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podcast | Sep 22, 2025 |
How Homes & Gardens is prioritizing authentic storytelling in the age of AI

Sarah Spiteri sits atop two very distinct magazines. One, Homes & Gardens, was founded in 1919 and is a venerable British institution. The other, Livingetc, popped up in the late 1990s to focus on contemporary style—she refers to it as the “sassy younger sister.” After an ownership change saw the two titles merging under publishing brand Future’s umbrella, Spiteri—who has a background in English literature and magazine journalism—was tasked with revitalizing the print and digital presences of both as global brand director.

How Homes & Gardens is prioritizing authentic storytelling in the age of AI
Sarah SpiteriCourtesy of Homes & Gardens

One of the ways she’s accomplishing that is with the launch of By Design, a new feature aimed at giving interior designers a platform on the Homes & Gardens website. Spiteri and her team chose 10 U.S.-based designers (including Zoë Feldman and Ashley Montgomery) to write monthly content for the publication. “The idea is that it’s not a [column we’re having them write on] commission. We want them to authentically write about what’s interesting to them and keeping them up at night, or what they think our audience would be interested to know about,” Spiteri tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. By Design is at least partially a reaction to the rise of AI. “I think very personality-driven content is where you can differentiate from AI,” she says. “You cannot get an authentic voice from AI. You cannot get personality-driven content from it.”

That’s not to say she doesn’t put AI to work in the appropriate scenarios: “I think it’s a very useful tool to collaborate with and question, when you’re looking at planning or ideating and thinking: ‘I’ve got this plan—have I missed anything?’ Using it as a sounding board is handy.” Spiteri hopes By Design will be a way to elevate authentic storytelling and connect designers directly to consumers in a strategy she calls a “blog revival.”

“The Homes & Gardens audience is a big audience, and that’s giving visibility to [these designers] and the chance for them to write about what they want to write about,” she says. “From our point of view, they’ve also got great audiences, and they’re very interesting people, so we also get the wonderful benefit of association with them, and collaboration and ideation.”

Crucial insight: Even though Homes & Gardens is U.K.-based, 70 percent of its online audience is American. “There is something about British style that resonates—the kind of cozy maximalism, that layered, soulful aesthetic that speaks to heritage, and is often rooted in older homes with historic detailing,” says Spiteri. “I think what is considered a treasured housing stock in the U.S. possibly has shifted in recent years; whereas it used to be a real propensity to build new, now people are more and more seeing the charm and the emotional grounding that you get from living in a heritage building.”

Key quote: “We are known for celebrating designers, but from every state at every stage, whether they’re a global name or they’re new talent. We talk a lot about the decline of media, but actually, looking at our last year, we had the biggest audience of any U.K. interiors media brand in history. Our audience is growing, and it does feel like an exciting time to meet people where they are on the different platforms.”

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Crypton. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including the latest on inflation and interest rates, RH’s recent earnings report, and what luxury means today. Later, Emily Henderson joins the show to talk about her new sofa collection and how she’s reacting to the rise of AI.

This episode is sponsored by Serena & Lily and Hartmann&Forbes. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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