Saturday was a good day for Ruth Reichl, and she let the tweeting world know it.
“Foggy fall afternoon. Cup of lemon tea. Outside the window a deer is munching on the lawn. About to start the Saturday puzzle. Happy.”
Two days later, the world turned.
“Thank you all SO much for this outpouring of support. It means a lot,” she tweeted Monday afternoon. “Sorry not to be posting now, but I’m packing. We’re all stunned, sad.”
The last editor-in-chief of Gourmet, the grand dame of American food magazines, was doing what thousands of other journalists have done as print advertising revenue continues to tank throughout the industry, leaving the information age in the hands of bloggers, reality television, and fabulist pundits.
Gourmet is closing after the November issue, according to a report in The New York Times, and silk-stocking publisher Condé Nast is shuttering three other titles with it – Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, and Cookie, “The stylish parenting magazine for the new mom.” The home décor title Domino, and the business book, Condé Nast Portfolio, were shut down earlier this year.
While speculation favored sister publication, Bon Appétit, as one of the next to be axed, it was Gourmet that fell under a just-completed three-month study by management consultant McKinsey & Company.
First published in January 1941, Gourmet laid claim as the first magazine in the U.S. devoted to food and wine, and it glorified both in lavish words and pictures. Literary lions as disparate as novelists Ray Bradbury, David Foster Wallace, and Annie Proulx shared its pages with such elegant culinarians (the word didn’t exist until eight years after the founding) as M.F.K. Fisher, James Beard, Elizabeth David, Jonathan Gold – the only food writer to win a Pulitzer Prize – and gonzo chef/food writer Anthony Bourdain.
“It’s the center of gravity, a major planet that’s just disappearing,” said Bourdain, who told the Associated Press that Gourmet was the first food book to take a chance on him.
Its closing was announced to Condé Nast staff Monday in an internal memo from CEO Charles Townsend.
“We have now completed an extensive review of our business – an important undertaking given the dramatic changes in the U.S. economy,” Townsend wrote. “The review has led us to a number of decisions designed to navigate the company through the economic downturn and to position us to take advantage of coming opportunities.
“Condé Nast’s success comes from the ability of our publications to attract readers with a wide range of interests, as well as advertisers who value them. But in this economic climate it is important to narrow our focus to titles with the greatest prospects for long-term growth.
“Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet’s book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com. We will concentrate our publishing activities in the epicurean category on Bon Appétit.”
Former New York Times restaurant critic Reichl, who has led Gourmet since 1999, is only the fourth editor-in-chief since its founding. She succeeded Gail Zweigenthal, Jane Montant, and Earle R. MacAusland.
Whether she finds a new print platform remains to be seen, but later this month PBS is slated to debut Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth, a follow-up to its Diary of a Foodie.
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2 Comments
#1. ahrcanum 10.13.2009
Half of the time you couldn’t find the ingredients very easily for the recipes. Got to be a pain to have to mail order crap to use it once or twice. Bon Appétit a little better. Should have an alternative in the kitchen like buying a pie crust or substituting ingredients that the average person might already have in the pantry or actually might be in the grocery and not some specialty store in timbuck f two.. Who has time to make these gourmet meals or afford the ingredients these. If video killed the radio star, the net killed Gourmet with easier recipes on line.
#2. Victor Sasson 11.05.2009
No great loss. One less glossy, overly promotional food magazine is an improvement I welcome.
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