Still Heartbroken
I’m heartbroken by the news that Gourmet is closing. I can’t stand Bon Appetit (the other Conde Nast cooking magazine). I don’t like Bon Appetit’s sensibility and the recipes in Gourmet always turned out better. I know because I’ve cooked out of both magazines. I find that Saveor is too high-brow/pretentious for me (although I have dear friends who love it). I like Cook’s Illustrated, but, I’ve found the recipes are hit or miss and I really don’t like that they don’t have photographs of the food. I loved Gourmet’s photography.
My Demographic Just Got FLUSHED
What makes me saddest is that the closing of Gourmet comes after months of research by consulting firm McKinsey which means that somehow there aren’t enough people like me to keep my favorite magazines alive (Blueprint, Gourmet). In fact, I’m sure that the bean-counters at Mckinsey even have a name for my demographic (design-aficionado-aesthetically-minded-blogger-with-a-graduate degree-who-loves-to-cook) and they knew I’d be upset about closing the and they know I won’t buy Bon Appetit instead. But, there were other demographics, who the McKinsey folks know will make the switch to other Conde Nast pubs (probably because those demographics don’t really cook so they don’t really care) and so my demographic JUST GOT FLUSHED. It really makes me feel lonely.
As someone (studying to be a design historian, btw) who spends a lot of time reading now defunct periodicals for my thesis, I guess I wish there was someway to keep the Gourmet brand alive — since I really felt that its brand promise “the magazine of the good life” was one that I aspired to. I always felt when I opened up Gourmet that I was getting closer to the life I *want* to lead. And I guess I feel that somehow my aspirations have been taken away from me by some soul-less nerd at McKinsey WHO DOESN’T EVEN COOK.
The Internet Is Ultimately Unsatisfying
Now that I’ve started this RANT, I should finish it: while I love blogs and read them, the aesthetics and sensibility are very different than print media. There is something satisfying about reading an article in the New Yorker that I’m sure you are not getting from reading this essay on this blog. I’ve been feeling recently that the internet and blogs are ultimately unsatisfying because as a reader you can never “finish” the internet the way you can finish a good book or a magazine. I miss that sense of satisfaction when you close the last page of a book or recycle a magazine.
I feel that the bloggers I read are my “peers” and I deeply respect their ideas and options. However, for the most part, the blogs I read are not written by experts. That is what I most enjoy about print media and most worry about losing — that these magazines are effectively the “adults” in the room, the experts in my life. I get a lot of reassurance out of reading the opinions of those that are older, wiser and more experienced than me. I loved that the recipes in Gourmet had been tested by many many people who really knew their way around a kitchen — I trusted that collective experience and let it guide me in my own kitchen. I guess I really feel like a trusted mentor has died and I fear losing the other “mentors” in my life — the New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist. These publications are like people to me, I trust them like I would trust a parent.
And Please, What About Reading on the Toilet?
While I agree that the nature of print publishing has to change, has already changed etc etc, as a consumer I still want to be able to read my favorite magazines on the toilet and in the bathtub (where I did most of my Gourmet reading), in bed at night, on the subway, in the middle of the deep forest where there is not internet. I want to be able to read something that I can drop in the tub, that doesn’t get hot in my hands or need charging. I’m beginning to suspect that I’m alone in these desires, or, at least, my demographic isn’t large enough or spend enough money on the right products to be worthy of attention.
No One Is Archiving The Internet
We all know that blogs and the internet are so ephemeral, for better and mostly for worse. I don’t think that someone is going to print images of my blog out in thirty years and hang them in her kitchen, as I did with Gourmet covers from the 1970s. I bet in 10 years many of our favorite blogs today won’t even still be hosted — at some point it is just going to be too much content to wrangle — the content won’t generate enough interest to pay for the cost of hosting it. There aren’t any libraries archiving blog content (I know the internet archive project is doing something, but, again, that is electronic). I don’t mind the ephemeral nature of the internet, because there has always been print to anchor history. At what point does the way history is recorded fundamentally change because of the internet? I’m being a bit hysterical, I know, but, I guess I have an inkling where this is going to end and I don’t like it.
