Gourmet magazine in danger of folding?

Here's some sad, but not totally surprising, news about one of America's most venerated food magazines: Gourmet magazine might not make it to the end of the year. And if it does, it might be exclusively a Web publication.

This news comes from New York financial media company 24/7 Wall St:

"Condé Nast, can no longer rely on the huge profits of the newspaper portion of the Newhouse family business. The magazine operation needs to go on a diet. Condé Nast . . . owns Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and epicurious.com. Condé Nast simply owns too many titles in this category. From 2004 to 2008, Gourmet's ad pages have dropped from 1,364 to 955, with a 24 percent drop last year. January's ad pages were down another 32 percent."

Editor Ruth Reichl, who has written some terrific food memoirs, has transformed the magazine in recent years into a more esoteric tome. It's less about home cooking and more about the exotic. Detractors say it's elitist and the recipes are too complicated. You can peruse them for yourself at www.epicurious.com.   

Either way, I'd hate to see a magazine that's chronicled the American and global food scene since 1941 go belly-up. Gourmet has weathered tough times before. It debuted just as World War II began and food rationing was more of a reality than gourmet cooking.

Stay tuned . . .

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Comments

OK, this isn't "news." It's pure speculation from a financial blogger with a very dubious record for predictions. Calling it "news" is the saddest thing I've seen all week. The guy can't spell Bon Appetit, doesn't realize that Epicurious has both Gourmet and Bon Appetit recipe content and that the magazine has its own website, gourmet.com, where there is original content as well as content from the magazine. Plenty of other mistakes in his lengthy piece, and there's no reason why the general public would pick up on those things, but you'd think a "journalist" analyzing a business would.

[sideways2]

The anonymous poster (is that really you, Ruth Reichl?) brings up a great point - inflammatory rumors don't make news.

But the journalist with 24/7 Wall Street who posted the original story, lacking as he may be, has some amazing stats about declining ad revenue. I hope they can continue, and perhaps their answer is the web. I just don't know how they'll monitize it.

They are too important to the U.S. food movement to go away. Adapt to recessionary times? Of course. But go away? I dread the day.

Dave the Wine Merchant

[Stir Crazy]

Thanks for weighing in. I fear the troubles newspapers are having will affect a lot more than people realize.

[Michael]

I hate to break it to everybody, but if you look at what Conde Nast magazines have folded in the past couple of Months -- Domino and Portfolio and if you look at what they closed in the past couple of years -- Cargo, Vitals, Men's Vogue, Vogue Living, House & Garden, Conde Nast Women's Sports & Fitness -- Gourmet is not too far behind. The market is changing rapidly and Gourmet is not the last one that CN will fold. My bet is that Allure will be after Gourmet then AD and possibly Details.

[Mary Ruth]

All I can say, as a loyal Gourmet reader for many years and an admirer of Ruth Reichl, is that I pray that this does not happen. I am a new stay at home mom and in February, at a loss for what to do all day with a little one, decided to blog about making all the recipes from Gourmet for the month. I had so much fun and it gave me such purpose and sense of accomplishment, I have continued for 4 months now. I don't want to stop and I've learned so much about cooking and about me. To lose Gourmet would be like losing an old friend!

[Mary Ruth]

All I can say, as a loyal Gourmet reader for many years and an admirer of Ruth Reichl, is that I pray that this does not happen. I am a new stay at home mom and in February, at a loss for what to do all day with a little one, decided to blog about making all the recipes from Gourmet for the month. I had so much fun and it gave me such purpose and sense of accomplishment, I have continued for 4 months now. I don't want to stop and I've learned so much about cooking and about me. To lose Gourmet would be like losing an old friend!