From the publisher: As has been well documented, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a chilling effect on the economy, affecting all of us, so my first hope is that the wider architecture,  design and supply chain community is staying well and weathering the storm.

As a media company, AGM relies on two things.

Firstly, a highly engaged and active readership of architects, designers, and consumers that all have a huge influence on the purchasing and specifying of products and services. This audience we still have.

However, the second thing we rely on is our advertisers. Companies that need to reach our audience via a relevant, targeted platform our readers want, value, trust and spend quality time reading and consuming.

With the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures hitting businesses, much of this advertising support has evaporated, not all, but a large percentage. As you are probably all aware, this is not a situation unique to us. Globally, many advertisers and brands are hunkering down, retreating and pulling their media spend, wherever they can.

This has meant that we’ve had to make decisions that a month ago would seem unthinkable, but now seem the only logical way forward.

For that reason, we are having to say goodbye to Urbis, Houses and Interior magazines. All have had their last issues published and, although there is hope we can bring these brands back at some stage in the future, this will be determined by the market and what the recovery looks like.

The bright spot is Architecture New Zealand magazine. It remains as the journal for, and of, architecture in New Zealand, as it has for the past 70 years. It will now also be the home of the Interior Awards programme and interior focussed content which would have appeared in Interior magazine.

There has always been a natural crossover between Interior magazine and Architecture New Zealand – both with the projects we cover and the practices that we feature – so widening the subscriber base to include our Interior magazine readers is a simple task. This will enable advertisers to continue to reach the NZIA members, interior designers, ADNZ members, and affiliated industry professionals via Architecture New Zealand magazine.

ArchitectureNow will remain as your trusted online source for architecture and design news, trends and project showcases, and much of the Urbis content that you know and love will be incorporated into the ArchitectureNow platform.

Lastly, I want to thank you all for your support of Urbis, Interior and Houses magazines and our associated events. I am immensely proud of the portfolio we have published over the years, the support and exposure these platforms have allowed us to give to the design community and particularly the team that has worked tirelessly to create them.

To close these titles without a proper goodbye seems somewhat cruel, but to keep our small publishing house viable, there is no alternative given the economic climate at this time. We thank our dedicated advertisers and readers for their continued support of our enduring platforms: Architecture New Zealand magazine, ArchitectureNow, Archify.com and the Interior Awards.

– Nathan Inkpen, Publisher