An Undeserved Butchering: Gourmet Magazine

Gourmet magazine celebrated food, where it came from, how it was made, but this last act of butchering was undeserved. Conde Nast decided to shutter the venerable food monthly, giving staff a week (one day, an editor reports) to clean out their desks. 

Now, I understand Gourmet was losing money. But the swift axe comes as a shock, especially at a time when food writing has become elevated and the audience for such fare continues to grow. I cannot imagine that the Gourmet magazine brand would not have been worth something if re-imagined.

I am also saddened because I have worked with Gourmet on occasion and know a few people there. To just single out two, food politics writer Barry Estabrook was among the more insightful, broad-reaching and strong writers in the field. His article on virtual slave workers in Florida's tomato fields led to long-awaited reform. At the very least, his piece deserves consideration for a national magazine award. I would also single out Jane Daniels Lear, senior articles editor, for her keen editorial pencil and deft writing. Ruth Reichl needs no accolades, since she has done so much to change the way food is perceived and written about and I expect she will continue to do so in the future.

Gourmet offered a melange of stylized photo shoots and far-flung travel features; it celebrated chef menus and offered tips on fast and easy food. In short, it tried to navigate between the ideal and utilitarian. The mix worked for me, but maybe in this age of Google-your-ingredient recipes the sense of urgency was missing. With a new food site seemingly launching ever week, though, it's hard to think there isn't an appetite for this stuff. And the weird thing was, Gourmet had a lead on all of them.

I hope Gourmet lives on at its web site, still offering engaging writing and videos, giving us tips and inside stories. But if it doesn't, I imagine these talented people will land on their feet creating what Conde Nast, alas, was unwilling to envision.

- Samuel Fromartz

Comments

[Aaron Pressman]

Great post. Seems so obviously short-sighted and the opposite of what a great publishing company should be doing in tough times.

[Chrystal K.]

This is so sad. Not only for the readers of those magazines, but for the writers/editors that now have to find new jobs. I really hope everyone of them finds a place to work that they really love soon.

[Chris R]

I get the feeling that the Internet is going to get a bunch of new talented food writers.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1207062742]

So sad to see Gourmet go. I look forward to it each month. Hope everyone lands on their feet with jobs they love.

[Constant Gina]

You raise very good points, I agree. I even use Martha Stewart Every Day Food more than those for weekday meals – so good! I rarely buy all of those magazines. Publications also needed to get into the online game more, especially robust, beautifully designed online password-protected content for subscribers.

[Mark McDiarmid]

How much of Gourmet's closure is contributed by our overall "everything must be free" attitude? (Esp on internet) Gourmet loses money, not so much viz subscribers but viz advertisers.

(Although Conde Nast also has a reputation (deserved or not) for ridiculous salaries and expense accts)

Still, why not "clean house" -- offer better rates to advertisers, and increase cost of subscriptions and see if the readers "step up." The truth is magazines are given away for practically nothing -- the cost to the consumer is often less than the postage cost of delivering it.

I won't be surprised if someone buys the name and tries to revive this. Yes, a more robust presence on the web might be helpful -- but when you're going against sites that offer content and recipes for free, I'm not sure that's "the answer."

Newspapers, magazines, and books are all having immense issues as they confront the digital world, and the easy piracy it entails. What's needed is creative, secure new models of compensation that work for the "talent" and the people who design, edit, market, etc. It's not easy.

As consumers are more sophisticated and learn to avoid mass and even targeted marketing, they may not realize they're killing off the dollars that have been supplying them content for nothing or sometimes less than nothing. The question is (not unlike carbon footprints) are we prepared to pay the TRUE COST of what we consume -- be that food or intellectual property. What mechanisms will ensure fairness and accessibility in a world of vast economic differences? e.g. should Gourmet only be accessible/affordable to "gourmets"?

Some suggest that consumer taxes scaled from near zero for "necessities" to a high rate for "luxury" products (and factoring in sustainability)are the answer -- but who gets to decide? Something like Gourmet magazine, as it stands today, might be "taxed" pretty heavily on that basis -- a non-necessary item, with landfill and resource implications -- but should "information" be taxed?

And how does this fit into a world economy? If someone in Germany wants to access a recipe from Gourmet (say to make a turkey, which might not be readily accessible in Germany)how would a tax apply?

These are the hard questions for which there are no ready answers -- and Gourmet is just the tip of the iceberg.

[london]

Such a heartbroken news.. gourmet is so helpful for me... I'll miss it..

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Thanks for all the comments. I agree with Mark that free content is competing with paid, but the problem with googling recipes is that they often suck. I always go to a trusted source instead, which many times turns out to the Epicurious (also owned by Conde Nast) and which is free.

But free is limited. In bread-baking, for example, there are very few trusted complete sites that really answer questions or explain why you things -- explanations that are necessary if you want to understand what it is you're doing and THUS LEARN. You can Google and get a recipe like no-knead bread but it won't take you beyond no-knead bread. The recipe is terrific, but there is nothing in it that allows you to learn how bread is really made, that increases your understanding of the process.

That won't come free and it is usually in books or in classrooms. Artists, writers, actors, musicians -- all need to get paid if they are going to spend time creating things we like. If they don't, they won't be able to make them. We will have free. But we will also find out, the cheapest is often not the best. Riffing on Mark's idea again, the external cost of free is a much reduced universe of considered ideas and the triumph of schlock.

[Carly]

To my chagrin, I read about the ending of Gourmet. As a young urbanite in my twenties, I've just settled down in an apt with a kitchen equipped enough to cook in and with just enough free time to spend chopping vegetables and whipping up a peach tart. I've been at my new place for a month now, and i've been waiting.... waiting for that Gourmet subscription i just bought to start. I keep looking in the mail box. I want glossy pictures and news from folks dedicated to delicious food. Alas,goodbye Gourmet magazine. Luckily for me, my grandmother is still alive and an excellent cook...i better learn fast.

[Debra]

Thanks for your thoughtful post, Sam. Gourmet was the first food magazine I ever subscribed to but their influence went far beyond recipes and travelogs. I will especially miss it for it's enthusiastic support of sustainable food, which they adopted early on. Their editors and writers were always champions of local food, what we used to call "regional cuisine", and never forgot that that included American cuisine.

[Mimi]

Gourmet magazine taught me how to cook, cook well and maintain a healthy diet. They will be missed.

I fully agree. We should pay for the intellectual property we love so that the creative talent can eat too. I don't steal movies or music and I pay for magazines and books.

I paid for Gourmet to read the articles. They provided the best food writing of any magazine hands down. I used Epicurious for convenience (finding the recipes fast).

[Mark McDiarmid]

I recommend to all of you a book called Cookwise -- which has a variety of recipes, and then explains what's happening, why it's happening, and how small details can change the outcomes drastically (and why). For example the main difference between brioche and pound cake is simply the temp of the butter in the recipe...

[Kate]

Gourmet magazine will definitely be missed. I have been a subscriber for so long and losing it will definitely make an impact. A lot of people I know trust them to provide them not just delicious recipes but excellent articles as well.

[Christine]

I still can not believe that this happened. I have read Gourmet for so long... Seems like the online communities are really starting to have an impact on the magazine industry. Sucks, but I guess it is bound to happen eventually.

Christine