Thread: Gourmet bites the dust

On 2009-10-05, modom (palindrome guy) <[email protected]> wrote:

> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame.

No big loss. Way too many mags on the market at insanely high prices.
Besides, they all start repeating themselves after just a few yrs.
Also, they kill trees.

nb

On Oct 5, 11:10*am, notbob <not...@nothome.com> wrote:
> On 2009-10-05, modom (palindrome guy) <use...@michaelodom.net> wrote:
>
> > Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame.
>
> No big loss. *Way too many mags on the market at insanely high prices.
> Besides, they all start repeating themselves after just a few yrs.
> Also, they kill trees. *
>
> nb

Gee thanks. I for one am devastated. I've been reading Gourmet for
many years. I've subscribed for the last five. It's the best
entertainment I've ever found for twenty bucks a year. I cancelled my
subscription to Bon Appetit (which was also a lot of fun) and took the
plunge and extended my Gourmet subscription to June of 2012.

I will miss Jane & Michael Stern and the sophisticated "foodie
armchair travel" I got to take each month, and especially Ruth Reichl
who beats the hell out of Barbara Fairwhatever at BA.
Lynn in Fargo
mourning the loss

modom (palindrome guy) wrote:
>
> Apparently it's official:
> http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...t-magazine/?hp
>
> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the
> past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.
> --
>
> modom

DAMN! My subscription runs out in Jan 2012! I even just telephoned
Gourmet's subscription telephone number (800-365-2454) to confirm, and
alas, Gourmet will no longer be published after its November 2009
issue. So, my unfulfilled issues of Gourmet have been tacked onto my
Bon Appetit subscription, which now expires in March 2013!

Sky

--
Ultra Ultimate Kitchen Rule - Use the Timer!
Ultimate Kitchen Rule -- Cook's Choice!!

In article <[email protected]>,
"modom (palindrome guy)" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the
> past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.

I never really cared for it. I have found some great recipes in it,
but I didn't like the style and tone of the magazine. Same thing with
Bon Appetit, though I liked the recipes in it more often. When they
started going more and more style and travel and had ads for perfumes,
etc in their magazines, I stopped subscribing. The only food magazine I
get now is Fine Cooking, though it looks like they are starting to head
in the same direction as Bon Appetit/Gourmet.

Regards,
Ranee @ Arabian Knits

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands." Prov 31:13

http://arabianknits.blogspot.com/

Lynn from Fargo Ografmorffig wrote:
>
> On Oct 5, 11:10 am, notbob <not...@nothome.com> wrote:
> > On 2009-10-05, modom (palindrome guy) <use...@michaelodom.net> wrote:
> >
> > > Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame.
> >
> > No big loss. Way too many mags on the market at insanely high prices.
> > Besides, they all start repeating themselves after just a few yrs.
> > Also, they kill trees.
> >
> > nb
>
> Gee thanks. I for one am devastated. I've been reading Gourmet for
> many years. I've subscribed for the last five. It's the best
> entertainment I've ever found for twenty bucks a year. I cancelled my
> subscription to Bon Appetit (which was also a lot of fun) and took the
> plunge and extended my Gourmet subscription to June of 2012.
>
> I will miss Jane & Michael Stern and the sophisticated "foodie
> armchair travel" I got to take each month, and especially Ruth Reichl
> who beats the hell out of Barbara Fairwhatever at BA.
> Lynn in Fargo
> mourning the loss

I've enjoyed Gourmet for decades. The unfulfilled issues of Gourmet can
be transferred to Bon Appetit or you can get a refund. Just call
800-365-2454 to make either request.

Sky

--
Ultra Ultimate Kitchen Rule - Use the Timer!
Ultimate Kitchen Rule -- Cook's Choice!!

