Style Editor’s Plans for a Favorite Category

Julie A. Palm, Lighting News Now’s new style editor, is excited to return to a category where her home furnishings career began — a category where design radiates.

 

When I was applying for my first job as a journalist covering the home furnishings industry, part of the process involved interviewing one of the publication’s editors about the launch of a new lighting line and then writing up a short article on the spot.

One of the tricks of the test: The company the editor was pretending to be an executive with was Stiffel and some job candidates failed by forgetting to ask for the correct spelling of the company’s name.

Apparently, I got it right — and landed the job at Home Accents Today, covering several accessories categories, including lighting.

My career has taken me into several realms since then, including a stint in higher education, and I spent many years in bedding as editor-in-chief of the trade magazines BedTimes and Sleep Savvy magazines.

But I have always loved the broader home furnishings industry and, in particular, design. Earnings reports and market strategies are important – critically important – but the style side of the business is the fun part.

In 2022, I joined the News Now Media Group as an editor of Design News Now, where I’ve focused on design trends, interior designer profiles and new products across home furnishings categories. This month, I have taken on a broader role as style editor for both Design News Now and Lighting News Now. I’m thrilled by the opportunity to focus weekly on lighting, the place where I started years ago — and one of the most exciting categories in the industry. I find myself dazzled by all that’s on display in manufacturers’ market spaces and retailers’ showrooms.

Lighting is a segment in which design truly shines, with many lamps and fixtures serving as works of art in their own right, even before anyone switches them on. Furniture provides structure for room, rugs define the space but it’s lighting that fills a space with warmth, drama and depth.

At Lighting News Now, I’ll be covering new product introductions and design trends in lighting, as well as broader trends that impact consumers’ choices for their homes, with the idea that such information can help you select new lines for your showrooms that will fulfill consumers’ burgeoning desires. If you’re a lighting manufacturer, please add me to your contact list (julie@homenewsnow.com) and reach out with your new product news.

I also want to bring you stories about the designers behind the collections you see at markets. While artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the design process, it’s still a human-driven endeavor, and knowing what inspired a line or a particular detail can help you build a connection between customers and the lamps and fixtures they select to shine a light on their lives.

I’m looking forward to working with editor-in-chief Linda Longo, a passionate veteran of the lighting industry who helped launch this successful publication one year ago, and I hope to be in conversation with Lighting News Now readers as we go forward.

This is a tough time in much of the home furnishings industry, driven by tariff uncertainty, a slow housing market and anemic consumer demand at all but the highest ends of the market.

Yet lighting producers continue to innovate with everything from nifty, user-friendly features to stunning designs. I look forward to helping illuminate important style happenings in the lighting category.