I'm usually very picky when picking out a cooking magazine. If there aren't at least three recipes I plan to make, the mag stays in the store. Gone are the days when a trip to the bookstore means $45 per category for an armful of writing magazines, cooking magazines, and jewelry magazines. These days I rarely buy $25 worth of magazines per month - and the jewelry magazines have disappeared from the mix.
This month was special. Gourmet Magazine was closing up shop. Conde Nast shut down four magazines this month. Gourmet was one of them. Nast was parent to two food magazines: Gourmet and Bon Apetit. Guess which one was making the most profit. (There were other factors but money was probably the big one.) I'm ashamed that I can't remember the titles of the two bridal magazines or even the topic of the third one put to rest. (No! I'm not ashamed. I'm old!)
I picked up the November issue of Gourmet, knowing it would be the last one, and not one but two pre-paid postcards for one-year subscriptions fell from the pages! I can understand the cards bound into the magazine. I can understand the pages printed to offer subscriptions and various events involving the magazine. The issue had been printed, bound, and probably shipped by the time the decision was made to close the magazine. But what was the reason for stuffing those post cards back in the magazine every time they fell out. (You've seen them. Hansel and Gretel might have used those cards to find their way back home! They litter the floor around the magazine racks of big box bookstores.)
I wonder how many of those cards will be returned by hopeful readers. I wonder if those readers will get another postcard in return - a funeral announcement for the magazine.
I'm a sappy writer/editor. Were I a honcho at Conde Nast, I would allow one final farewell issue of each of those four magazines. Each could celebrate its history and thank its fans. Maybe a commemorative issue? Probably not. It's business after all.
JudyB