Lynn from Fargo Ografmorffig wrote:

> Gee thanks. I for one am devastated. I've been reading Gourmet for
> many years. I've subscribed for the last five. It's the best
> entertainment I've ever found for twenty bucks a year. I cancelled my
> subscription to Bon Appetit (which was also a lot of fun) and took the
> plunge and extended my Gourmet subscription to June of 2012.
>
> I will miss Jane & Michael Stern and the sophisticated "foodie
> armchair travel" I got to take each month, and especially Ruth Reichl
> who beats the hell out of Barbara Fairwhatever at BA.
> Lynn in Fargo
> mourning the loss

I used to get it years ago,back in the 1970s. I get to see enough
magazines when I am at the gym or sitting in waiting rooms in doctor and
dentists offices. There are so many ads in most of those magazines that
it is hard to find the articles. The only food magazine that I bother
with these days in the Food and Wine magazine that is free at the liquor
store. It is full of ads too, but I don't have to pay to see ads.

IMO, advertising is the biggest problem with magazines. I realize that
they help to pay the cost of printing and distributing them. Magazines
have always had some adverting, but they used to be mostly articles and
a few pages of ads. Now they are mostly ads and just a few pages of
article. I don't mind paying for articles, but magazine prices are
getting higher and higher, and I really don't want to spend that much
money just to see a bunch of ads.

"modom (palindrome guy)" wrote:
>
> Apparently it's official:
> http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...t-magazine/?hp
>
> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the
> past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.

This will devastate the francise and probably gut sales
of that giant cookbook they've just published.

It will be interesting to see how it impacts their
TV show. Newspapers who drop their print editions
to go web-only seem to be doing that as an intermediate
step before shutting down.

On Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:53:42 -0500, modom (palindrome guy) wrote:

> Apparently it's official:
> http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...t-magazine/?hp
>
> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the
> past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.

I don't see how they couldn't have made money with all those damn
ads. Like many corporations, they got greedy and become accustomed
to bloated sales. Then they couldn't function with opnlya minimal
loss of advertising/sales.

Look at all the trade magazine circulations who give away their mags
for free. They have 1/10th the advertisers and about 1/3rd the
information commercial mags do.

-sw

Mark Thorson <[email protected]> wrote:

>It will be interesting to see how it impacts their
>TV show. Newspapers who drop their print editions
>to go web-only seem to be doing that as an intermediate
>step before shutting down.

I too am curious to know the impact on their Diary of a Foodie
program. Oh well, extant episodes will live on in dvd and online
archives.

Sky wrote:
>
> ... So, my unfulfilled issues of Gourmet have been tacked onto my
> Bon Appetit subscription, which now expires in March 2013!

Similar happened to me when Food and Wine went out of
business back in the early 1980s. I had just sent in
2 year renewals for both Food and Wine and Gourmet. The
two got combined and I ended up receiving Gourmet for a
very long time.

Bon Appetit recipes - Use every pot, pan and tool in the
kitchen. They always seemed to specialize in the complex.
Any recipe I ever tried from it was good though.

In article <[email protected]>,
"modom (palindrome guy)" <[email protected]> wrote:

> http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...lose-gourmet-m
> agazine/?hp

I certainly hope Ruth Reichl gets another gig. She was my favorite
restaurant reviewer when she was here on the Coast. I didn't necessarily
agree with her opinions but she was such a good writer.

D.M.

On Oct 5, 11:53*am, "modom (palindrome guy)" <use...@michaelodom.net>
wrote:
> Apparently it's official:http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...nast-to-close-...
>
> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the
> past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.
> --
>
> modom

Too bad, although actually I never liked Gourmet near as much as Bon
Appetit (which unfortunately is going downhill too, IMHO). It's a
relatively old mag (late 1940's?) and sad to see those go.

I find it odd though that the last issue will be November 2009 - why
wouldn't they hold out for the December issue? I always thought those
were the biggest selling issues of the year.

Kris

Kris wrote on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 17:43:29 -0700 (PDT):

> On Oct 5, 11:53 am, "modom (palindrome guy)" <use...@michaelodom.net>
> wrote:
>> Apparently it's
>> official:http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...nast-to-close-...
>>
>> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame.
>> In the past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of
>> the old lady. --
>>
>> modom

> Too bad, although actually I never liked Gourmet near as much
> as Bon Appetit (which unfortunately is going downhill too,
> IMHO). It's a relatively old mag (late 1940's?) and sad to see
> those go.

> I find it odd though that the last issue will be November 2009
> - why wouldn't they hold out for the December issue? I always
> thought those were the biggest selling issues of the year.

