Gourmet magazine folds
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From the Associated Press:
NEW YORK - Conde Nast Publications is closing Gourmet, the nation’s oldest food magazine, and three other money-losing titles as the high-end publisher tries to weather a devastating advertising slump.
In addition to Gourmet, which had a circulation of 980,000 last year, the publisher is closing Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie, a parenting magazine. Earlier in the year it killed publication of Portfolio, a business magazine, and Domino, a lifestyle title.
“We’re all stunned, sad,” Gourmet’s editor, Ruth Reichl, wrote in a post on Twitter.
In a staff memo, Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend said the closures were required “to navigate the company through the economic downturn and to position us to take advantage of coming opportunities.”
Consultants from McKinsey & Co. have been helping the publisher, known for elegant publications and high costs, identify ways to cut its expenses. Despite Gourmet’s large audience, the magazine has suffered one of the worst ad declines of any popular title. Its number of ad pages was down 50 percent in the second quarter from the year before, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
Conde Nast, run by billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr., publishes such magazines as Vogue, The New Yorker and Wired and is a unit of privately held Advance Publications Inc. The company’s remaining 19 magazines also include one on food, Bon Appetit.
