Condé Nast Folds Four Magazines
Publishing Giant Closes Gourmet, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Cookie
Oct 19, 2009
American homes are familiar with many of the several dozen household-name magazines published by Condé Nast, including The New Yorker, one of literature's most venerable monthly print publications. So when the publishing giant announces the closure of four major magazines, U.S. readers will wonder whether or not their favorite monthly reads will be in danger as well.
Condé Nast Publications
It seems Condé Nast is responding to the economy and its impact on advertising budgets. In choosing to discontinue Gourmet, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie (a parenting magazine), the publishers selected magazines that apparently weren't operating well financially. They also stopped publication of business magazine Portfolio and lifestyle magazine Domino earlier this year. Other Condé Nast publications include Vogue, W, Glamour, GQ, Brides, Wired, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair and Bon Appetit, which seems poised to pick up advertising slack from the defunct Gourmet.
Gourmet's editor Ruth Reichl, who was featured in a Sunday New Tork Times magazine article this week that included news about her new TV cooking show, reported on Twitter: "We're all stunned, sad."
Huffington Post
As of this date, Condé Nast has not issued an official news release on their website regarding the closures of the four magazines. Online magazine The Huffington Post reported the news early, which was picked up in print publications including The New Tork Times this week.
The Huffington Post quoted a Condé Nast staff report in which 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." (Andrew Vanacore, Conde Nast To Close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, The Huffington Post, October 5, 2009. Note: Vanacore's piece was also picked up by a variety of news outlets across the nation, including USA Today, NPR, ABC and many others.)
Condé Nast Publisher
Billionaire S.I. Newhouse is the publisher of Condé Nast Publications, where over 180 employees have lost their jobs this week due to the magazines' closures. Newhouse has not commented on the closings of the magazines; CEO Townsend seems to be the only one speaking to the media regarding the closures.
This historic decision by an American publishing magnate, as well as the recent shuttering of Readers Digest, will be sure to have a ripple effect in the publishing industry as print media struggles to deal with rising costs and lowered ad revenues, which will ultimately affect the reading materials in American households.
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