October 5th, 2009 16:59
hear hear.
October 5th, 2009 17:04
I couldn’t agree with you more!
Gourmet has a visual richness to it that transports you in exactly the way you want a magazine to transport you. The photography, design, quality of the content, etc.–everything about Gourmet will be missed.
Great post. Very well stated!
October 5th, 2009 17:04
Dude, I cried when my friend told me! What the freaking hell, no one cares about us!!!! That is how I feel anyway, did anyone bother to ask if we would pay more? I would have paid more for Domino, and Gourmet! those fuckers, excuse my french.
October 5th, 2009 17:05
“I always felt when I opened up Gourmet that I was getting closer to the life I *want* to lead.” == i think that’s so true. Gourmet was one of the rare publications that made you feel inspired, calm and happy, and made you want to travel the world and look at food as both a delicious treat and also an incredibly social and life-affirming pleasure. i agree that blogs are wonderful in their own way, but the magazine is the true art form. gourmet, you will be incredibly missed!
October 5th, 2009 17:11
i totally agree with you also about wanting a magazine to carry into the (hypothetical and real) woods, and that bon appetit is definitely not up to the level of gourmet, or even close. their redesign was so cheesy.
October 5th, 2009 17:39
I couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve said. I’m stunned and sad.
October 5th, 2009 18:05
Whoa … so many things running through my head reading this.
First – Part of me can’t believe they are shutting it down. The other part is not surprised because so many publications I love have gone the way of the dinosaur. There are so few mass marketed magazines that even have the remotest ting of aspiration to art, and I always felt the Gourmet was in that category. From the sumptuous photography, to the actually thought-out essays, reading Gourmet was an exercise in achievable aspiration, an adaptable template to an certain sort of aesthetic life. It was nice to know such templates were out there, on supermarket magazine stands.
Which brings me to my second point – I am starting to feel our culture is so hostile to the notion of aspiring to any sort of aesthetic refinement – whether it is making beautiful, moderately complex food to reading whole essays about something off the beaten path (I’m thinking Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker, whose essays I live for), it really makes a person who always looked for what you so aptly called “the grown-ups in the room’ to model on feel bereft. Our little cohort is being very publicly dissed, and it stinks. It’s especially tragic for people in out of the way places – I know. Growing up in rural Ohio, magazines like Gourmet were tangible statements that other kinds of life were possible. It hurts to lose that – elite as it was, it was egalitarian in that anyone with $5 could buy it.
All that’s left is the hyper-fragmented, chancy world of the web. I agree about the ephemeral, non-professional nature of blogs – it’s part of their beauty and allure, but it is no substitute for the higher benchmarks set by the demands of print … as of now. I think back to Victorian lady scrapbookers – amateurs, yes, but now we look at some of their catalogues of plants and seaweeds and marvel at their thoroughness, at their level of expertise. So who knows how we will look back at this blog revolution.
I think the real danger of blogging is that it allows a certain level of surface complacency – you can very easily cultivate the aura of expertise without having very much. A lot of magazines tread the same ground. I can only hope out of the ferment of the blog world something permanent and lasting can emerge, and that passions can be ignited that lead to the attainment of actual expertise, to true grown-up status. I think there are a few out there like that. I also hope this welter of half-formed ideas and energy can work as a sort of salon, and incubate the innovators who create the next generation of influential publication.
I’ll miss Gourmet. Sorry for the long reply, but you really dug into some meat on this one!
October 5th, 2009 18:28
abby, you said everything spot-on here. one of the first things my boyfriend said was that they should’ve closed bon apetit, and i couldn’t agree more. when i was at home visiting my mom this past week, i sat in our living room and flipped through pages and pages of the gourmet magazines she had on her coffee table. such a great way to cover your coffee table. such a good immersion for the soul. i’m sharing my sadness with you! i keep thinking, if we sob enough online, can we make the decision reverse itself?
