Gourmet mag to go down the tubes ...

[Robin Garr]

From the NY Times Diners' Journal blog:

Gourmet, 68, to Die
By SAM SIFTON
It appears that Gourmet magazine, the literate, beautiful Conde Nast magazine with a rising circulation — widely thought to have been safe from the economy’s depredation — will cease publication after the publication of its November issue.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/ ... 68-to-die/

So sad. It debuted the year my mother was born. My grandmother and mother subscribed, and they gave me a subscription when I married (nevermind my 60 hour a week job and four foot long kitchen).

And the word is that a few book publishers are doing yet another round of layoffs later this year. It's a bad time for the written word.

Here is the sad, but real, truth. How much do you pay for your Gourmet Subscription? Now, do you subscribe to Cooks Illustrated? You likely pay twice as much for Cooks. Why? No ads. Rising circulation doesn't matter when all of those new readers are only paying for half the costs of producing the magazine. Good writers and gorgeous photography cost money. Unfortunately, about 1/3, and sometimes as many as half of the advertisers in food mags are car companies, financial services, insurance and the like. So, this is the other edge of the sword when those companies' expenses are now scrutinized for being poorly run (or overpaying a few higher-ups) and needing bailouts....they pull back on ad spending (which they have - across the board), and the revenue models built on their spending can collapse in on themselves. Highly leveraged media companies that might have allowed the mags to operate through tough times in the past based on their high quality circulation now can't afford the red ink on their books even one more month, and make the decision to kill it fast. Conde' Nast killed 3 other magazines at the same time - Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie (an upscale magazine aimed at parents - and Bridal was one place where advertisers actually weren't pulling back (which tells you how much trouble Conde Nast is in).

Not saying that any of this is right or wrong, just being the realist. More than ever, if you like something - a magazine, a website, a radio station or anything else that is supported by advertisers or sponsors - you need to pay for that content....and tell advertisers that the reason you are buying their product or service is because you saw their ad or apprecate their sponsorship of the event. And to that end - Robin - you can tell the folks at CQ that we went there the other night because their logo on LHB reminded us!

I have a soft spot for Gourmet, but to be frank, I stopped taking it years ago, and would just pick up the occasional copy from a newsstand if I had a Gourmet jones. Too many ads, too much travel content. For recipes, Cooks Illustrated can't be beat, and I love Plate Magazine for the photography.

[Robin Garr]

Condé Nast has to some extent gone down the same road with their magazines as Gannett has with newspapers, with the caveat that it specializes in slick, quality publications. But I think a look at their balance sheet would show a similar shift in budget from editorial to profits. They pay free-lancers well, but their contracts are said to be among the most rapacious in the industry. And I was never much of a fan of Ruth Reichl ...

I have a soft spot for Gourmet, but to be frank, I stopped taking it years ago, and would just pick up the occasional copy from a newsstand if I had a Gourmet jones. Too many ads, too much travel content. For recipes, Cooks Illustrated can't be beat, and I love Plate Magazine for the photography.

Condé Nast has to some extent gone down the same road with their magazines as Gannett has with newspapers, with the caveat that it specializes in slick, quality publications. But I think a look at their balance sheet would show a similar shift in budget from editorial to profits. They pay free-lancers well, but their contracts are said to be among the most rapacious in the industry. And I was never much of a fan of Ruth Reichl ...

I have a soft spot for Gourmet, but to be frank, I stopped taking it years ago, and would just pick up the occasional copy from a newsstand if I had a Gourmet jones. Too many ads, too much travel content. For recipes, Cooks Illustrated can't be beat, and I love Plate Magazine for the photography.

Oh but I did love "Garlic and Sapphires".

I'm just stunned. I know the reasons why, still can't get my head around it. The editorial content was excellent in my opinion- the combination of recipes, food articles, trends, travel, sustainability, reviews- industry I devored just about every issue. Tried Bon Appetit a couple of times and it just doesn't have the content anymore, and Food & Wine is a little too "much" for me. I get Fine Cooking but that's for a different type of cooking article.

Personally I'd pay twice as much as I pay now- or more. But no one is asking us....

Deb

I like Gourmet and will miss it, including Ruth. Love the photography. Much to miss. I was going to let Savuer expire, but not now. Glad Edward Lee got his coverage before the clock ran out on the magazine.

That's strange...I just got a mailer from them trying to get me to subscribe...glad I was procrastinating! I've found some good things in Gourmet over the years, but it seems that the magazine has become more and more about the ads and travel and less about the food.

When I look through that six foot stack of recipes I've made and liked, of those that came from a publication, the majority of them came from Gourmet. I trusted their recipes. There was always something intriguing or inspiring ( a great jumping off point) in each issue. My former mother-in-law's family room bookcase has three shelves of cataloged back issues of Gourmet with the little pale yellow Post It's sticking out of the top. CD

This article might be a little too "inside baseball", but there appeared to be an issue between Gourmet and Bon Appetit with their publisher, Condé Nast:

But the bake-off seemed to have a clear winner: Gourmet, by a mile.

“As companies across all industries streamline redundancies, you’ve got Bon Ap and Gourmet, and which has the stronger name? Gourmet, clearly,” a Condé Nast publisher told The Observer in the beginning of the year. “As a brand you want Gourmet. It’s got Ruth Reichl, it’s edited in New York. Bon Ap is in L.A.—it’s never really reflected the Condé Nast culture.”

Interesting. Several paragraphs expressing numbers problems yet not one that mentions the reader by Mr. Townsend. Not even a perfunctory "Serving the reader better" sentence. CD

[Robin Garr]

Interesting. Several paragraphs expressing numbers problems yet not one that mentions the reader by Mr. Townsend. Not even a perfunctory "Serving the reader better" sentence. CD

At the risk of beating a broken drum, this echoes my comments above likening the basic theology of Condé Nast and Gannett (and, in fairness, most other corporate publishers nowadays). Hence the deluge.

i loved that magazine. take it from a person who subscribes to over 50 magazines a month, a lot of them are folding. apparently not enough advertising revenue, and postage. many favorites have folded recently. one's that have been around for years and years. are folding. some of them are going digital, i hate that. i love to pick up a magazine and turn pages. they are going the way of newspapers, poof gone.

Good god women, 50? how do you find the time to eat out the amount you do. Or maybe you take the magazines and read them at the table lol.

alison, i love to read. after i read them all, i drop them off at a clinic near downtown so other people can read them while they wait for their appts. believe me i find the time to read them all.

Annemarie, I, too love to read. However, since my new venture at Highlander Point, I am only able to read in bed for 20 mins a night, before my eyes start closing and the land of nod beckons.