By Mediaweek and PDN staff

Updated Aug. 25 with additional information about the magazine's creative staff.

Hachette Filipacchi Media says it will stop publishing of its struggling Home magazine after the October issue.

Cards stacked against the magazine included the housing slump, tough competition in the shelter category, and the recent death of its editor in chief.

In a statement, Hachette president and CEO Jack Kliger said Home would suspend publication with the October issue and that Hachette would consider publishing it in the future as a special interest publication on the newsstand.

The magazine's photo staff included group photo director Matthew Levinson, photo editor Kitt Harris and contributing photo assistant Sofia Tomé. Other creative staff included art directors Leah Bossio and Andrea L. Gallo and associate art director Bobby B. Lawhorn Jr.

Levinson, Bossio, Gallo and Lawhorn remain with the company. Some of the magazine's staff also work on Women's Day specials and Ty Pennington at Home.
 
Home didn’t have a top editor. Editor-in-chief Olivia Monjo died a few months ago and was not replaced. The September issue of Home includes a tribute page to her.
 
Home, which sold for $3.99 on the newsstand, had a verified circulation of about 828,630 in the first half of this year, roughly the same as last year. But there were indications of trouble.

Ad pages tumbled 31.4 percent to 256 this year through its July/August issue versus a 5.5 percent decline for the shelter category overall, per the Mediaweek Monitor.

Last year, Hachette cut Home's frequency to eight from 10 times a year and attempted to reposition it with a focus on home remodeling in response to the struggling housing market.
 
This year has seen a number of titles succumb to the tough economy, including Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Blueprint, Condé Nast’s Golf for Women and Hearst Magazines’ Quick & Simple. At Hachette alone, Home joins a growing number of print magazines that have closed in the past two years. Also on that list are Premiere, For Me, Elle Girl and Shock.
 
At the same time, Hachette has shifted attention to the Web, last year launching PointClickHome.com, a Web portal centered around home buying and remodeling that offers tools, shopping and content culled from the Web sites of its shelter titles, which in addition to Home include Metropolitan Home and Elle Décor.
 
There are still signs of life in the shelter magazine category. This year Hachette teamed up with TV remodeling star Ty Pennington to publish Ty Pennington at Home, a quarterly with a 500,000 distribution, after a 2007 test. Reader’s Digest Association is prepping for a February 2009 launch of Fresh Home, also a quarterly, with a fun, DIY-theme meant to appeal to young couples.

Lucia Moses of Mediaweek and Daryl Lang of PDN contributed to this story.