October 5th, 2009 19:05
i’ve been sitting here ruminating over my loss–our loss for the last 20 minutes or so, but it’s been a heavy cloud over my head all day. like you, i just can’t believe gourmet is closing. i was reading that they didn’t notify the staff until this morning. it’s just such a icon of food and travel and home and love and culture and diversity and now it’s gone, all gone. it just breaks my heart. such beauty in thought, word, image, and effort. such a terrible terrible shame.
ps i’v never commented here before, but i just couldn’t resist reaching out to my fellow mourners today.
October 5th, 2009 19:35
I agree on lots of points esp. wanting a magazine to take to the bathtub and needing experts with fact checkers in the room. Things are changing fast and not for the best in the publishing world.
October 5th, 2009 19:54
the stupidest part, is that Gourmet’s circulation and sales went up this year.
Yup, up.
But American magazines operate under a failed business model where they get more than 75% of their money from advertising. Basically, they are not in the business of publishing magazines, they are in the business of selling ad space.
By contrast, the numbers are pretty much flipped in Europe. They get most of their money from subscriptions and newsstand sales. They get their money from selling magazines.
And magazines in Europe are doing fine.
October 5th, 2009 19:56
I don’t think you’re being hysterical about this issue… I hate to think we are headed towards a purely electronic age wherein books, magazines and perhaps even writing by hand would be an oddity.
October 5th, 2009 22:56
Thank you for your post on Gourmet–an exquisite magazine about style and detail in food, writing, design, travel, and living.
It’s a cornerstone of the best in American traditional culture and contemporary food culture (sustainability, organic, vegetarian, fair trade, Slow Food and artisan movements). For those of us linked to Gourmet generationally, we can see how its contemporary vision comes full circle with a more holistic, real food, well-mannered era of our grandparents when the creation and enjoyment of food was about the celebration of life. And it feels like a irreplaceable, living heirloom is about to be bulldozed.
It is astounding that with almost a million subscribers–worldwide–that Gourmet has been discarded while the pedestrian and uninspired Bon Appetit continues. This appears to be a part of a trend of not only dumbing down but classing down Americans–and I don’t refer to class as a function of income–but of what Stephanie speaks about: the aesthetic (and intellectual and moral) refinement that is the basis of fine and sensitive living.
I’m a writer that found this blog because of Gourmet–I was searching for others also saddened by Conde Nast going along with McKinsey analysts (who don’t know what the good life is). I want to thank Abbey and others who are also shocked for your thoughts. As someone who loves and appreciates design (the first magazine I worked for was designed by Milton Glaser, who is still a favorite), and who spent university summers in Europe and Japan simply because of design and style, I’ll return here.
Hoping that Conde Nast might keep Gourmet alive online. Or that it resurrects in some way.
Thank you
October 6th, 2009 08:57
I agree with every word – it’s such a shame.
October 6th, 2009 10:13
You hit the nail on the head, Abbey, especially with this statement: the internet and blogs are ultimately unsatisfying because as a reader you can never “finish” the internet the way you can finish a good book or a magazine.
It really is so sad that these magazines are closing due to the bottom line. I was crushed when Domino folded, but felt like at least with Cookie there was still a space for beautifully designed (and attainable) interiors. Now that, too, has gone away. And though I’m not much of a cook, I adored Gourmet’s photography. Their covers were brilliant. And I won’t even get into all the people I know who have now lost their jobs at these books. It’s truly heartbreaking.
I think the giant elephant in the room here is the reason behind these magazines folding. Unfortunately it’s all about profits. And, let’s face it, though they’ve decreased significantly, CN is still turning out gazillions each year. But at the risk of biting the hand that has fed me for the last 7 years, I’ll end that thought there. I just hope that at some point, when the internet backlash eventually hits (which will be hard in its own way), that we’ll see a healthy print revival. I mean, it happened for 80s fashion, right?!
