Nido – a New Magazine for Young Families

“NIDO” a new type of magazine (language: German) for young families was recently published by a major German publisher called Gruner + Jahr Medien in Hamburg. The editor is the same one from NEON, a popular culture magazine for 20 to 30 year-old singles. I think they saw the market aging and felt the need to follow the baby boomers who are now young couples with kids.

Although I am not happy with the stupid title “NIDO” (means “twice” in Japanese) I found the contents of NIDO very useful and chic. In the stagnating magazine industry in Germany, Nido stands out with its modern and sophisticated layout design. The reason we decided to buy this magazine was not in fact design, but the contents. Reading the front cover titles just makes us wanna have a family soon. How can a mother find a job again, traveling the world with small children, facts about adoption in Germany, designing kid’s room, buying a house of your own (not taking over a corner of your parents’ home). There are tons of useful information for young parents such as financing, travel tips, nutritional advice, and of course, fashion and design!

What is so special about this magazine is that it’s not unrealistically fashion-savvy like Vogue Bambini (Italy) or too 90’s like Fritz + Fränzi (Switzerland). Nido focuses on ordinary family life at the same time bring in new concepts and trends in an affordable way. The writing style is super simple: there is no artificial interview that gives me goose bumps (like the cover interview with a Hollywood star in an American fashion magazines, if you know what I mean.) I enjoyed it from page 1 to the end, and I hope this magazine has gained enough audience to continue to the second issue. Some of the questions remain, and this is perhaps why they have not announced the second issue: do young parents really have time to read such a magazine? Are there enough German families who care so much about design and fashion, especially in the midst of recession?