Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride & Elegant Bride
Conde Nast Announces Closure of Four of Its Magazines
Oct 5, 2009
Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride will join the list of magazines that have discontinued publishing during the last couple of years.
After a three months study by McKinsey & Company, which analyzed Conde Nast's costs, it told the company that several of its magazines would have to cut about 25 percent from their budgets. So far this year, Conde Nast titles have lost more than 8,000 pages, excluding its bridal titles.
According to articles published in the New York Times on October 5, 2009, Conde Nast Chief Executive Charles H. Townsend announced that the cuts were being made because the magazines were losing money.
Among the 180 employees losing their jobs will be Ruth Reichl, Gourmet editor-in-chief, who will leave by the end of the year.
This may not be the end of closing down of magazines published by Conde Nast although three or four magazines could just reduce their frequency. The November issues of Gourmet and Cookie will be the final issues. October/November will be the last month for Modern Bride and Fall for Elegant Bride.
It was thought in the publishing industry it would be Bon Appetit that would be shut down because Gourmet had a richer history. In addition, the editor, Ruth Reichl is known to be powerful in the food world. Gourmet published its first edition in January 1941 and has been run by Reichl, also the author of multiple books on food, since 1999.
During the last year or so, some newer titles had already been closed including Conde Nast Portfolio and Domino and Men's Vogue was folded into Vogue.
Bon Appetit Survives Cut
Bon Appetit survived because it had a larger readership of 1.252 million with a larger margin, compared with that of Gourmet that has a circulation of about 978,000.
Townsend said that Bon Appetit is a very big, broad and powerful circulation machine and that it is quite different than many of the properties at Conde Nast. .He stated that Bon Appetit was one of the most successful magazines in terms of circulation margins at the company.
Cookie Suffers Under Economy
Cookie was started in 2005 and according to Townsend was a tragedy of the economy. It was decided that although it was a wonderful business in the making, Conde Nast doesn't have the luxury to fund launches although it thought that it was about 60 months from being profitable. However, in today's economy, it could never have reached that potential.
Brides to Continue
Brides will continue publishing and will increase its frequency to 12 time a year. It will rely on Brides.com to compete with the Web site The Knot.com.
Industry wide, magazine circulation in the U.S. fell 1.2 percent in this year’s first half, including a 12 percent drop in sales at newsstands and supermarkets, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