October 6th, 2009 10:41
I am heartbroken with the folding of each magazine…not just because I love the medium, which to me is irreplaceable, but also for the gifted and dedicated staffs behind them. Having been a magazine designer for over 2 decades, I am horrified that in the past 5 years, SO MANY talented people in this industry have lost their jobs. Somehow, through dumb luck, I decided to go freelance 6 years ago, and have been able to survive. My heart goes out to the new ex-employees and their families. My only advice: Go out there and use this opportunity to re-invent yourself. Network. Keep passing the open windows.
October 6th, 2009 11:06
Good lord… where to start? 1) Ditto, ditto, ditto! Preach it! I agree with everything! 2) Some people I expressed my sadness to at the loss of Gourmet found it downright laughable (bastards!). But we are not alone. 3) The “finishing” YES! Totally! 4) “I always felt when I opened up Gourmet that I was getting closer to the life I *want* to lead.” AMEN!
If it’s about profits (and I get that) for god’s sake up my subscription price! I’d pay 3x the amount to keep my Gourmet! Hear that Conde Nast? I’m willing to shuck out the bucks to have some sense of beauty, quality, and inspiration in my life.
Anyway, thanks for doing such an articulate post on these uneasy feelings.
October 6th, 2009 11:15
I agree! I love the way print (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) feel in my hand. I love the smell. I love that they can go anywhere, no outlet needed. It is the small things. Plus when I am cooking, I would rather prop a cookbook or magazine up on my book stand than bring my laptop in the kitchen or printing out a recipe.
October 6th, 2009 12:53
This is a fantastic expression of much of what I’ve been feeling since yestrday. I am a few years older than you, but like you and many of your commenters, I feel that this is yet another instance of heart- and soul-less corporate decisionmaking where not only is bigger better, only bigger gets to exist–even if it’s NOT better at all. The internet has grown off of niche publishing–but does that have to mean that niches (particularly niches at least a million people strong) cannot survive in any other medium? It just seems insane. And what it means for our culture, its appreciation for words, and beauty and authenticity, is totally hearbreaking. If you’re interested, you can read my take on Gourmet’s sad demise (centered on my own family cooking history)here.
October 6th, 2009 14:15
Abbey, I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments. I’ve worked as a copywriter for a major newspaper for more than five years now and the changes we’ve seen lately are devastating. Departments being cut right and left, amazingly talented people cast aside, and those of us that are left simply trying to pick up the pieces, let alone get the paper out every day. While I too love the Internet, there is something so satisfying about the physical act of reading a print publication. It’s part of a daily ritual that sadly could never be replaced by technology. You are absolutely right, however, about advertising dollars driving the bottom line. It doesn’t matter as much that our circulation is actually up this year, when local and national spends have fallen.
I grew up watching my parents read the newspaper every morning and flipping through their old copies of Architectural Digest and National Geographic. Their behavior instilled in me a love of print that I hope to pass on to my own children. I can only pray that there will be something tangible available to them in the future. Here’s to hoping that more people like us remain, and that publishers and advertisers alike hear our cry!
October 6th, 2009 14:32
[...] could write about how sad I think it is that more and more quality magazines are closing, how important I think print is and how much I enjoy leafing through glossy pages or wandering [...]
October 6th, 2009 14:58
I know!!!!!!!!! agh!
October 6th, 2009 16:23
I have 15 years worth of Gourmet’s in my basement (1988-2003). I still pull out the November and December issues every year to plan my holiday meals. I gave up my subscription in the 90’s because I didn’t like what Ruch Reichl did to the magazine….I felt it didn’t ‘talk’ to me anymore. However, it’s a sad day for the magazine world!!
October 6th, 2009 21:20
I found this post via Inspired Goodness, and I just have to say thank you for being able to articulate so many of the thoughts that have been running through my head regarding Gourmet’s demise. I was able to articulate why the magazine itself is so huge to me, but the bigger picture of all of this has been much harder for me to wrap my head around. Again, thanks. You have a new reader.
October 7th, 2009 00:30
As a former newspaper writer/editor, professional chef, and a longtome subscriber of both Gourmet and Bon Appetit, I am saddened that food journalism print media is being trumped by mostly under-educated bloggers and others who believe they can fill in the void of Gourmet with their postings. Gourmet has been rich in coverage of not only food itself, but the global culture surrounding food, and some controversial issues about food, as well.
