC Real Estate GMAC Real Estate was a real estate franchised broker. It had 13,000 agents. In 2008, it was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management and in 2012, it merged into HomeServices of America. History GMAC Real Estate was founded in 1998, when GMAC (now ...

. In October 2007, Meredith entered a 50-year

licensing A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

agreement with

Realogy Corporation Anywhere Real Estate Inc., formerly Realogy (), is an American publicly owned real estate services company. It owns and franchises several real estate brands and brokerages, and offers consumer programs, lead generation, relocation, and title ...

to license the Better Homes and Gardens name to

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC is an international real estate company which began operations in July 2008. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate franchises independent businesses to operate within its network. Brand History In 197 ...

. The company is based in Parsippany, New Jersey, and has offices across the country. Meredith's broadcasting division began producing the television program '' Better'' in the fall of 2007, which is a lifestyle show which has a mix of content from Meredith's various magazine titles (included BH&G), consumer advice and celebrity interviews. The program would air on stations owned by Meredith, Scripps,

Fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

and

LIN TV LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the television in the United States#Major broadcast networks, six major U.S. television networks. One of the re ...

groups. Some Meredith-owned stations produce their own local edition of ''Better''. The show was cancelled in May 2015. The brand offered a line of

home decor Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

products through a partnership with

Home Interiors and Gifts Home Interiors and Gifts was a direct sales company specializing in decorating accessories, which were sold by more than 140,000 representatives through home parties in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Highland Capital Managem ...

, a company based on

direct selling Direct selling consists of single-level marketing (in which a direct seller makes money by buying products from a parent organization and selling them directly to customers) and multi-level marketing (in which the direct seller may earn money f ...

Overseas editions

The

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n edition of the magazine is published by

Are Media Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 2010s ...

, the successor to the former Bauer Media Australia which acquired

Pacific Magazines Pacific Magazines was a magazine publisher operating in Australia owned by Seven West Media. In March 2020, it was acquired by Bauer Media Australia in April 2020. In June 2020, Mercury Capital acquired Pacific Magazines as part of its purcha ...

in 2020.

References in popular culture

Mad Magazine Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to: Geography * Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia * Mád, a village in Hungary * Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code * Mad River (disambiguation), several r ...

'' published a satire in 1958 (issue #53) titled "Bitter Homes and Gardens," including articles titled "They Built Their House on a Lot 22 Inches Wide" (A house built between two office buildings); a "How-The..." department which suggests putting a lawn on rollers so one can drag it "to a nearby spot where it's raining"; and an article on how to convert a second bathroom into a basement (with a photo of the author's wife, who has just stepped out of the shower and covers herself with a towel). The magazine was also spoofed in the 1970s as "Bitter Homes and Garbage", in a set of "Crazy Magazine Covers" produced by

Fleer The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum; it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989. Fleer originally developed a bubble gum formulation called ''Blibber-Blub ...

. In an episode of ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...

'', Lucy jokes about the magazine as, "Better Homes and Garbage" when she and Ethel redecorate Lucy's apartment. An episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' showed a brief shot of a magazine entitled ''Better Homes Than Yours.'' ''Better Homes and Gardens'' is mentioned in the song "I Save Cigarette Butts" by

Daniel Johnston Daniel Dale Johnston (January 22, 1961 – September 11, 2019) was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded a ...

. In '' Little Shop of Horrors'' Audrey sings in "Somewhere That's Green" about how her dream house is a "picture out of ''Better Homes and Gardens'' magazine." In country recording artist

Miranda Lambert Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country singer and guitarist. Born in Longview, Texas, she started out in early 2001 when she released her self-titled debut album independently. In 2003, she finished in third place o ...

's 2010 hit single titled "The House That Built Me", there is a verse that says, "Mama cut out pictures of houses for years from ''Better Homes and Gardens'' magazine".

Brandon Flowers Brandon Richard Flowers (born June 21, 1981) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and philanthropist, best known as the lead singer, keyboardist, and occasional bassist of the Las Vegas-based rock band the Killers. In addition to his w ...

mentions the magazine in the song "The Clock Was Tickin" from his 2010 album ''

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

''.

Editors

*Chesla Sherlock (1922–1927) *Elmer T. Peterson (1927–1937) *Frank W. McDonough (1938–1950) *J. E. Ratner (1950–1952) *Hugh Curtis (1952–1960) *Bert Dieter (1960–1967) *James A. Riggs (1967–1970) *James Autry (1970–1979) *Gordon Greer (1979–1983) *David Jordan (1984–1993) *Jean LemMon (1993–2001) *Karol DeWulf Nickell (2001–2006) *Gayle Butler (2006–2015) *Stephen Orr (2015-Present)

References

External links