I'm afraid that I had taken to reading Gourmet in the library in the
last few years tho' my wife and I had a subscription from the 70s on. I
have memories of Lilli Double-Barrel (Christoff-Anderson, I think) with
her interjections about food in Vienna, "As the Grand Duchess used to
say...".

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

modom (palindrome guy) wrote:
> Apparently it's official:
> http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...t-magazine/?hp
>
> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the
> past couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.

Well, I subscribed for many years--decades--but then I stopped. I
didn't like the direction it went in. I am, however, saddened by
this.

--
Jean B.

On Mon 05 Oct 2009 06:12:36p, Jean B. told us...

> modom (palindrome guy) wrote:
>> Apparently it's official:
>> http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...t-to-close-gou
>> rmet-magazine/?hp
>>
>> Gourmet mag is going down with the recession. What a shame. In the past
>> couple of years, I've grown more and more fond of the old lady.
>
> Well, I subscribed for many years--decades--but then I stopped. I
> didn't like the direction it went in. I am, however, saddened by
> this.
>

I subscribed for over 35 years but decided to drop it when we moved to AZ.
I also didn't want to move over 400 issues, not to mention those of Bon
Appetit that I had subscribed to when it was introduced. I donated all of
them to my local library.

Occasionally I picked up an issue of Gourmet here and there if I thought
something really appealed to me. I will really miss it.

Overall, I always preferred Gourmet over Bopn Appetit.

--

~~ If there's a nit to pick, some nitwit will pick it. ~~

~~ A mind is a terrible thing to lose. ~~

************************************************** ********

Wayne Boatwright

On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:01:55 GMT, Wayne Boatwright
<[email protected]> wrote:

-->I subscribed for over 35 years but decided to drop it when we moved to AZ.
-->I also didn't want to move over 400 issues, not to mention those of Bon
-->Appetit that I had subscribed to when it was introduced. I donated all of
-->them to my local library.
-->
-->Occasionally I picked up an issue of Gourmet here and there if I thought
-->something really appealed to me. I will really miss it.
-->
-->Overall, I always preferred Gourmet over Bopn Appetit.


Did anyone ever think that this may be a ploy, and that they will re-launch the
magazine while there's so much hype about the closing? They may of orchestrated
the whole thing looking to a larger reader base after the re-launch.

On Mon 05 Oct 2009 08:23:39p, < Stu > told us...

> On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:01:55 GMT, Wayne Boatwright
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> -->I subscribed for over 35 years but decided to drop it when we moved
> to AZ. -->I also didn't want to move over 400 issues, not to mention
> those of Bon -->Appetit that I had subscribed to when it was introduced.
> I donated all of -->them to my local library.
> -->
> -->Occasionally I picked up an issue of Gourmet here and there if I
> thought -->something really appealed to me. I will really miss it.
> -->
> -->Overall, I always preferred Gourmet over Bopn Appetit.
>
>
> Did anyone ever think that this may be a ploy, and that they will
> re-launch the magazine while there's so much hype about the closing?
> They may of orchestrated the whole thing looking to a larger reader base
> after the re-launch.

I'd be very surprised if they did.

--

~~ If there's a nit to pick, some nitwit will pick it. ~~

~~ A mind is a terrible thing to lose. ~~

************************************************** ********

Wayne Boatwright

"< Stu >" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> Did anyone ever think that this may be a ploy, and that they will
> re-launch the
> magazine while there's so much hype about the closing? They may of
> orchestrated
> the whole thing looking to a larger reader base after the re-launch.

Magazines of all types are fighting for the life. Shutting down to start
over makes no sense.

On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 06:06:07 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski" <[email protected]> wrote:

-->
-->"< Stu >" <[email protected]> wrote in message
-->>
-->> Did anyone ever think that this may be a ploy, and that they will
-->> re-launch the
-->> magazine while there's so much hype about the closing? They may of
-->> orchestrated
-->> the whole thing looking to a larger reader base after the re-launch.
-->
-->Magazines of all types are fighting for the life. Shutting down to start
-->over makes no sense.
-->

Companies do it all the time