I think the folding of Gourmet is a terrible decision. No other publication, in my opinion, can replace its quality.
October 7th, 2009 00:31
As a former newspaper writer/editor, professional chef, and a longtime subscriber of both Gourmet and Bon Appetit, I am saddened that food journalism print media is being trumped by mostly under-educated bloggers and others who believe they can fill in the void of Gourmet with their postings. Gourmet has been rich in coverage of not only food itself, but the global culture surrounding food, and some controversial issues about food, as well.
I think the folding of Gourmet is a terrible decision. No other publication, in my opinion, can replace its quality.
October 7th, 2009 06:29
oh abbey, sorry about the broken heart. sorry to hear that another great magazine (which i’ll take your word for, as we don’t get it here – downunder) is folding. i am absolutely so sure that there will always be a demand for print, just as there will always be handwritten notes, but the diminishing of choices is scary.
i love nothing more than kicking back with a magazine….and the thought that my favourites would just disappear over night makes me feel really ‘blah’.
x
October 7th, 2009 07:35
I am really saddened by what this all means…. I said it in reply to the Lonny post below and I’ll say it again here: an online magazine does not replace the experience of having the print copy of a magazine (or book, for that matter). For all of the reasons you delineated above and for all of the reasons that we can’t even predict or begin to understand (I mean, talk about an ADD generation, no?).
I understand that the publishing world is changing and that on some levels it has to change, but I am unsure that Kindle can replace what the experience (romanticized or not) of reading a real book can, or that blogs can replace a well-edited and thought-out magazine. Call me a dinosaur, but it’s just not the same. I’d just like to make sure that with change we are actually evolving and making things better, not worse.
-maria
October 7th, 2009 09:14
your last paragraph makes a lot of sense to me, as a public historian: At what point does the way history is recorded fundamentally change because of the internet?
i don’t think it’s an issue of being hysterical. it’s a question of realizing that, yeah, y’know what, this internet thing, it’s really cool. but at some point, i’m going to want the real deal. and then, it might not be there.
October 7th, 2009 09:22
Excuse me….but this is not all about YOUR demographic being flushed. I am a mid 50’s, empty nester, also with a design sensibility, and now have the time to cook the recipes, and ability to actually travel to the places featured instead of just dreaming about it. This affects MANY demographics.
October 7th, 2009 09:28
Bernie — you are right, of course! It does affect many different demographics (all of whom got flushed!).
October 7th, 2009 11:16
Abbey, I so agree with you on all counts.
As fun as it is to soak up the diversity and immediacy that Web content brings, there will never be a substitute for the intellectual and sensory experience of books, magazines and newspapers.
I’m just a little older than you, and I’m just now accepting that for all these years I’ve been part of that flushable demographic – outnumbered by the mass market and therefore insignificant. If I weren’t a mostly positive person I’d be worried about cultural legacies our kids are going to inherit!
October 7th, 2009 11:46
i am TERRIFIED of losing my glossies.
October 7th, 2009 11:58
I’ve always read for Bon Apetit and Food and Wine. I get good ideas from both. Design Tip: I save my issues of Cooks Illustrated and take the illustrations from the back cover and frame them. I rotated them in my kitchen.
October 7th, 2009 12:02
I, too, am heartbroken and extremely disappointed in Conde Naste. Ditto on everything you mentioned, plus Gourmet was helmed by one of the world’s foremost food critics who personally for me, was responsible for putting story, history, culture, humor, anthropolgy, and art into cooking and eating. Apparently Bon Appetit was shocked that they weren’t shut down. Unfortunately, Gourmet was blindsided and I am insulted by the way such a legendary publication and its creators, editors, writers, photographers, etc. were treated. Travesty! Thank you for your post. xo Ama
October 7th, 2009 12:53
I love what you said about wanting to read something that doesn’t get hot in your hand and needs charging! My thoughts exactly!
