After nearly seven decades in publication, Gourmet – the most prestigious US food magazine – is to close. As the NY Times notes in its epitaph: “Gourmet was to food what Vogue is to fashion, a magazine with a rich history and a perch high in the publishing firmament”.
Indeed, it seems that it was this top-of-the-market positioning that did for it, publishers Condé Nast preferring to preserve Gourmet’s somewhat more downmarket stablemate, Bon Appétit, instead. “In choosing Bon Appétit over Gourmet”, says the Times, “Condé Nast reflected a bigger shift both inside and outside the company: influence, and spending power, now lies with the middle class” (as opposed, presumably, to the WASPs at whom Gourmet always seemed to be aimed).
PS See also an excellent piece by Jay Rayner at guardian.co.uk.
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