Gourmet Magazine to Close
Submitted by advisor on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 1:26pm.
Conde Nast to close Gourmet Magazine as a result of plummeting ad sales. Gourmet magazine sold a lifestyle which could not be lived with a $450 GE electric. It was a lifestyle which required digging deep for $3000 Euro design appliances, and $12,000 pro-style appliances, and $400 cast iron pots, and commercial grade blenders. Does the death of Gourmet Magazine signal the death of the gourmet lifestyle, and the makers of the equipment and hardware which made the lifestyle possible, or is this just the unfortunate result of advertisers and consumers holding their wallets tight waiting for the economic storm to pass? A little bit of both.
Who else can be blamed?
Blame Julia Child, Viking, and Thermador for the demise of Gourmet Magazine? Why not include Martha, Oprah, the EU, the IOC, and Obama? Here's another less fault assigning possibility - the worst recession since the Great Depression. Conde Nast had two magazines targeting essentially the same audience (and same advertisers), and was only generating enough revenue to support one. If the economy was still strong, wouldn't Gourmet still live on despite all the trangressions and history outlined? Maybe the only mystery here is was the decision of which died and which lived political, or did they draw cards, or flip a coin?
Blame George
Why not blame GW. Bush. Then have Obama apologize and have a magazine for clunkers sales.
Wrong End of the Stick ...
Kona, as our Brit friends like to say, I believe you " ... have the wrong end of the stick ..."
I was simply attempting to give a more informed and historic view of the inevitable quietus of Gourmet magazine by tracing how cooking became the same fodder for a wanting audience as home improvements was to This Olde House ... unfortunately, Gourmet was fatally late to the TV screen with it's "Dairy of a Foodie" !!!
I also explained the reason why Gourmet would eventually be replaced by Bon Appétit magazine who has enjoyed the lack of stuffiness Gourmet had long been associated with but should learn that a monthly publication will only attract readership if they offer what is wanted ... and then the ad revenue will follow as the readers embrace the publication ...
... and I certainly would never demonize Julia Child ... perish the thought !!!
Wrong end of the stick
I guess the WSJ, and Conde Naste themselves (yesterday's article) got it wrong in their explanations for the demise of Gourmet, and why the entire magazine industry is under duress.
well, now ...
Did you think Conde Nast was going to be forthright in their assessment of where they went wrong ??? Certainly not, they will take the knee-jerk assessment and blame the economy ... just like the WSJ likes to !!! Just because they put it in a press release doesn't make it true !!!
Gourmet failed to give their readership what they wanted until it was too late, so they seal their fate ... and ... Bon Appetit will follow if they are not careful !!!
Think of it ... if I want a recipe from a magazine I go to their web site and get it via a few well-placed mouse clicks, not thru volumes of old magazines !!!
Appliance manufacturers had better learn a lesson from these closures or they will be doomed to suffer the same fate ... Are you listening K-Biz ???
It Started Longer AgoThan You Might Think !!!
As a long time gourmand I'd like to offer a more investigative view of this development, from my kitchen, of course ...
The ultimate diminution of the "Gourmet" lifestyle might actually be pinned on the likes of Julia Child (which would be rather ironic with this year's "foodie" movie) and then Jaques Pepin ... they used Public Television to educate "foodies" everywhere in the act of producing quality offerings @ home, just like they enjoyed in their restaurant travels ...
Julia was like learning from your Granny and Jaques taught basic skills, techniques, and the creativity used to produce everything from the basic roasted chicken to an whipped creme' from scratch !!! They were as successful in attracting a ready-made audience just like the original This Olde House was ... and they did not suffer from cross-contamination by the likes of Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet ...
While there were many TV chefs or cooks who had some modicum of success in their dalliances into mixing culinary prowess with a TV personna, the true benchmark for "foodies" came when Emeril Lagasse joined the Food Network and transformed the way people looked @ home food preparation ... with his trademark "BAM" schtick he successfully convince an even-growing audience that it was OK to make mistakes because you got to eat them !!!
At the same time as the audience was diversifying, the print media discovered that they too could expand right along !!! Home chefs no longer were satisfied with grandiose photo shoots and exotic dishes they would not be able to even find the components/ingredients for ... they longed for publications which taught them how to produce regional favourites they enjoyed on vacation, how to pair wines with their favourite home dishes, and add some simple pizzaz to their offerings to family & friends ... the plethora of "foodie" magazines, cook books, and local demonstrations grew overnight to the point where some folks, like myself, simply do not have the time to digest everything in all I receive monthly !!! "Gourmet" was becoming passe' in their elitism !!! "The Joy of Cooking" was to be ensconced on the bookshelf with smaller, more niche oriented, recipe books ... usually by the ever-growing stable of TV personalities !!
Once Emeril's demographic began to swell, so did the exposure of Food Network along with their stable of chefs, cooks, do-it-yourselfers, and niche market participants ... all eventually leading to an admitted non-chef like Rachel Ray demonstrating how to make 30 Minute Meals with such non-gourmet products as SPAM !!! The essential message was that people no longer had to cook to live versus live to cook ... it could be a combination of both ... and there was the subliminal message which affected the Appliance Industry ... that you no longer needed to have a Pro-Style kitchen !!!
In the last number of years the Pro-Style manufacturers realized that there were levels of "foodies" and that many wanted to be like their favourite TV chefs ... and in a move which was similar to the Gatorade "... be like Mike ..." campaign they began to place their wares in the TV kitchens of every chef on TV to the point where "foodies" began to show up @ their local Appliance Dealers wanting appliances like their favourite TV personality (not all chefs) cooked on !!!
Unfortunately, many manufacturers placed products on these shows which either did not work properly or did not curry favour with the TV chef ... some of these famous examples are (A) Emeril desperately trying to relieve himself of the ill-advised long term contract with Viking ... cajoled by the Food Network (B) Jaques Pepin starting out with Thermador until he actually commented on-air about how his wall-oven had "hot & cold spots" ... he now uses Wolf (C) America's Test Kitchens was originally outfitted by Thermador only to be displaced by DCS ...
It has become in-vogue to place as much product in the hands of TV personalities as possible ... Kitchen Aid & Miele have both learned this lesson and presently holds the lion's share of new competition-style shows on both Food Network & PBS ... and I, for one, wish them well !!! Kitchen Aid has the unique opportunity to enhance their counter-top appliance business with their regular appliances ... all to the despair of people like Cuisinart, LeCreuset, & All Clad who do not manufacture, or even have an strategic alliance, with Pro-Style appliances ...
So, what does this all mean for Pro-Style ??? Simple, your market is getting smaller and smaller as consumers are encouraged to produce tasty offerings on their GE HotPoint "stove" out in the hinterland because they have been encouraged 24/7 so to do on Food Network, PBS, the morning shows, and even local productions ...
How do we counter ??? By remembering the olde adage " ... improvise, adapt, & overcome ..." coupled with the advice of Dale Carnegie's "... know your audience" ... and you do so by being increasingly conversant in the across-the-board offerings of the Pro-Style marketplace, so when you get that customer who walks thru your door asking for kitchen appliances like their favourite chef uses on TV, you'll be able to make them a client by being able to showing them everything Pro-Style has to offer and knowing what you're talking about !!!
RIP "Gourmet" my grandkids will only remember you as a publication GrandPa got every year via their magazine fund raising drive !!!