I hope that one day internet and print will co-exist, without one taking over the other but I’m afraid we’re going to see a lot more magazines go bust before this happens.
October 7th, 2009 16:24
I just found your site from Cup of Jo and I wanted to say I love everything about this post. I work for a magazine & newspaper and you said everything I’m thinking but couldn’t express. And from looking through your comments, you (and I) are obviously not alone. Yay for print!
October 7th, 2009 16:50
I have had subscriptions to 5 magazines that have gone under recently. I always have a mag in the pick-up line at school. I can’t tote my laptop. I can’t rip the pages out to remind me to cook a recipe and then put it in the binder if it’s a keeper. I love several cooking blogs and cook from them often, but the recipes aren’t as inspiring as the ones in mags with great photography. I miss Domino + Blueprint – ideas that I still have on file. *sigh* what next?
October 7th, 2009 17:21
Great appreciation for print media. I agree with much of what you’ve said, especially about the “never-ending internet” (though also, that’s part of its charm!). If it makes you feel any better, the Gourmet brand will be kept alive in cookbooks, etc — things that will probably bring in more money than the magazine.
October 7th, 2009 18:53
I totally thought of you right away Abbey. I should have sent my condolences. I’m sad about Blueprint, Domino and I was planning on subscribing to Cookie when Henry arrived. This sucks.
October 7th, 2009 22:40
Interesting perspective. I LOVE old how-to books!
October 8th, 2009 04:03
Wow- I think I need some time to think about what you’ve written here before I can offer a truly considered response, but you should know that you are not alone- there are lots of us out there! Secondly, as a twenty something, believe it or not, a lot of you bloggers have the same sort of trusted expert status in my life as these publications have/had in yours. So don’t stop what you are doing and perhaps we’ll figure out a way to move forward yet.
October 8th, 2009 09:44
wow…clearly you aren’t alone. there are many of us who are mourning the death of gourmet, blueprint and one of my favorites – domino. i agree with you that the world is changing, and i hate to see my favorite magazines go away.
October 8th, 2009 11:04
Abbey,
I love this post! Please do longer posts on a weekly basis. I totally agree with you about Gourmet. However, your thoughtful and well written post gives me hope for the internet.
October 9th, 2009 10:34
Abbey,
You took the words right out of my mouth. Blueprint folded, then Gourmet..
Can anyone suggest some satisfying alternatives?
October 9th, 2009 13:50
Abbey –
I heartily agree with you on so many points.
To flip through a magazine as soon as it comes in the mail, making plans to savor the photos and articles more thoroughly later (in the tub), is somehow sensing it’s permanence, knowing you will have it to hold and refer to for as long as you want – an experience that just isn’t possible over the internet. And yes, yes, to the thought some of those articles are written by “adults” or “experts” and are edited and even spellchecked! To me it is like closing all independent restaurants because the bottom line at the Olive Garden is better, this continuous cutting down of culture, experience, and high standards on the behalf of corporate profits!
October 10th, 2009 16:19
Well said!! Completely agree about both Blueprint, Domino & Gourmet. If we want our favorite print products to live on in print, we have to make a comittment to support them. I try to subscribe and renew every one of my favorite magazines to help keep them alive. Or even better, buy them on the newsstand! The only way to keep magazines from the corporate beancounters it to vote with your wallet!!
October 12th, 2009 14:56
so so so true! loved everything you said. there is just NOT the same satisfaction with blogs/internet. if anything, the internet can be frustrating because it is so completely overwhelming with no end in sight…
October 13th, 2009 10:12
Right on. I love reading blogs but I will miss the intimacy only the page can provide.
October 13th, 2009 14:01
Refreshing and honest post. You really opened my eyes to the decline of our generation’s print media. I get excited when a new magazine comes in the mail and yes…I’m an avid toilet reader too! I enjoy the internet for instant and always updated appeal, but I also enjoy a good magazine for lasting worth. Hopefully things will turn around…your voice is a great way to start.
