Business of Home has been acquired by Recurrent Ventures, bringing the publication under the same umbrella as Domino and Lonny.
“After 13 years, I was thinking about what Business of Home’s next chapter should look like—not actively looking to be acquired but open to partners who shared a vision for how to grow the business thoughtfully,” says BOH president and founder Julia Noran Johnston. “When Recurrent acquired Domino last year, we started talking about the potential for collaboration. My team and I have built a strong, profitable business with an engaged and invested community of industry readers, and we’re excited to have a partner that can help us take it to the next level.”
Noran Johnston founded the company, then called Editor at Large, in 2009. In its early days, the site was part matchmaker—a pre-Instagram intermediary that paired designers and home brands with shelter publications—and part industry resource, covering the news, people and parties in the design scene. Over time, the matchmaking component faded away, but the editorial coverage and community resources grew.
In 2018, the publication rebranded as Business of Home. Its editorial initiatives have expanded to include a robust daily news site, newsletters, the quarterly print magazine BOH, three podcasts and biannual guides to the industry trade show High Point Market. In addition, the company offers a range of business resources to the trade, including the industry’s largest job board and events calendar, a hub for product debuts, a series of bimonthly business workshops, a directory of industry experts, photography and video production services, and a membership community. In 2019, the company also began hosting an annual conference, Future of Home, which fosters forward-thinking conversations among industry leaders, authors and entrepreneurs and has included luminaries such as Martha Stewart, Jerry Saltz, Christian Siriano and Simon Doonan, as well as innovative interior design professionals.
Noran Johnston will continue to oversee the company’s day-to-day operations as head of the brand alongside the publication’s editor in chief, Kaitlin Petersen. The rest of Business of Home’s team will also join Recurrent. Among other initiatives, Business of Home and Recurrent hope to grow the brand’s editorial team, coverage and readership while also expanding its signature event, Future of Home.
“BOH has focused on cultivating engagement from design industry professionals, and our Future of Home event is a place where we bring that connection to life,” says Noran Johnston. “In the immediate term, we will continue to run Business of Home as it has been, with the benefit of a larger team and infrastructure at our disposal. Going forward, we anticipate continuing to diversify and expand our revenue model in ways that will be meaningful to our community.”
Recurrent was originally founded in 2018 as an extension of venture equity firm North Equity’s media holdings. Its portfolio has rapidly expanded to include more than 20 media brands across the automotive, home, lifestyle, military, outdoor, science and tech verticals, including titles like Saveur, MEL, Popular Science and Field & Stream. The company moved into the shelter category in January 2021 with its acquisition of Domino and has continued to develop that section of its portfolio with the acquisition of Lonny last month. This deal marks its first foray into business-to-business media.
“Business of Home is so well respected and beloved among design professionals, which makes it the perfect complement to what we’re already doing in design,” says Recurrent CEO Lance Johnson. “The work Business of Home produces, their diversified monetization model and their incredible team makes them the perfect addition to Recurrent. The company’s successful events business will also yield best practices that we can implement as we grow that revenue stream across Recurrent. Additionally, their approach to sustainability perfectly aligns with ours, and we’re ecstatic to have Julia to help advise and implement our company-wide sustainability initiatives. The more we’ve spoken with Business of Home’s staff, the more enthused we are about this acquisition and the opportunity ahead of us.”
