Magazine empire Conde Nast, home of Vogue and the New Yorker, will announce the closure of Gourmet this morning, according to a report in the New York Times, which calls the move “startling.”
Like many other media companies, Conde Nast is facing difficult times. In the not-so-distant past, it shuttered shopping magazine Domino and folded Men’s Vogue into a twice-yearly supplement to Vogue. But so far, victims of its contractions have been newer titles.
With Gourmet apparently at the end of its run, that has changed. The magazine has been published since 1940 and is edited by the popular food writer Ruth Reichl (former restaurant critic and Food editor for the L.A. Times). It’s also given Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Gold, who has celebrated L.A.’s diverse low-end restaurants, a different kind of platform for his writing. Gourmet may have been seen as more prestigious than sibling magazine Bon Appetit — founded by Pillsbury 15 years later — but Bon Appetit will be the one that continues to publish.
Other Conde Nast magazines headed to extinction are Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride (fear not, engaged ladies, Bride itself has survived).
– Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: SuperFantastic via Flickr