October 15th, 2009 11:07
This is such a heartfelt response to the blogsophere’s elephant in the room: that we are in part responsible for helping to kill the old guard of paper media…It’s like we love our jobs as bloggers but we also hate that we are a bit of the problem as well. You can’t turn back the hands of time or try to defy technology, but it certainly is a sad day when the print mags we love are facing extinction.
Somehow, somewhere, someone, or some genious has to come up with a business model that can overcome the hit that electronic media has given to traditional mediums…
Will share this with readers….
October 15th, 2009 20:55
Well said. I agree with you on all points. Although I wasn’t a Gourmet reader I have seen many other fine publications go the way of the dodo and mourn for them all. Even with the loss of all these magazines there still seem to be hundreds and hundreds available at my local bookstores and newsstands. It makes you wonder how so many very obscure-sounding titles not only come into existence but manage to survive in this economy. It doesn’t matter how many people love a periodical in the US if said periodical cannot drum up the advertising rates to compete with other, possibly lesser-quality magazines. It’s always down to money, isn’t it?
October 17th, 2009 09:33
Thank you so much for this post and for your comments about the internet and blogging. I am exactly as you are: still heartbroken. I’ve been a Gourmet subscriber for 7 years and I haven’t had the courage to unwrap my October 2009 issue of Gourmet because I know that I will get depressed knowing that it is my second to last issue. Is there something we can do? Rise up and write letters to Conde Nast? Obviously they don’t care. The idea of Bon Apetit with all its pedestrian recipes and silly articles about overcoming the fear of eating kale (puh lease)… the idea of it showing up in place of Gourmet in my mailbox makes my blood absolutely boil. I just wish there was something we could do, I feel helpless and to echo what everyone has said, alienated by the “bottom line” attitude of our society that places profits over quality or for that matter, posterity…
October 21st, 2009 15:42
.
Abbey-
If you love to cook, I urge you to reconsider and support Bon Appetit. (Btw folks, if you really want to support a magazine you love, and want to make sure it keeps publishing, buy it at the newsstand.)The recipes are excellent and thoroughly tested. You have no idea how much hard work and love goes into developing them (full disclosure: one of my friends is a longtime, frequent contributor).
I realize the magazine is not as brainy or elite as Gourmet, not as anal as Cooks Illustrated (good CI gets on my nerves sometimes) and not as sexy as Food & Wine. But it offers solid recipes and information and the art direction has changed in the last year or so. So it’s getting hipper.
Conde Nast just laid off 7 staffers at Bon Appetit today. (Meanwhile, has Anna Wintour taken a pay cut?) There are real human beings behind these magazines, people. Anytime a magazine is shut down, not only does the staff lose their jobs, but hundreds of peripheral people do also, from photographers and writers to food stylists, fact checkers and researchers, and the folks who do color separation at the printer, etc. etc. This sort of thing is devastating to tons of people.
October 23rd, 2009 10:00
Abbey
you so perfectly and beautifully articulated every. single. thing. I’ve been feeling since this last blow to the print world. when i think about the fact that the magazines I eagerly awaited just a year ago (house and garden, blueprint, domino, gourmet, cookie…) are all gone… well i feel, as you said alone. I can’t believe there are so few of us in this demographic.
and yes, i want my magazines to be aspirational If I’m going to sit down (taking time away from my family, my other obligations, my other hobbies) to read a publication, I want it to be something beautiful, inspiring and aspirational…not 10 ways to organize your toilet paper cabinet.
I’m right there with you sister.
October 29th, 2009 10:45
Abbey, I heartily agree with you on your comparisons to the other food magazines- they just don’t do it for me. Every time I read food & wine I’m disappointed. Gourmet was beautiful, practical, and well, just fit me (& my demographic) to a t. The sad thing is, the enormous sums Conde Nast paid to McK consultants to analyze whether or not the magazine was viable could have been better spent on something else that may actually have kept it running. What a loss.
And it’s true, archiving is so important, and that you’ll never get with an online source.
October 29th, 2009 15:57
i’ll give you an amen.