Comments on: Still Heartbroken

By: nicole

nicole — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:57:42 +0000

i’ll give you an amen.

By: mln

mln — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:45:02 +0000

Abbey, I heartily agree with you on your comparisons to the other food magazines- they just don’t do it for me. Every time I read food & wine I’m disappointed. Gourmet was beautiful, practical, and well, just fit me (& my demographic) to a t. The sad thing is, the enormous sums Conde Nast paid to McK consultants to analyze whether or not the magazine was viable could have been better spent on something else that may actually have kept it running. What a loss.
And it’s true, archiving is so important, and that you’ll never get with an online source.

By: joslyn

joslyn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:48 +0000

Abbey
you so perfectly and beautifully articulated every. single. thing. I’ve been feeling since this last blow to the print world. when i think about the fact that the magazines I eagerly awaited just a year ago (house and garden, blueprint, domino, gourmet, cookie…) are all gone… well i feel, as you said alone. I can’t believe there are so few of us in this demographic.

and yes, i want my magazines to be aspirational If I’m going to sit down (taking time away from my family, my other obligations, my other hobbies) to read a publication, I want it to be something beautiful, inspiring and aspirational…not 10 ways to organize your toilet paper cabinet.

I’m right there with you sister.

By: clf

clf — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:42:45 +0000

Abbey-
If you love to cook, I urge you to reconsider and support Bon Appetit. (Btw folks, if you really want to support a magazine you love, and want to make sure it keeps publishing, buy it at the newsstand.)The recipes are excellent and thoroughly tested. You have no idea how much hard work and love goes into developing them (full disclosure: one of my friends is a longtime, frequent contributor).

I realize the magazine is not as brainy or elite as Gourmet, not as anal as Cooks Illustrated (good CI gets on my nerves sometimes) and not as sexy as Food & Wine. But it offers solid recipes and information and the art direction has changed in the last year or so. So it’s getting hipper.

Conde Nast just laid off 7 staffers at Bon Appetit today. (Meanwhile, has Anna Wintour taken a pay cut?) There are real human beings behind these magazines, people. Anytime a magazine is shut down, not only does the staff lose their jobs, but hundreds of peripheral people do also, from photographers and writers to food stylists, fact checkers and researchers, and the folks who do color separation at the printer, etc. etc. This sort of thing is devastating to tons of people.

By: Sarah Jio

Sarah Jio — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:58:01 +0000

I feel the same–so depressed about this news. (I work for Glamour–also Conde Nast). In memory of Gourmet, I posted something on my personal blog about my Gourmet articles as kitchen art. Here’s the link: http://www.sarahjio.com/?p=554

By: Ruth Gyuse

Ruth Gyuse — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:33:34 +0000

Thank you so much for this post and for your comments about the internet and blogging. I am exactly as you are: still heartbroken. I’ve been a Gourmet subscriber for 7 years and I haven’t had the courage to unwrap my October 2009 issue of Gourmet because I know that I will get depressed knowing that it is my second to last issue. Is there something we can do? Rise up and write letters to Conde Nast? Obviously they don’t care. The idea of Bon Apetit with all its pedestrian recipes and silly articles about overcoming the fear of eating kale (puh lease)… the idea of it showing up in place of Gourmet in my mailbox makes my blood absolutely boil. I just wish there was something we could do, I feel helpless and to echo what everyone has said, alienated by the “bottom line” attitude of our society that places profits over quality or for that matter, posterity…

By: gemmifer

*gemmifer* — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:55:47 +0000

Well said. I agree with you on all points. Although I wasn’t a Gourmet reader I have seen many other fine publications go the way of the dodo and mourn for them all. Even with the loss of all these magazines there still seem to be hundreds and hundreds available at my local bookstores and newsstands. It makes you wonder how so many very obscure-sounding titles not only come into existence but manage to survive in this economy. It doesn’t matter how many people love a periodical in the US if said periodical cannot drum up the advertising rates to compete with other, possibly lesser-quality magazines. It’s always down to money, isn’t it?

By: Get Togetha

Get Togetha — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:07:03 +0000

This is such a heartfelt response to the blogsophere’s elephant in the room: that we are in part responsible for helping to kill the old guard of paper media…It’s like we love our jobs as bloggers but we also hate that we are a bit of the problem as well. You can’t turn back the hands of time or try to defy technology, but it certainly is a sad day when the print mags we love are facing extinction.

Somehow, somewhere, someone, or some genious has to come up with a business model that can overcome the hit that electronic media has given to traditional mediums…

Will share this with readers….

By: please sir

please sir — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:01:33 +0000

Refreshing and honest post. You really opened my eyes to the decline of our generation’s print media. I get excited when a new magazine comes in the mail and yes…I’m an avid toilet reader too! I enjoy the internet for instant and always updated appeal, but I also enjoy a good magazine for lasting worth. Hopefully things will turn around…your voice is a great way to start.

By: Denise

Denise — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:12:32 +0000

Right on. I love reading blogs but I will miss the intimacy only the page can provide.

By: the sassy kathy

the sassy kathy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:56:02 +0000

so so so true! loved everything you said. there is just NOT the same satisfaction with blogs/internet. if anything, the internet can be frustrating because it is so completely overwhelming with no end in sight…

By: Steph

Steph — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:19:42 +0000

Well said!! Completely agree about both Blueprint, Domino & Gourmet. If we want our favorite print products to live on in print, we have to make a comittment to support them. I try to subscribe and renew every one of my favorite magazines to help keep them alive. Or even better, buy them on the newsstand! The only way to keep magazines from the corporate beancounters it to vote with your wallet!!

By: coral

coral — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:50:34 +0000

Abbey -
I heartily agree with you on so many points.
To flip through a magazine as soon as it comes in the mail, making plans to savor the photos and articles more thoroughly later (in the tub), is somehow sensing it’s permanence, knowing you will have it to hold and refer to for as long as you want – an experience that just isn’t possible over the internet. And yes, yes, to the thought some of those articles are written by “adults” or “experts” and are edited and even spellchecked! To me it is like closing all independent restaurants because the bottom line at the Olive Garden is better, this continuous cutting down of culture, experience, and high standards on the behalf of corporate profits!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:34:49 +0000

Abbey,
You took the words right out of my mouth. Blueprint folded, then Gourmet..

Can anyone suggest some satisfying alternatives?