Gourmet   – Last supper! …… Gourmet – Cooked to Death! …. Gourmet – The Dinner is served! 

The headlines can be endless to describe this episode of closing down of the flamboyant  food magazine –Gourmet.

A popular magazine since 1941, known for haute cuisine, epicurean sensibilities, exotic travel and restaurant reviews, catering to the audience with a discerning taste will cease getting published after the November 2009 issue.

The Gourmet magazine run by the famous editor Ruth Reichl trying to sell the high life was running at a loss, with fewer advertising dollars and lesser readership.  Hence Condé Nast decided to shut down this magazine which was also having identity crisis in this changing economy. The culture of food, like all other things in the world has been changing with the times, hence the top-down approach of magazines like Gourmet were not reaching larger audiences. The people now are into personal participation, ratings and feedback.  Like Suzanne Grimes, (President, Food and Entertaining  at  Reader’s Digest Association) said –“The death of Gourmet doesn’t mean people are cooking less or do not want food magazines. Cooking is getting more democratic and   food  has become an emotional currency, not an aspiration”.

Read   more in the  NY times article below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06gourmet.html