Iowans with award-winning gardens could soon find themselves getting e-mail from admirers in China. Des Moines-based Meredith Corporation is publishing a 300-page Chinese edition of the magazine Better Homes and Gardens. It’s being launched this week on newsstands across China, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Meredith spokeswoman Megan Boettcher says it’s a natural expansion for the publishing house. Boettcher says almost everyone in the U.S. knows the magazine but there’s a lot of content and home and family expertise that’s very easily applicable to people in other countries in Asia, Latin America or Europe. She says “We try to target what would be the greatest growth opportunity for us and there’s just a whole world out there that could use the content that we have.”
Boettcher says Meredith has partnered with a Chinese media company to launch the magazine in the world’s most populous nation. She says that company creates a lot of its own local content so people in China can read about trends and styles in their own country, but they also have information and content that comes from the parent company here in the U.S.
Boettcher says that means the fragrant flowers and luxurious landscapes some Iowans create in their backyard gardens could end up being seen by a much wider audience. She says “Yes, it’s very possible that images you see either from our own Better Homes and Gardens or gardens that we go out to here in the United States, especially Iowa, could appear across the world over in China.”
The magazine already has nearly 40-million monthly readers in the U.S. Boettcher says Meredith has branched out in the past year into several international markets and is now publishing magazines like Better Homes and Gardens Australia, a French version in Canada, Parents China and Fitness China. For more information, surf to “www.meredith.com”.