[Anthony Bonner]

Nytimes post

I remember being a little kid flipping through my great Aunt's collection. She had every issue from Vol1 Issue1 until her death in 2004. Everytime we would go down to see her she would send us home with several years worth of issues as she gradually gave the collection to my mom. I mock the food press regularly but this is a loss.

[Rail Paul]

The NYT article notes that Gourmet's recipes often used difficult to acquire ingredients, and the recipes were sometimes difficult to follow. That's true, and the rarity of substitution suggestions (IMHO) put the magazine somewhat out of touch with the average cook like me.

The magazine also had the unfortunate habit of masquerading as a photo shoot for luxury hotels, etc. There were several thinly disguised promotionals for movies I had no intentions of seeing...

[Evelyn]

I haven't found the magazine worth reading for a very long time. Obviously, I was not alone in that senitment.

[Suzanne F]

I'm surprised in that Bon Appétit is so easily expendable -- it's just like so many other general-readership food mags (imo) -- but maybe that's what saved it: the public nowadays seems to want quick, simple, not-very-interesting recipes for people who don't know how to cook.

Then again, Gourmet had the reputation of high-browness and difficulty, surely a disadvantage to the crowd mentioned above, even though I don't think it's been anywhere near as good as it used to be.

Oh goody, maybe this means we'll get more books from Reichl.

[Wilfrid1]

Yes, very surprised they went that way. Amalgamating the titles, and keeping the Gourmet brand would have been my bet.

Of course, this is going to be an extended process at Conde Nast. At the end of the day, they may only keep the New Yorker.

[Anthony Bonner]

as alluded to by others the demos for BA were just much much better evidently.

[Wilfrid1]

Since this has been a McKinsey operation, I suppose we should remember that recommendations - if not final decisions - are being made by people who have not been thumbing through back copies of Gourmet for years.

[rancho_gordo]

I was shocked how low the circulation figures are for food magazines. This was 2 years ago but BA was way ahead of the pack with Cooking Light fast catching up. Gourmet and Food + Wine were very small in comparison. My memory thinks it was about 75,000 or so each but that seems too low. Sauveur was even lower. Whatever it was, BA was the clear powerhouse.

Gourmet's covers have been very weird, sad and dark for a long time. I liked their reach into politics but hated the food spreads that used models instead of real people eating and cooking. Food as fashion. It was like Gourmet was reaching to be more accessible while BA was reaching up. I think on some level BA knows exactly what it is and Gourmet was struggling to redefine itself.

[hollywood]

Yes, very surprised they went that way. Amalgamating the titles, and keeping the Gourmet brand would have been my bet.

Of course, this is going to be an extended process at Conde Nast. At the end of the day, they may only keep the New Yorker.

I note that judges on a recent Hell's Kitchen were BA editors, not Gourmet. The contestants were duly impressed.

[Rail Paul]

Since this has been a McKinsey operation, I suppose we should remember that recommendations - if not final decisions - are being made by people who have not been thumbing through back copies of Gourmet for years.

Very important point.

I suspect that sophisticated amateur cooks ranked fairly low on the priority list recommended by McKinsey. Losing 8,000 pages of advertising is a pretty grim reality.

[Anthony Bonner]

Since this has been a McKinsey operation, I suppose we should remember that recommendations - if not final decisions - are being made by people who have not been thumbing through back copies of Gourmet for years.

Very important point.

I suspect that sophisticated amateur cooks ranked fairly low on the priority list recommended by McKinsey. Losing 8,000 pages of advertising is a pretty grim reality.

I think you guys are understating the role the Newhouses had. Indeed it seems as though McK was told at the outset that there are a few sacred cows (NYer in its entirety, much of Vogue). The Gourmet closure had been rumored for months on Gawker.

[Rail Paul]

Since this has been a McKinsey operation, I suppose we should remember that recommendations - if not final decisions - are being made by people who have not been thumbing through back copies of Gourmet for years.

Very important point.

I suspect that sophisticated amateur cooks ranked fairly low on the priority list recommended by McKinsey. Losing 8,000 pages of advertising is a pretty grim reality.

I think you guys are understating the role the Newhouses had. Indeed it seems as though McK was told at the outset that there are a few sacred cows (NYer in its entirety, much of Vogue). The Gourmet closure had been rumored for months on Gawker.

The page loss didn't occur overnight. Losing 8,000 pages of advertising without a serious chance of an advertising recovery is a pretty grim reality. I suspect the Newhouses didn't have much of a choice.

[Rex1965]

If one goes, another will soon follow. How are Food & Wine and Bon Appetit doing?

[flyfish]

Would anyone mind it I merged this topic with the newer one in the general food and drink forum? Personally I'm not a big fan of having non-human Goodbye subjects... on the other hand, this is the longer thread. What would people prefer?

[Lippy]

Would anyone mind it I merged this topic with the newer one in the general food and drink forum? Personally I'm not a big fan of having non-human Goodbye subjects... on the other hand, this is the longer thread. What would people prefer?

I think it should be in "Written Word."